Partakers Christian Podcasts

Prayers - Persecuted Church Worldwide

 

Partakers Prayers

For the Persecuted  Church Worldwide

 

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!

 

Prayers for the Persecuted Church

Sovereign God, we worship you and acknowledge that you know all of those who suffer in your name because they follow you. We remember those who are imprisoned for their faith and ask that they would join with the Apostle Paul to see that even though they remain captive, their chains have furthered the gospel, not frustrated it. May they inspire and embolden their fellow believers to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
Amen

God of all comfort, for those who are tortured both in body and mind, give them the grace to endure and to see their suffering as part of following in Christ’s footsteps. Merciful God, for those asked to pay the ultimate price; who are martyred because of their love for you, may they truly know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
Amen

Father God, for those who are widowed and orphaned may they know the comfort that comes from your promised presence even when they walk through the valley. May they be strengthened by your Spirit, enabling them to rejoice with the psalmist as they proclaim that the LORD will not abandon them in death.
Amen

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would make us ever mindful of our brothers and sisters around the world who need us to stand with them as they suffer in your name. Teach us what it means to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony; we pray that we would not love our lives so much as to shrink from death.

We ask these things O Father, through the name of Your Son, Jesus

and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
Amen

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Bible Thought - Luke Looks Back Part 13

Study 13 - Luke 9:51 – 10:24

Mission!

From Luke 9:51–19:27, Luke has Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. Luke has put together many incidents within this journey story because after 8 chapters, at 17: 11, they are only just leaving Galilee! There is no clearly discernable structure to this part of the gospel. It contains some 8 major parables and many minor ones, most of them only found in this gospel.

Please read 9:51–55.

James and John got it badly wrong in this first story from Samaria. People are always tempted to use strong-arm methods. They may be violent, use their superior status, use financial pressures, try psychology, and so on. James and John reckon Jesus has power. The people in the village are not friendly so they think he should zap them.

Question 1: Which strong arm method are we most likely to be tempted to use when the gospel is rejected? Jesus totally repudiates using any such. How can we counter the tendency in ourselves?

Your answer will depend very much on where you live. In some countries of the world it is very dangerous to try and force other people to do what is wanted. We have to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves as Jesus said. Only by making a determined effort to grow more like Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit can we have any hope of overcoming our natural tendencies in things like this.

Please read 9:57–62.

Here Luke brings together 3 statements about the conditions for following Jesus. The first concerns comfort; the other two are about how we are to live in family relationships. All three appear rather harsh. But except for a few naturally nomadic souls most of us operate better from a secure base of stable home, family and friends.

Question 2. How much do such things mean to you? How do you square the ‘no holes, no nest’ challenge with how you actually live?

This is a tough one. Few in ministry or on the mission field put the kingdom totally before family. To do so is probably to experience destructive hostility. Perhaps what Jesus said is one of the overstatements, called Semitic hyperbole, like when he said ‘If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.’ Or ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’

These saying may sound strange to us but they are the ones we find easy to remember! In the last four episodes Luke has told us about welcoming little children, who was for or against Jesus, James and John’s attitude and the conditions for following Jesus. In all of these the disciples have misunderstood Jesus in one way or another.

Question 3. What do they tell us about Jesus?

There are many answers to this question, among them:

• the essential humility of Jesus,
• his conviction that, in spite of that humility, he was the Messiah, outranking all previous prophets,
• he had unique insight into what the people around him were thinking,
• he organised things ahead of time very carefully,
• he exercised complete authority over the disciples,
• he sometimes struggled with the task that he had (when he said he had nowhere to lay his head),
• and, he had total conviction about what he was doing (when he talked about looking back–you cannot plough straight if you look back).

Please read 10:1–23.

This is a difficult passage in many ways- but none the less interesting! We will ignore what nearly duplicates what happened when he sent the 12 out–in the previous chapter. Some of these verses copy statements in Matthew 11 into a different context. One verse sounds as though it has escaped from John’s gospel!

