Sunday, July 26, 2020

The writings of Luke the physician starting with his version of the gospel - Luke 12:22-40 comments: Jesus continues a radical sermon against materialism




Luke 12:22 ¶  And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23  The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24  Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25  And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26  If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27  Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28  If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29  And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30  For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31  But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33  Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Jesus was previously invited to dinner with a Pharisee who considered that Jesus did not follow the ritual hand washing the Pharisees required which drew a sermon on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees which he then reiterated to a throng of people, encouraging them to confess Christ before men in spite of the persecution they would face from the Pharisees. He then reinforced that they should focus on what is important and not on worldly matters. He spoke of covetousness and laying up treasure with God. This has been a very powerful teaching time for Christ and is very important for us.

Jesus continues His lesson about covetousness and what to concern ourselves with and not concern ourselves with from the previous passage and tells His disciples that they should not worry about the basics of life; food and clothing. In His model prayer for them, which He gave in the previous chapter He included Give us day by day our daily bread.

Paul wrote by the wisdom given to him by the Holy Spirit.

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Paul told the Philippian church…

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

An interesting note here is that God provides our food and that of the beasts and fowls in spite of all of the National Geographic and Discovery Channel blather about predator and prey. You didn’t think that zebra that the lions brought down was chosen by God for their food did you? We are so clueless to the unsearchableness of God’s mind, the Holy Ghost, acting in the world.

Psalm 104:21  The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

In God’s own words as He spoke to Job He said the following.

Job 38:39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Jesus reveals how powerless we are to change many of the most important circumstances in our lives. For instance, all of the Norman Vincent Peale or Dale Carnegie type of positive thinking in the world won’t make you 6’3 rather than 5’8.

We don’t control the most basic of circumstances and yet we worry about things that are way beyond our control. We think we control our health and thereby extend our lives by diet and exercise, one of my favorite objects of thought and action, but that too may be an illusion.

Job 7:1  Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

Psalms 39:4  LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

We see news stories about how scientists are on the verge of or at least thinking about everything from extending our lifespans hundreds of years to curing all diseases with gene manipulation and, truthfully, it is almost laughable if it were not so painfully sad in that man thinks so highly of his ability to oppose God’s ordinances and the boundaries He has set and people hope while they lay dying.

God will care for us and we are not to doubt. The unbelieving world is concerned about these carnal things, these things of the flesh, but we are to be about God’s business and all of these things will be given to us as needed. Of course, this is easy to have as a standard of our faith in a rich country where we spend so much less of our income on food than in places in Africa, South America, or Asia. Christians are suffering in some places and in some instances almost always due to cultural impediments and economic injustice and the oligarchic rule of a few powerful, narcissistic sociopaths, sin and wickedness which we who are so blessed should be willing to fight on our poorer brothers and sisters’ behalf. They, on their side, need to trust in God to provide, to pray for deliverance, and that this day they receive just enough to get by knowing that things may not be resolved in this life as they live in a fallen world in fallen bodies under the judgment of sin and the evil, malicious designs of the powerful and the wealthy.

Specifically, and doctrinally, though, Jesus is speaking directly to His Jewish disciples in the first century in a preview of the book of Acts by telling them to sell what they have and be about His business telling Israel about Him and then, after His crucifixion expectantly waiting for His return in an hour they will not have imagined. We must remember in reading this that Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection were immediate future. We must also remember that God dispersed the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem in Acts so that they would fulfill His command for them to be witnesses to the world rather than hold up in that compound/bunker mentality in Jerusalem.

We Christians today are given this from Paul to keep in our hearts.

Titus 2:11 ¶  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

For those who would use the watches mentioned as a key to knowing when Christ will return verse 40 is an alarm that tells us we should not claim knowledge we do not have. Your preacher does not really know when Christ will return and acting as a minister of Satan by misrepresenting God does not speak well for those who claim that knowledge from the pulpit. We are not given prophecy for us to sit smugly and shout to those we consider spiritual lessers that we know when that will be or who the Antichrist is or other things we do not know. Prophecy is given for a specific reason according to Jesus Himself.

John 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Just as Paul gave us the reason for the preservation of the Old Testament writings and histories.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

To all those people out there who divide and parse out words and verses and examine numbers and compare verses to current news items, writing books like ones I have from the 1990s about how Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Babylon and could be the Antichrist all the way back to those who called Kaiser Wilhelm the Beast of Revelation I say one thing. Spend more time considering and obeying what Christ has told you to do, how to treat God and others, and less time presuming knowledge you do not have.

Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

My final comment on Old Testament prophecy in particular is to ask you to remember that every individual Christian’s life is like the experience of the entire nation of Israel taken collectively. We can be visited by God and judged in this life for our sin and disobedience but God will never forsake us, as He will not Israel, or put us away forever because it is Christ’s righteousness and not our own that saves us. We can look at Old Testament prophecy as directly applying to the Jews then, as applying to the first and second advents of Christ, and as a tale of how our backsliding and rebellion can lead to ruin and despair knowing only that Christ will lift our sorry heads out of the dust, as He will Israel’s, at the end of the day.

No comments: