skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Satan would like nothing better than to divide us, as followers of Christ, collectively and personally. If he can get us to doubt each other or our own Christianity he wins and the world loses another voice for God......
If Satan can get us to concentrate on mans inherent failures and hypocrisies instead of the ability of the Holy Spirit to change anyone who accepts salvation precept upon precept into the image of His Son..... then we perpetuate the works of evil and hinder the works of God. Christ within, the hope of glory, what we cannot do, He can!
Jesus’ reply in parables was actually a threefold message that contrasted unity and disunity. Nothing—including Satan’s kingdom—can stand if it is divided.
Whoever defeats Satan must be stronger than he. Jesus implies that He Himself has come to enter the house of the strong man, Satan, to seize his goods.
Mark 3:23-27
23 So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27 No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.
Jesus has the power to set us free, both spiritually and physically, from whatever imprisons us. Don’t underestimate the power of prayer!
Peter was arrested and slated to be executed like James. However, Peter’s execution was delayed because it was against Jewish law to have a trial or sentencing during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, better known as Passover. Peter was placed under maximum security in the care of four squads of soldiers of four men each. The soldiers worked three-hour shifts. Both of Peter’s wrists were chained, and he had a soldier on each side. Outside Peter’s cell, two more soldiers stood guard.
Why was Peter’s life spared while James’s life was taken? The answer is the sovereign will of God. If we believe that God is good and wise, we can trust that what He allowed to happen was part of His wise plan for the good of all of His people. When we place our complete trust in the goodness of God, we can find true peace. God is in control despite any appearance to the contrary.
Acts 12:5-11
5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. 6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. 7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” 9 So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
11 And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”
Blessed are those who are called to the wedding feast sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. Remember, the fruit of the Spirit is love!
The literal meaning of the phrase is “the house of wine,” used because of the role that wine plays not only in feasting, but especially in weddings in biblical cultures. In the Bible, wine is a symbol of joy and the drinking of wine is associated with joyful occasions. Even today, Jewish weddings take place under a “banner” or covering.
This is the first use in the book of the common noun for love related to the verb in v. 3. This noun corresponds to the well-known Greek noun agape, which refers to a self-sacrificial love for others.
Song of Solomon 2:4-5
4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
And his banner over me was love.
5 Sustain me with cakes of raisins,
Refresh me with apples,
For I am lovesick.
No greater love has ever been shown than He who laid down His life in exchange for ours. In His life we are given life, abundant and eternal! Through the unconditional love of the Father who offered His only begotten Son we are offered this gift because He loved His creation that much. Accept His offering :)
New birth is by the Son, by the Cross, and by faith. When Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, those who looked at it lived. So it is with the Son of Man. When a person trusts Christ, he or she is born again and receives eternal and spiritual life, God’s kind of life. God’s love is not restricted to any one nation or to any spiritual elite.
At His first coming, Jesus came so that the world through Him might be saved. When Jesus comes again, He will come in judgment upon those who refused His offer of salvation.
John 3:13-17
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
God’s agape love fulfills all, renews all, conquers all....when we accept His Son and allow the Holly Spirit to change us precept upon precept into His image.
To inherit something is to receive it. In other words, the man was asking, “What must I do to share in the reward at the resurrection of the righteous at the end?”. The OT basis of this question is the hope of resurrection. Jesus countered the lawyer’s test by having him answer his own question. The basis of the man’s response is an expression of allegiance and devotion that also can be seen as the natural expression of faith, since the total person, heart, soul, strength, and mind, is involved. Jesus develops the theme of love for one’s neighbor. Jesus was not saying that righteousness is the result of works. Rather He was saying that obedience and love for God and your fellow man will be a natural result of placing one’s faith in the Lord.
Luke 10:25-28
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
God blesses us through our faith in Him to provide so that we can be a blessing to others. He is a jealous God. Although He remembers that we are mere men there will come an end to His mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. There will be a day of judgment for all nations. He is the Lord our God and there is no god (person or thing) to be above Him in our heart. When His people took in the stranger, fed the poor, provided for the widow, the orphan and the elderly, according to His commands, they thrived. In the world today it is imperative that we not allow money to be our god.
The message of God’s impending judgment on the nation of Judah and its capital city Jerusalem must have been startling to those who believed that God would never destroy the site of His holy temple.