Question 4. The 70, or 72 (equally likely) of 10:1 is probably a symbolic number reflecting the 70, or 72 (equally likely!) nations listed in Genesis 10. If so, what does this suggest?

The way they used numbers in those days this is probably a deliberate repetition of the number to indicate that the mission was to be to all the world. One writer identifies 10 principles for mission in 10:1–11. Identify what they are and give them titles from the following clues. This is easy to do if you have a Bible in front of you; much more difficult without.

• plentiful harvest
• ask
• go
• wolves
• do not greet
• eat
• near kingdom
• not welcome
• wipe dust
• the kingdom.

Question 5. Jesus relates his vision of the fall of Satan (10:18) to the success of the disciples work and describes their triumph over evil forces in metaphorical terms. What does that mean for us? What popular misconceptions does it not mean?

It is exciting to realize that we can gain victories over Satan as we surely can. But we need to be very careful who we listen to. Some people will make great claims of triumphing over Satan here, there, and everywhere, and performing all sorts of different miracles whenever they like. A very few people can do these things, but they are usually not the ones that make the great claims.

Question 6. If we take what Jesus says in v 19 as applying to us nothing will harm those on mission. What we experience in these days seems rather different. How do we cope with the discrepancy, if it is one? From which of the verses between 18 and 23 do you take most comfort?

There is no evidence that the Lord protects even his best servants from the troubles of life. Even those working hardest for the Kingdom can get cancers or die in car crashes. Remember, he did not protect his Son, and that fact should be sufficient to protect us from falling victim of wrong attitudes to the disasters of life (as we see them to be). We finish this study by echoing Luke 10:2 - Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

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Thursday with Tabitha - Introducing the Minor Prophets

Thursday with Tabitha

Introduction by Tabitha Smith

 

I met Jesus when I was 11-years-old. God had blessed me with a believing family and I sung in church choirs from the time I could read. But I didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus until a certain day in 1990. I'd gone to a violin exam, which was being held in a local church. Waiting nervously for my turn to perform for the examiners, I picked up some leaflets that were sitting on a table in the church foyer. I read one of these leaflets on my own later that day. The message of Jesus dying and rising again for the sins of all people was not brand new to me, as I'd heard it many times before, but at that moment, it was like I heard it and understood it for the first time. I cried my 11-year-old eyes out and then asked my mum if I could get my own Bible. Of course, she agreed! I’ve always identified very strongly with the words in Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see”, because that’s exactly what it felt like. I made the decision to follow Jesus from that day onwards.

Over the last couple of decades God has been teaching me from the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit and many great human teachers. It’s gradually become clear to me that my primary spiritual gift is teaching. I feel very privileged to be able to share in the ministry of Partakers.

Over the next few months I'm going to be taking a tour through the books of the minor prophets. I reckon that if you lined up the Bibles of a sample of believers (myself included!) and looked at the pages that looked least worn and thumbed you would find that the minor prophets account for a substantial proportion of the most pristine pages! Even those prophets that we feel more familiar with, like Jonah, have often only featured in our Christian lives in the form of Sunday school stories. Well, it's time to do something about that! The books of the minor prophets are full of incredible truths which will help us to understand the character and heart of God. If you've ever felt intimidated or confused by these particular books in the Bible then I hope you will join me as I give an overview of each book and I really hope you'll be inspired to have a closer look at each one for yourself.

The minor prophets are no less important than the major prophets (such as Isaiah and Jeremiah) but their prophetic books are shorter in length and therefore referred to as 'minor'. The books of the minor prophets were written over a long time span, ranging from the eighth century BC to the fourth or fifth century BC. We're going to look at them in roughly chronological order, which is a little different to the order they appear in the Bible. The dating of certain books, such as Obadiah and Joel, is uncertain and scholars disagree about when these books were written. So please forgive me if the order in which I tackle the books is not the precise order that you expect!

