Rejecting God's Son Has Severe Consequences

The wicked farmers rebel against God and try to steal His vineyard.

Luke 20:9-13 Now Jesus turned to the people again and told them this story:

“A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and moved to another country to live for several years. 10 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers attacked the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed."

11 "So the owner sent another servant, but they also insulted him, beat him up, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 A third man was sent, and they wounded him and chased him away."

13 “‘What will I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will respect him.’"

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God has been cultivating relationships ever since the Garden of Eden, he has gone out of his way to improve the soil, he has pruned the vine and blessed it with perfect opportunities to grow. The nation of Israel should be a very prosperous vine but the people that God left to tend to the vine for him have not been good farmers.

The way that the wicked farmers treat the servants is a vivid picture of Israel's persistent rejection of the prophets and John the Baptist. Time after time God sent men to call them to repentance and over and over again the religious and political leaders rejected them and persecuted and/or killed them and even now they have rejected the Son that the Land Owner sent.

Ever since the Triumphant Entry Jesus has been accepted by the people and the crowd in the Temple is increasing in size everyday. The crowds are accepting Jesus even though it is for the wrong reason, they think that he is going to rise up in power and change their situation physically but Jesus is on the way towards changing their spiritual condition.

The farmers that were left to care for the vine will get their way soon. They have rejected the Son of the Land Owner and they will get rid of him for their own gain. They are going to kill the Son but that isn't the end of the story.

Don't reject Jesus

Acts 4:10-12 "Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Imagine thinking that you have solved your problem and three days later you find that you are wrong, they didn't count on the fact that the Son that they killed would come back to life, they didn't imagine that he would be proved correct in all of his teaching and they would be condemned.

What a powerful message from Peter, right after he healed the crippled beggar, he made it crystal clear why he was able to perform this miracle. Peter quoted the same scripture from Psalm 118:22-23 that Jesus quoted, I wonder if the religious leaders cringed as those words rang in their ears.

We have all tried to solve our own problems instead of accepting Jesus, we have made our own gods, we have tried to find meaning and significance apart from Jesus. If you reject Jesus you soon find out that you don't have any good options. We are just like the people that saw Jesus after his resurrection, we have the opportunity to see that we are wrong, we have been given plenty of chances to change our mind about Jesus.

We need to take heed of the warning that Peter gave us, there is salvation in no one else, the consequences for rejecting the Son are beyond measure.

I have accepted your Son into my life for salvation, help me to accept him into my life each day, help me to draw closer to him by accepting his authority and living for him everyday. Amen.

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Christ + Nothing = Everything

God doesn't need me to do anything else to earn grace.

Colossians 2:11-15 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Colossians 2:20-23 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires. 

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Could anything be added to Christ work in the new believer? What else could I do that would make me more worthy of God's saving grace?

My achievements and following of the rules are no good, I am already in the family through Christ work and I cannot add anything of value to the work that Jesus has done. What a relief! My old life and the pressure of trying to be good enough are over, I couldn't possibly be good enough or worthy of Jesus sacrifice, I have been set free.

The Jews and the Gentiles that were converted in the church of Colossae were being told that they needed to follow the law or some other set of religious rules. Other religions had these rules and the Jews had strict rules in the Old Testament so it was easy to think that this teaching was correct.

Not so after Jesus came, he made a way to God that wasn't based on performance, Jesus went against the logic of man that said that you have to do something to be forgiven and you must be a certain way in order to have a pleasant after-life. I have been liberated from worldly rules and I don't have to worry about judgement.

A rigorous devotion to Christ can be seen as a means to obtain God's grace, while spiritual discipline is a good thing, we must keep our focus on the reason that we are motivated to the disciplines. Are we trying to become more like Christ because his is the best way of living or are we still trying to obtain what has already been given to us for free?

Rule keeping is usually an illusion

Matthew 23:27-28  "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity.  28  Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Spiritual disciple was a way of life for the religious leaders of Jesus day, few people could claim to be as disciplined as they were and yet they totally missed the point, all of their rule keeping was just an illusion. They believed that they were better off than the common people and that they deserved to be in heaven someday because of their own good deeds but Jesus told them that they could never do enough to earn salvation.

I must live in a manner that pleases my Savior, his way of life is far superior to the way of this world, but I can't allow myself to think that successfully adhering to spiritual discipline makes me any better or more worthy of grace.

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• Faith + Nothing = Salvation (christianitymatters.com)

Don't Try To Put God In A Box

Jesus disciples turned into Pharisees.

Luke 18:15-17 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.