Baal worship and its evils had led to the destruction of Israel and its capital Samaria in 722 b.c. Likewise, Baal worship and its associations would lead to the destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 b.c.
Zephaniah 1:2-3
2 “I will utterly consume everything
From the face of the land,”
Says the Lord;
3 “I will consume man and beast;
I will consume the birds of the heavens,
The fish of the sea,
And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.
I will cut off man from the face of the land,”
Says the Lord.
When you accept Jesus Christ into your heart God lives in you. We become temples of the Holy Spirit created to do good works! What a privilege and responsibility :)
God honored David’s desire to build a house for Him by permitting his son Solomon to build it. God filled it with the Shekinah glory, a demonstration of His presence. But God did not live in the temple. The Creator cannot be confined by anything He has made. His presence fills all that He has made.
Acts 7:48-50
48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has My hand not made all these things?’
There is hope for man that if he repents of his transgressions and ask for God’s help in his life that he will be heard. God is kind and merciful to those who seek Him! Christ within us is the hope of our lives changing, precept upon precept, into God’s glory!
Even in His wrath, God remembers to be merciful. Every day presents us with a new opportunity to discover and experience more of God’s love. Even in the midst of terrible sorrow, Jeremiah looked for signs of mercy. Here is the heart of the Book of Lamentations. The comforting, compassionate character of God dominates the wreckage of every other institution and office. God remains “full of grace and truth” in every situation. Hope is not a wishful thought, but a confident expectation in the Lord. The verb hope suggests the idea of a “waiting attitude”.
Lamentations 3:22-24
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
When we, as a nation, help our fellow citizens or help the citizens in other countries we are doing God’s work....what an honor for us as a nation and as a people! May we continue to bless and to be blessed as we seek to do His will.
In the previous two parables, Jesus had been speaking of the judgment on those Israelites who were unprepared for the coming of the Messiah. In the last parable of this discourse, Jesus focuses His attention on all the nations of the earth. The kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world indicates that this kingdom has always been God’s goal for humans.
Matthew 25:31-40
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
Faith alone pleases God! Whoever believes in Him and in the Holy One He sent to redeem the earth will have life, abundant and forever.
In awestruck wonder, Thomas not only believed that Christ was risen from the dead, but he also saw that the Resurrection proved His deity.
John 20:27-29
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
There is hope for those of us who have strayed to confess our sins, admit our unworthiness and return to Him. His compassions and mercies never fail. The smallest ember He will not put out nor will He turn away a heart broken by sin......His true love conquers all!
The description of the father’s compassion in running to his son and kissing him illustrates the immediate acceptance of a sinner who turns to God. Despite his awareness of being accepted by his father, the son continued his confession of his sin. He then asked to become one of his father’s servants. Similarly, a sinner realizes that he or she brings nothing to and deserves nothing from God, but must rely completely on God’s mercy. The father accepted his son’s confession but refused his request to make him a servant. Instead the returning son was made a full member of the family again.
Such a transformation is a reason to celebrate. It is also the reason Jesus chose to associate with the lost.
Luke 15:20-24
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. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Those who preach living one way but in reality live quite differently themselves are living a lie. Everything we do, right or wrong, will be revealed. We need to practice what we preach according to the Word of God or we are just fooling ourselves and others. The proof of our life is in the doing.
Leaven here represents the presence of corruption. Unleavened bread is what the Jews ate at Passover. The corruption in view here is hypocrisy. Practicing hypocrisy is senseless because eventually all deeds—both good and evil—will be exposed. All secrets will be revealed by God.
Luke 12:1-3
12 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
A judgmental spirit falls before the glory of God. Pride stops us from being what God created us to be and molds us into a picture of what society or religion says we should be. When Paul encountered Christ on the road to Damascus his real future began. In order to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives we must let go of the traditions of men and let the Holy Spirit teach and guide us into our future!
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, miracles, life after death, or the existence of angels. On the other hand, the Pharisees believed in the supernatural and affirmed the very things the Sadducees denied.
Acts 23:6
6 But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!”
A judgmental spirit that evaluates the worth of a man by the money he gives or the power he possesses is spiritual death to those who embrace it.
The Scribes and Pharisees neglected two basic things that the prophets also had warned about: love and justice. This is Jesus’ stronger condemnation. The Pharisees, the paragons of purity, were in fact the height of uncleanness.
Luke 11:42-44
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”