It's first helpful to consider what the role of a prophet is. When we think of the word 'prophecy' we often think about predictions relating to the future. Now, the prophets did sometimes speak about things that had not yet happened, but much more often they spoke about present events and announced God's thoughts and messages to the peoples of Israel and Judah. Prophets were not generally regular teachers of God's word (that was the task of the priests). Instead prophets were raised up at particular times and for particular situations, to speak God's words to the people. They were able to see things and understand things that other people could not.

As we look at the 12 books of the minor prophets we will see some common themes emerging. The prophets repeatedly spoke of the fact that God had chosen Israel for a covenant relationship; they declared the sad truth that the majority of Israel had sinned against God and turned away from him; they warned about coming judgement; and they declared the promise of renewal and restoration that would follow judgement, both in the immediate future and at the end of history.

As we study each book we need to first look at what book meant to the people who first heard the message. When we have understood this we can then consider how each book speaks to us today. Our first study will begin next Thursday in the book of Jonah. I hope you'll join me then!

Tabitha

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Bible Thought Luke Looks Back Part 12

Study 12 - Luke 9: 1 - 50

The end of the ministry in Galilee

This is an important chapter for at least 3 reasons:

1. it contains the important question ‘who is this’ 9: 9
2. the even more important answers ‘the Messiah’ (v 20) and ‘the Son of God’ (v 35). That Jesus calls himself ‘the Son of Man’ (v 22) is also important.
3. it ends the second and long section of Luke’s Gospel Chapters 3 to 9: 50. Telling us that Jesus sets out for Jerusalem in verse 51 indicates the end. This whole section is about Jesus’ Ministry in Galilee.

Read verses 1 to 9.

Jesus gives surprisingly detailed instructions about how the apostles were to go on the very first mission in the first 6 verses. Of course the culture in which they were to operate was very different from today’s – anywhere in the world. We might wonder if he sent us on mission what Jesus would forbid today. Would it be car, mobile phone, ipod, radio, credit card, bottle of spring water? Would we survive without these things?

Question 1 - Under what circumstances should we ‘shake the dust off our feet’ as Jesus told his disciples to do if they were not welcomed?

This is a tricky one to answer. Perhaps Paul did this in Philippi. It says ‘they went to Lydia’s house. Then they left.’ The locals could not be said to have welcomed him. It says ‘the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas’. But there are stories in the history of the church where people have worked and ministered in a new area for a very long time before anyone has come to faith. When that has finally happened there has often been a real movement of the Spirit. It is hard to say the workers should not have waited.

The next story is of the feeding of 5000 people. We read that in v 10 - 17.

The account of the feeding of the 5000+ (v 10 – 17) is written so as to remind us of the last supper. It includes the words: taking bread – giving thanks – broke – gave to.

Question 2 - What do the statements ‘Jesus said “you give them something to eat” ‘ and ‘the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over’ mean as comments on the Lord’s Supper?

We meet at the table of our Lord to receive grace and renewal from him as we remember the most significant event in history. Yet we bring food to the table – we have a part to play in the ceremony. Such is the grace of God that we have much left over afterwards. For all the wonder of the simple ceremony we have a part to play.

By the order Luke puts things in he suggests that in the eating of bread they recognized the Messiah. In the eating of bread on the way to Emmaus they recognized the Lord (24: 30, 31 which says: When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

Question 3 - How does that thought, whether taken from this story of the feeding of the 5000 or the event on the Emmaus road, translate into our communion service?

It is his ceremony, not ours. We are to see, beyond the bread and the cup that he is there and blesses us.

Read verses 18 – 27.

Herod asked ‘who is this’ earlier in the chapter. Peter answers here, as Jesus prayed and talked to his disciples in a way that was completely meaningful in that culture.

Question 4 - Peter said that he was the Christ or the Messiah of God. What is the best and most accurate way to answer the question ‘who is this’ in your culture?

The answer will depend on where you are. To many people to say he is the Christ is only to give him a name, so that is not very meaningful. The Son of God is one possibility, but that can be misunderstood in some cultures. The Saviour is another possibility.

The title Jesus used of himself ‘Son of Man’ is difficult and puzzling, which is perhaps why Jesus used it. It meant no more than ‘a male human being’ but is used almost as a title in Dan 7: 13 of a person who seems to represent the people of God (Dan 7: 22, 27). Jesus may have used it as a clean sheet of paper on which he was able to write a meaning himself.

The question ‘who is this’ receives a further answer in what we call the transfiguration, that is the event when the whole appearance of Jesus was radically changed.

Read verses 28 – 36.

Question 5 - We must try to think of what this would have meant to the 3 disciples who witnessed what happened. What will their first reaction have been to the presence of the 3 figures? What will the brightness of Jesus’ clothes have meant to them? And then what will they have thought when they heard the voice from heaven?

There are really 3 questions there. Seeing the 3 figures they will have thought Jesus was of the same importance as Moses and Elijah. Then seeing how changed he was in appearance they will have decided he was the most important of the three. Finally the voice will have said to them that he was fundamentally different and important in a completely different way than Moses and Elijah, who represented the Law and the Prophets and therefore the whole of the OT and Judaism. The voice that told them to ‘listen to him’ also tells us ‘to listen to him’.

Finally we read verses 36 – 50. We will stop there and not at the end of the chapter because the next verse says ‘Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem’ and there are many statements that he was ‘on his way’ in the next 11 chapters. Luke has written a journey documentary in those chapters. This is the end of his ministry in Galilee, the northern province of that area, and the furthest from Jerusalem.

These 2 episodes both remind us that the Christian way is not one of human strength and power. Not only are the disciples unable to heal the boy with the evil spirit and required to start acting in a more childlike and less assertive way but Jesus is going to be betrayed and killed as we read further back in the chapter. This has been well summarized in the phrase ‘the way up is down’.

Question 6 - when we kneel before Jesus and confess our sins we say we are down. He will then lift us up. That is the Christian way. Have you set out on that way for yourself? Only yourself and the Lord know the answer to that question. I hope it is the right one! May the Lord be with you.

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Bible Thought - Luke Looks Back Part 11

 

Study 11 - Luke 8: 1 - 56

Faith and faithfulness Part 2

What experience have you ever had of what were clearly demonic powers?

It is thought that the Joanna of 8: 3 and the Junia of Rom 16: 7 may be different versions of the name of the same person. (It should be Junia, a woman’s name; Junias is a man’s name and a mistranslation) If so, we may presume Joanna/Junia was an apostle because she fulfilled the requirements of Acts 1: 21, 22, even though being a woman meant she could not be one of the twelve. Luke is careful not to forget the women! Neither should we!

We noted in the last study that one word in the Greek means both ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness’.

1) How do we use these words? What is the difference in meaning in our common usage of them?

2) The central passage of these chapters is the familiar parable of the sower (8:1–8). Which meaning, faith or faithfulness, is it encouraging us to think of as the most important?

A parable is designed to be about one most important point but while doing so usually teaches several other theological ideas.

3) Which parts of this parable imply the following things: the Kingdom comes:

a) slowly, it is not a noisy in-breaking event;

b) as a work of grace;

c) necessarily including fruit bearing;

d) with the promise of hope.

4) This parable is usually called ‘The Parable of the Sower’. What else could it be called? What was Jesus really emphasising? What should the title be?

5) What are the present day meanings or examples of: taken by the devil / no root / choked by life / producing a crop?

6) Suppose some seed fell in a stream, floated away, landed, and grew where the farmer could not harvest them? What would the meaning of that be today?

7) Why are the secrets of the Kingdom of God so hard to understand (8: 10)? What did Jesus mean by talking about hearing as though that is difficult? Did he really teach in parables so that people would not understand what he said (8: 10)? What did he mean by saying we have to be careful how we listen (8: 18)? See also 8: 21.

