Bible verse

Bible verse of the week

Ephesians 5:15-17

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Bible verse of the Day

1 st John 3:17

But whoever has the worlds goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Bible verse of the Day

Ephesians 1:4

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him (guilt removed). In love.

                                                                                                                                                                   

Bible verse of the day

Proverbs 15:32

He who neglects discipline despises himself, But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.

The Healing of the Ten Lepers

Luke 17:11-19

While He was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, was there not ten cleansed? But the nine – where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner? And he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Observations:

The lepers most likely knew about Jesus. Jesus was nearing the end of His ministry and on His way to Jerusalem where He will freely give His life, by dying on the cross, being crucified for the forgiveness of sins and defeating both the power of sin and the power of death.. The lepers were probably told about the miracles and healings that Jesus had performed and He may have been coming back from raising Lazarus from the dead. Many family members were likely telling the lepers that Jesus was nearby and that Jesus would most likely come through the town. That’s why the lepers were on the side of the hill as Jesus entered the town. They probably wanted to make the best out of this opportunity so they were the first to greet Him as He entered.” Jesus, Master, have mercy on us, they shouted”. Hoping Jesus would do to them what He already done throughout the region, healing those that asked Him. Jesus did not come to Judge the world but to save the world from its captivity in sin.

Leprosy was not a curable disease during Jesus’ time and there were specific laws that needed to be followed in the event a leper was healed and cleansed, one of which, was that the leper had to show himself to the priest. Leprosy is also a disease of the flesh. I believe this parable is a comparison between the flesh and the Spirit where Jesus heals all the Lepers fleshly disease but only one inherits a new Spirit filled life. Although all the lepers were healed all will also eventually die, but the leper that returned to Jesus will live eternally.  That’s not to say the other nine lepers didn’t at some point receive Jesus as their savior but as indicated in this parable it appears they were more interested in the physical healing.

Now, as mentioned, one of the lepers recognized that he was healed and turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.  The man never went and showed the priest as Jesus had commanded and Jesus never followed up to tell Him to go and show the priest. However Jesus is the High Priest on the order of Melchizedek. There actually cannot be a higher priest. Notice that this leper Glorifies God and falls on his face at Jesus’ feet in complete surrender and submission .This leper’s total focus was to be on Jesus. Disregarding his flesh, his pride, and before his peers and disciples he prostrated himself in complete gratitude.  This is true worship and Jesus doesn’t reject it but rather He accepts it. Jesus was accepting His Lordship and the man was recognizing Him as Lord.

Jesus asks the obvious, “Were there not 10 cleansed? But the nine where are they”?  “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” Notice how Jesus does not forget those who receive blessings from Him but neglect to give Him the credit or recognition. Is man any different today? The sun shines on the good and the evil, does it not? God is always reaching out to the unsaved. He doesn’t mock them He just takes notice of their rejection of Him. They were so excited about the gift, they forgot the gift giver. Also notice that Jesus accepts His Deity when He says “Was no one found who returned to give Glory to God”.

To the returning leper He say, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.” See the difference in what Jesus says to this leper versus what He said to all ten lepers. When speaking to all ten lepers Jesus just says “go and show yourselves to the priests”. I think Jesus was just being merciful in healing all ten of the lepers from the fleshly disease but when speaking to the returning leper He identifies with this lepers faith and belief in Him as Lord.  All over the world God blesses the world and some people give credit to God and some just go on living as if the blessings are expected. This man worshiped the Lord at His feet and surrendered his life to the Master. The other men were probably telling a great story about the man called Jesus. At the end of the day, being healed from your physical ailments is nothing compared to being healed to live the rest of your life in the Spirit.

         

A Reminder from Romans 8:9-11

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though your body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you

Thought for Thanksgiving

If Jesus were to visit us, and walk through the front door, during our celebration of Thanksgiving, which of us would fall down at His feet in worship and praise. I pray it would be a crowed floor.

May the Lord Bless you all!

Bible verse of the day

1 John 3:17

But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Wheats & Tares

This is a family, including Adam, update on Biblical subjects I will be studying. Please feel free to comment. There will be no particular order, rhyme or reason for the topics. I will try and do one per quarter. Remarks on the parable are welcome.

Kingdom Parables: All seven Kingdom parables are found in Matthew. Some of the parables are also found in other Gospels but all seven are in Matthew Chapter 13. These were the first parables that Jesus spoke and are often referred to as the “seashore parables” because he was speaking to a crowd from off the shoreline in the Sea of Galilee, while people sat listening on the land. Jesus spoke in parables to primarily introduce mysteries and spiritual truths to the believers, of the early first century, and hide certain truths from unbelievers. Also Jesus began speaking in parables after the Pharisees in Matthew 12:24 accused him of casting out demons in the name of Beelzebub the ruler of the demons. I believe he may have been concerned that his enemies might prematurely arrest Him and condemn Him before His time and parables helped slow that process. Parables were also used sparingly in the Old Testament. Jesus taught sum 34 parables during His ministry. In all seven of the parables I think there is one primary theme and that would be “Christians beware and be genuine.