16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 17 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

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It is the parents versus the disciples in the scriptures today. The parents were doing what they should do, we can probably all agree that parents should bring their children to Jesus, but the disciples didn't think so.

Jesus disciples told the parents to get out of the way, Jesus was too important to be bothered with children. It seems to me that in an instant the disciples have become just the same as the Pharisees, with their rules about who could come and do what before God, they were trying to be in control.

Their culture didn't give children much in the way of rights and respect but Jesus rebuked his disciples and told them that they were way off base. He told them that God's Kingdom belongs to the childlike and that you must receive the Kingdom of God like a child.

The disciples didn't learn the first time

Luke 9:46-48 Then his disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he brought a little child to his side. 48 Then he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me also welcomes my Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest."

The disciples already had a lesson that included children but they didn't get it. Did you catch what Jesus said in verse forty-eight? They were told in the previous lesson that "anyone who welcomes a child welcomes Jesus" but now they are telling the parents to get the children out of there. Make any sense?

In both of these scriptures we can learn a valuable lesson about the importance of children to our Lord.  Jesus tells us that their demeanor is pleasing to him. Jesus wants us to come to him as an obedient, trusting child, just like a hurt child that comes for comfort in daddy arms, a child that comes in humility to their caring father after they have done wrong. 

Children are anxious to imitate their parents, putting on their clothes and playing dress up, Jesus wants us to be like that as well, impressionable and willing to imitate him with a sincere heart. (Ephesians 5:1, Philippians 2:5)

We can also see how quickly that we can all become religious and act like the disciples did, we like to be in control and have everything just right, problem is our idea of what is just right is usually not what God intended. It is very easy to try and push our own agenda off on God.

I need to be sensitive to your leadership Lord. Help me to resist putting you in the box and help me to stay in the center of your will.

You Can't Reach The Lost If You Hide From Them

Do you rejoice when the lost are found?

Luke 15:1-10 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” 

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Eating with sinners! How could Jesus do that again? The Pharisees fussed at him before when he was having dinner with the "scum" right after he asked one of those "scum" to be his disciple. (Luke 5:30-32) After that incident Jesus still had the nerve to feed over 5,000 people, and you can imagine that there must have been some lowlife people there that day. (Luke 9:10-17)

Jesus always makes things simple and to all of this criticism Jesus explains a very simple concept: "To reach sinners you can't avoid them." How could anybody find anything that is lost if they avoid the places where the lost thing could be? Easy enough?

We have all been lost sheep

1 Peter 2:25 Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

The Pharisees didn't realize that at the foot of the cross we are all equal, we are all lost sheep and we are all worth looking for. Jesus knew that none of us is worthy but by his grace he has enabled us to be friends of God. (Romans 5:11)

These two parables about things that are lost are telling me that:

1. I have to get out there away from the safety of the flock, go find a lost sheep and bring him back to the Savior. 
2. I need to turn on the lights and pierce the darkness so that the lost can be found.

Thank you Lord for saving me and calling me your friend. Help me to feel a stronger urgency to find the lost.

Beware of Leaven

A Little Bit Of Bad Doctrine Goes A Long Way

 Matthew 16:6-7, 11-12  "Watch out!" Jesus warned them. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread.

Why can't you understand that I'm not talking about bread? So again I say, 'Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'"   Then at last they understood that He wasn't speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

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There are a lot of voices that are trying to get your attention and weigh in on how you should live but very few are saying anything that you need to listen too. Even well meaning Christ followers can be very wrong, some of the worst advice that I have ever received when I in a difficult situation came from my friends at church.

Bad advice comes from people with bad doctrine since what you believe influences the way you live and it will influence the advice that you give to others on how they should live. It takes just a little bit of deviation from the absolute truth to steer you way off course.

Quietly the gradual change in your thinking will take over, your behavior will shift a little bit and you are on your way. The false teaching will influence your temper, it will make you proud and before you know it you are a modern day Pharisee, so worldly that even though you are in the church you will be counter productive for the kingdom.

I need to keep myself in the Word, filling my mind each day with truth so that I will not be easily swayed by false doctrine.

Thank you Lord for giving us your word so that we may be able to answer the question that Pilate asked "What is truth?"

You might like to read: Commands of Jesus blog series.

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Sacred Cows Can Stink The Place Up

Scripture

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Acts 15:1-2, 10-11  While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers:

“Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.

10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

Observation

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Why does it have to be so hard? Why do we have so many rules about church?

•     It has to start at this time, it has to finish at this
•     The choir needs to sing
•     Why is my favorite hymn being ignored
•     The pastor sure went long today
•     That's the deacons job

Some of the stuff that we dwell on and the rules and procedures that we support need to be changed.