8) We cannot easily make ourselves have ‘noble and good hearts’ (8: 15). What – in very practical terms - does Jesus expect us to do in the light of this parable?

The next two short stories highlight contrasting attitudes of acceptance and rejection to Jesus, as did the story of Simon the Pharisee and the unnamed woman (7: 36 – 50). Faith(fulness) is weak in those who should be strong (8: 22 – 25) and rejected in those who had the opportunity to have it (8: 34 – 37).

9) Over the centuries many believers must have prayed frantically when faced with death by drowning. Many will still have drowned. These did not drown(8: 24, 25). Why?

10)The people of Gerasa thought about what it would mean for them in money terms if Jesus was around and decided they would be better off without him (8: 36, 37). How very 21^st century! What was Jesus’ response? What does that say to us?

We noted the final dual healing of a woman and a man’s daughter (8 : 40 – 56) reflects that of a man and a woman’s son in the first two episodes in this section (7: 1 – 17).

11)What does this dual healing tell us about faith? How strong does faith have to be in order to be answered? How far is it true to say it is always answered? Or when is it not answered?

12)Why did Jesus tell the demon-possessed man to go and tell (8: 39) and Jairus and his wife to keep quiet (8: 56)?

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Partakers Bible Thought - Psalm 37

Psalm 37

37:1 Don't fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.
37:2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
37:3 Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.
37:4 Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
37:5 Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this:
37:6 he will make your righteousness go forth as the light, and your justice as the noon day sun.
37:7 Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don't fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.
37:8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don't fret, it leads only to evildoing.

37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for Yahweh shall inherit the land.
37:10 For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more.
Yes, though you look for his place, he isn't there.
37:11 But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
37:12 The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.
37:13 The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming.
37:14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright in the way.
37:15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Their bows shall be broken.
37:16 Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked.

37:17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous.
37:18 Yahweh knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever.
37:19 They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil. In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
37:20 But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish- vanish like smoke.
37:21 The wicked borrow, and don't pay back, but the righteous give generously.
37:22 For such as are blessed by him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by him shall be cut off.
37:23 A man's goings are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way.
37:24 Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his hand.

37:25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.
37:26 All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His seed is blessed.
37:27 Depart from evil, and do good. Live securely forever.
37:28 For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn't forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
37:29 The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever.
37:30 The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice.
37:31 The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.
37:32 The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him.

37:33 Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
37:34 Wait for Yahweh, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.
37:35 I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
37:36 But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.
37:37 Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.
37:38 As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off.
37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
37:40 Yahweh helps them, and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, Because they have taken refuge in him.

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Bible Thought - Luke Looks Back Part 10

Luke 7:1–50 & 8:40-56

Faith and faithfulness Part 1

The whole of chapters 7 and 8 make up one section of Luke’s narrative so we will read them together though we will only look at chapter 7 in detail in this study. Not least because of the striking similarities and differences in the people involved between the first and last passages 7:1–17 and 8:40–56.

1. Jesus Restores Health and Life! (Luke7:1–17 and 8:40–56)

Question 1.What is the second passage about? How does it differ from the first passage?

The second passage is about healing of a woman and the bringing back to life of a man’s daughter. Remember: the first was about the healing of a man and the bringing back to life of a woman’s son. Luke has obviously put these particular stories at the beginning and end of this section very deliberately. He has carefully constructed the whole section. The important question is why has he done this–apart from the fact that this was the way that they wrote things in the Roman world of those days? When we look at the two chapters together we will see that he has built them so that the stories of the second part reflect the first part. The first part has two healings, 7:1–17; an account of the doubts of John the Baptist. 7:18–35 and then tells us about contrasting attitudes to Jesus, 7:36–50. The second part reverses that order telling us about contrasting attitudes to Jesus, 8:19–33, 38, 39; then the doubts and rejection by the Gerasenes, 8:34–37 and finally the two healings we have already looked at in 8:40–56. In the middle is a parable about the man who sowed some seed, getting different reactions from the different types of soil.