Wheat and the Tares: Family members should read the scripture below. Matthew 13: 24-30 and Matthew 13: 34-43. I recently taught this parable to the adult bible study mom and I go to at the Van Elderen’s on Sunday nights.

In the first section Matt 13: 24-30 Jesus presents the parable and in Matt 13: 34-43 Jesus

explains the parable.

Parable of the Wheat and The Tares

13: 24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “ The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

13:25 “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.

13:26 “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.

13:27 “The slaves of the land owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

13:28 “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’

13:29 “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you might uproot the wheat with them.

13:30 ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; “but gather the wheat into my barn”’”

13:34 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowd in parables, and he did not speak to them without a parable.

13:35 This was to fulfill what was spoken thru the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.”

13:36 Then He left the crowd and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

13:37 And He said , “ The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

13:38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;

13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

13:40 “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

13:41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdow all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,

13:42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

13:43 “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Observations:

1. The obvious: The one sowing the good seed is Jesus. The field is the world, not the earth but the people. The good seed is the Sons of the kingdom and the bad seed is the sons of the evil one. The enemy that sows the bad seed is Satan. The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels.
2. This parable is a warning to the laborers in the field (believers). Jesus has and continues to scatter good seed throughout the world. As we live our lives and go to church we began to realize that not all of the people going to church are believers. However; we don’t really know the difference between the people in the church that are believer from the ones that are not believers. As we grow in Christ, Jesus wants us to be a witness in the world and to pick up our cross and follow him but he does not want us to be a judge. Jesus wants us to live in harmony with the tares, “darnel” a weed that looks very similar to wheat when it’s growing and is difficult to discern the difference between the two until fully grown. Jesus wants the believers to grow side by side with the unbelievers until the ending times. Then Jesus will send his Angels out into the world at harvest to make the distinction as to what is and is not a genuine believer. It’s important to realize that these Tares are the imitation Christians, mingling with the real believers in the churches throughout history. This is one reason why some people get disappointed and turned off to Christianity because they witness “so called Christians” acting inappropriately and not representative of what their perception is of Christianity. These church goers may or may not be believers but God wants us to live together in unity until the harvest.

3. Church goers that are not well rooted in truth often fall away from God because they see the Christians as hypocrites and therefore judge the institution that God created as disingenuous and ultimately see the story of God as being unbelievable. Many times their observations of Jesus are based on how they perceive the Christian in the church atmosphere, the wheat and the tares together, instead of looking for Jesus directly. When viewing the church family you are really looking at a mixed bag of people that can only be filtered by God.

4. When you to go back through early church history take note of some of the evil popes’ and early Christian philosophers, Christian kings, Christian leaders, etc. you will discovery many heresies, false believers, war makers, murderers, etc. and all in the name of Christ. However; God allows this to happen even though it gives the appearance of a disingenuous body of believers. Also looking through the worlds eyes it leaves the appearance of an unfair god. Why He allows this to happen, I’m not sure. Maybe he is telling each individual to come to Him and accept Him based on His truth not our own truth or the so called truth of others.

God has made available to man everything he needs to seek Him out and has also promised those that seek Him that they will surely find him. Let us not get bogged down in trying to eliminate the enemies of God, that’s Gods’ job.

5. I think this is a scary parable. There are times that I look at myself in the mirror and I am disappointed in what I see. Do I see a piece of wheat that has been growing in the field of life that has genuine positive measured growth? Wheat with growth that can be seen by me, my peers and God. Do I represent wheat that knows God better today than when it was first planted. Wheat that is dependent on God for growth rather than itself. Or, am I looking at a Tare, a make believe Christian, just going through the motions of life , trying to be a good person without God but trying to represent Jesus as my God. Do I compare myself to the ugly world around me and conclude that at least I’m better than most people so maybe God will look favorably upon me in the end. If I am a Tare, I thank God for not allowing me to be harvested to early and can at least grow in the same field with the believers. This will allow me the time to see the Light, and with a little hope, be drawn toward the One that created it.

F. Other notes : The kingdom of Heaven is from Jesus’ first coming to His 2^nd coming. Look at the whole picture. Jesus is always sowing seeds throughout the 20 centries, but the enemy has also been sowing weeds in the same field.