Good news, a group of Pharisees became believers. Bad news: they are still hanging onto the rules. These newly converted Pharisees that could not keep the law are now trying to burden the new Gentile believers with it, didn't they remember how badly the law was being abused and how none of them were able to keep it. How can they succeed when the Pharisees didn't.

Application

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Church shouldn't be a place that is "stinked" up with a bunch of rules. I will remember to do church with an attitude of love and forgiveness instead of a bunch of rules about being good and doing the right things.

Prayer

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Help us to let go of the sacred cows in our thinking on how to do church.

What Is Your Motive

Scripture

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Acts 4:21-31 The Council then threatened them further and finally let them go because they didn't know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God for this wonderful miracle-- 22 the healing of a man who had been lame for forty years. 23 As soon as they were freed, Peter and John found the other disciples and told them what the Council had said.

24 Then all the believers united in this prayer:

"O Lord, Creator of heaven and earth and of the sea and everything in them--25,26 you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor King David, your servant, saying, 'Why do the heathen rage against the Lord, and the foolish nations plan their little plots against Almighty God? The kings of the earth unite to fight against him and against the anointed Son of God!'

27 "That is what is happening here in this city today! For Herod the king, and Pontius Pilate the governor, and all the Romans--as well as the people of Israel--are united against Jesus, your anointed Son, your holy servant. 28 They won't stop at anything that you in your wise power will let them do. 29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and grant to your servants great boldness in their preaching, 30 and send your healing power, and may miracles and wonders be done by the name of your holy servant Jesus."

31 After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly preached God's message.

Psalms 2:1-4  What fools the nations are to rage against the Lord! How strange that man should try to outwit God! 2 For a summit conference of the nations has been called to plot against the Lord and his Messiah, Christ the King. 3 "Come, let us break his chains," they say, "and free ourselves from all this slavery to God." 4 But God in heaven merely laughs! He is amused by all their puny plans.

Observation

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Peter and John have just been released from prison, so what are the charges? Um… lets see that would be for the hideous crime of healing. Yep, how tragic. God’s mercy and love were extended to a man lame for over forty years and now Peter and John are in prison overnight.

Amazing! The group of leaders that plotted against Jesus for the three years of His ministry are still at it, even though their previous plans had all failed. They made plans over and over again to get rid of Jesus then they finally do get rid of him but it only lasted three days and then Jesus is back and he is still a sore subject that causes “the heathen to rage” (Acts 4:25). Now they are still trying to fight against God, they are still devising their own plans and they are still fighting against the crowds that are convinced that Jesus was God’s son.

The Pharisees still had not checked their motives, but we can not condemn them, you and I know that in ministry it is hard to keep our own ambitions and ego out of the way. We have our sacred cows and we also have our needs for power, position and importance that can get in the way when we are doing good things for God. Any minister or layman (actually we are all ministers, or we should be) should be aware of the danger and trouble that comes from having our motives left unchecked. If we are not careful we can be more offensive to the church and for God’s kingdom than any good that we may have accomplished. Peter and John had to suffer because somebody else was fighting against God, do we cooperate or do we force our church leaders to suffer when we fight against them?

Application

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I will check my motives for every ministry that I participate in. Am I making plans that may seem good to me but they may not be God’s plans? Am I feeding my own ego? Any "success" that I may have in ministry must be tempered with humility.

Pray

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I pray Lord Jesus that I will be cautious in ministry to always work on your plans and not my own. I pray that I will not stir up trouble when I don’t get my way at church or in ministry opportunities that I participate in. Give me clear direction for our mission trip plans that we make for next year.

Who Is Your Teacher

Scripture

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Luke 6:1 – 49

39 He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Observations

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Here are two examples of Jesus being watched by the Pharisees on the Sabbath, but we know that there were many other times that it happened. I imagine that it wasn’t just Jesus although he was watched more closely, I bet that they stood around all over town and inside the temple just waiting to catch a law breaker (you brood of vipers Matthew 3:7).

The Pharisees heart of hardness is exposed in verses 1 – 11 and then Jesus shows us his heart and tells us the better way to live in verses 17 – 39.

Jesus states in verse 39 that the blind cannot be a leader for the blind and then he says that we will be like our teacher. The question is who is your teacher going to be? Is it going to be the teachers of the harsh rules that you must follow or the way of Christ that teaches love, mercy, kindness and forgiveness?

Application

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Since I will become like my teacher, I choose to be taught by God and so I will study his word daily and put it into practice like the wise builder (verse 46 – 49).

Prayer

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I pray that I will be taught by you always and will put your words into practice