We can think of this as a reflection because the second half is the mirror image of the first half. There are many of these reflections in the Bible. One very obvious example is in Amos 5: 4b–6a, although unlike most of the Biblical reflections that one does not have an important middle. In most of them the middle is important to explain why the second half is different from the first. In our example here in Luke the middle, the parable, is clearly very important, though it does not alter the second part significantly.

Luke wants us to see that the whole section is about faith and faithfulness. One Greek word has both meanings whereas we split the two apart in English. By ‘faith’ we mean mainly mental agreement with the teachings of a religion–‘faith’ goes on in our heads. By ‘faithfulness’ we mean living in a way that follows the teachings of that religion–‘faithfulness’ goes on mainly in our actions. We will look at that more in the next study.

2. Jesus and the Centurion (Luke7:1–17)

Not for the last time Luke has a story about a centurion. He wants Theophilus (and us) to understand that Christian faith was acceptable to these significant people in the Roman world.

Question 2.We are told many good things about the centurion (7:2–5). We are told nothing about the widow of Nain. What can we learn from that?

There will have been plenty of people around with a vague faith in God who kept the religious laws, but this Gentile Centurion recognized that God was at work in Jesus and was prepared to act accordingly by trusting Jesus. Are we prepared to turn a vague faith into action when God works? Just possibly Luke knew the centurion because he joined the early church, but the widow of Nain did not, so he did not know her.

3. Doubts of John the Baptist (Luke 7:18–35)

Question 3. John expected the Messiah to act like his idea of what a Messiah would do. Jesus quotes Isaiah 35: 5,6 and 61: 1,2 to tell him he is wrong. In what ways was John wrong? What did they expect the Messiah to do? What was Jesus doing that was unexpected?

John evidently shared the general expectation of what the Messiah would do. John will have understood himself to be the messenger of Malachi 3: 1 –3; 4: 1–3 and therefore that all that those verses suggested would happen. Particularly if you live in a hostile society it is important, and encouraging, to remember how hostile the society in which Jesus and the early church lived and worked was.

4. Jesus and Debts! (Luke 7:36-50)

Question 4.What does Jesus mean when he talks about debts (7:39–43)? Do we have big or small debts to be cancelled? (We probably think we have only small debts to pay (v 41,42) but big or small counts the same!) Do we show as much love as we should for Jesus who cancelled our debts?

Jesus was talking about the way in which those who followed him and were members of the people of God needed to remember that they were in debt to God. We, living later, know that we rely on Jesus dying for us to cancel the things in our lives, which stop us, being accepted by God. Since ‘all have sinned’ it does not matter whether our sins are big or small they still stop us being accepted by the Lord. Only in Christ can we have acceptance by God.

5. Jesus, the Pharisee and the woman! (Luke 7:36-50)

Question 5. The Pharisee in the final episode of this chapter (v 36–50) is clearly much more concerned with things and ideas. The woman is only concerned with people. What can we learn from these two stories?

It is important to remember that some people are very concerned with people but some (a smaller number), find their interest is taken more by ideas and things than people. Both sorts of people are necessary in a healthy church and a healthy society.

Conclusion

Question 6. In what ways has this chapter stressed faithfulness?

Nearly all this chapter (and the next) is about people acting out their faith as a result of what they saw Jesus do. They were in a very positive way following him, not just thinking about him. That is faithfulness. The message to us must be that we have to follow Jesus, not just go to church on Sunday.

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Partakers Bible Thought – Towards Healed Emotions in the Christian

Partakers Bible Thought

Christian Disciple and Healed Emotions

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23 to 24)

5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent – not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote to you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

God wants all parts of you to be following Jesus! That includes your thinking, your actions and your attitudes! It means your mind; your body and will are all to be under the control of the Holy Spirit! This includes your emotions. It must be said that this is contrary to some modern thinking, which stipulates that showing emotions can be a ruinous thing! In Scripture, God reveals Himself as emotional! Our Lord Jesus Christ displayed the full gamut of emotions

In the podcast today we look at the Christian Disciple working towards having healed emotions. What are some of the evidence of damaged emotions in the life of the Christian? How can they be overcome? What are some of the principles to bear in mind so this aspect of your life can be in submission to God?
Please do listen or download the mp3 podcast to find out more about this aspect in the life of the Christian.

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Bible Thought - God the Holy Spirit

God The Holy Spirit

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"When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” (John 15v26)

 

The Holy Spirit is God, and a member of the Trinitarian Godhead. He is spoken of as God (Acts 5v3-4; 1 Corinthians 3v16). The attributes of God are ascribed to the Holy Spirit life (Romans 8v2), truth (John 16v13) and love (Romans 15v30). It was He who spoke through the Old Testament prophets and induced godliness (Ezekiel 36), and equipped God’s leaders for service (Judges 13v25; Zechariah 4v6).

The Holy Spirit is also a Person: Some people refer to the Holy Spirit as “It”, but they are clearly wrong and in error! The Holy Spirit is always referred to as ‘He’ in the New Testament (John 16v14). He relates to us as a person for He is comforter, guide and teacher (John 14). He can be blasphemed against and be grieved (Ephesians 4v30), and wherever the Holy Spirit is, the Father and Son are also present because they are one. (John 14v18-23).

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

What is the ministry of the Holy Spirit and what does He have to do with Christian Disciples?

1. Glorify Christ

2. The Paraclete – Comforter

3. Declares God’s Word

4. Conviction

5. Salvation

6. Indwelling

7. Sealing / Ownership

8. Security

9. Filling

10. Sanctification

11. Baptism

12. Service

 

For more to think about please do read 1 Corinthians 12v1-10. Ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.

 

Q1. What are my spiritual gifts and am I using them for God’s glory or my own?

Q2. How do I give more of myself to the Holy Spirit?

Q3. How can I as a Christian disciple make the Holy Spirit more active and visible to others?

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Bible Thought - Luke Looks Back Part 9

Luke 6: 27-49

The New Way of Jesus

Part 2. Kingdom Ethics

Luke’s Sermon on the Plain continues. We read together Luke 6: 27-49

This is a shorter version of Matthew’s sermon but it still contains no less than 22 separate points! We will look at them in groups.

1. Love your enemies v27, 28

It is easy to miss some of the practical implications of these statements. They mean, for instance, that a Christian will never refuse to speak to someone, whatever they may have said or done. And it will affect our behaviour towards someone who wants the same job as we do.

Question 1: What effect will it have on us if we force ourselves to speak kindly in those sorts of situation? Where else can you think of where obeying Jesus might have some positive results in our everyday and family life?

Pause.

Even if we have to force ourselves to speak well in that sort of situation doing so will have a good effect on our underlying attitudes towards that person. If we fall out with someone at work we must be careful to greet them in exactly our usual cheerful way the next morning. They will find it very hard to respond in anything other than the same way. It is hard to obey Jesus when the inevitable problems of family life occur. Are you the person who is always the first to try and mend a damaged relationship?

2. Not standing up for our rights v29-31

Is it really possible to act like this in the real world? What happens if someone takes my bicycle? Do I give them my motorbike? Perhaps Jesus is making one of his outrageously impossible statements (camels through needles; plucking out eyes etc.) so that we remember better the principle behind what he said. Total obedience to what Jesus taught here would rapidly lead to us having no money at all!

Question 2: What should we do in the practical things of every day to put the principle behind these statements into practice?

Pause.

I think the only possible answer to this is to say we have to be careful not to put ourselves first in what we do but put others in front of ourselves. It is, of course, a great deal easier to say that than to actually do it in the real world we live in. It is also, of course, a great deal easier to hear it said and mentally agree than to go out and do it!

3. Doing better than expected v32–35a

Probably ‘lending’ in that culture, as in many, was a nice way of talking about giving somebody something.

Question 3: Should we ever lend like that without expectation of a return? Shouldn’t we call it what it is from the beginning if that is what we intend, rather than using such double talk?

Pause.

Not all the things our culture wants us to do are necessarily what we should do as followers of Jesus. In some cultures it is more important to say something that pleases the person we are talking to than to tell the truth. Jesus said he was “the way, the truth, and the life”. That means we must be in all things as truthful as we can possibly be even if that is against our culture and traditions.

4. The results of this behaviour v35b, 36

We will probably see that we will have all sorts of problems in living up to what Jesus said. It is so difficult to obey what he said and still live life in the real world. Perhaps it is impossible. But Jesus was probably doing this deliberately to make us see that we can never in ourselves be good enough to appear before the Lord God. We can only rely on his mercy and goodness consequent on the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for our acceptance.

Question 4: Why does Jesus call us sons, or children, in this context (v36b)?

Pause.

This is to emphasize that we are in a personal relationship with the Father God. And that again can only be through the acceptance that Jesus obtained for us by his death on the Cross. When we call God our Father that means we accept all our fellow Christians as our brothers and sisters.

5. What we give will be what we get v37, 38

The first sentence in v37 is sometimes used to suggest we should never judge anything or anybody at all. But, of course, we do! If we didn’t, how could we ever correct anyone and life in and out of the church would be impossibly difficult.

Question 5: How should we understand v37 in such a way as to be realistic and yet follow Jesus properly?

Pause.

Matthew adds ‘in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Matt 7: 2). If we are prepared to face the truth and be judged by it we may make other people face the truth. If not, not!

Verses 37b and 38 could be taken to mean simply the better you are the better your life will be. Life is never as easy as that (Ps 73: 1-5, 13, 14).

Question 6: How, then, do we understand what Jesus meant?

Pause.

Some people teach a false gospel which promises obvious material blessing to the believer. This is clearly not the way the Kingdom in the world works as Ps 73: 2, 13, 14 points out. The book of Job and Luke 13: 1 –5 say much the same. What we are promised is reward for faithfulness in the day of the Lord when the world comes to an end. We are to look to our own reward and not make judgments on what should happen to other people.

6. How to live for the Kingdom v39–45

The parables of the blind, the student and the plank all, in different ways, emphasize that we need to be walking in the Way of Jesus if we want to be good and do things that matter in the kingdom of the Spirit. We need to be able to see, to be properly trained and not be blinded by things that should not be there. Then the parable of the good tree emphasizes that we need to be the right sort of tree. Being a better thorn bush will not lead to fruit, just bigger thorns!

Question 7: How can we tell whether someone, or ourselves, is the right sort of tree?

Pause.

When we set out to follow Jesus we are told that we shall be saved at the final day. But we are also told that account will be taken of the whole of our lives as followers (Rom 14: 10, 12; 2 Cor 5: 10). It is hard to see how these two teachings fit together. It is best to take them both as the Lord’s word to us and strive to live in the light of both of them.

7. The Summary v46-49

Luke’s version of this story is slightly different from Matthew’s perhaps more familiar one. It is often called ‘the parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders’. That is a good title for the parable in Matthew, not so good for this one of Luke’s!

Question 8: What title would more accurately summarize this parable? Pause.

The word ‘foundation’ is the most important one in this parable. It ties this parable to many other Biblical verses. Perhaps the most significant is Isaiah 28: 16 which refers to the temple but is used by Peter (1 Pet 2: 6) of Jesus. In Peter’s little picture Jesus is the all important foundation. Peter, like Jesus, emphasises that we are to do the building.

 

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