Monthly Archives: January 2022

Luke 21- Widows Offering

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And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. Luke 21:1-4

What would it take to impress Jesus? Some believe its building a mega Church filled with thousands of people, some would believe its saying many words in a prayer in front of a crowd to impress them, but the New Covenant of Jesus is all about the heart. If you haven’t caught on to that theme, look again over the writings of the gospels in the New Testament. Jesus isn’t impressed by your looks, He’s not impressed with your title or status, he’s not impressed by your income status, Christ examines the hearts and minds of all people!

Here’s a little background for our scripture today, a widow back during the 1rst century couldn’t support themself financially. So it goes to show you just how poor this woman was, she had no fiances coming into her household, she had no husband to support her, so this woman was literally giving God everything she had, this is true worship of the heart. The “mite” was the smallest coin during that time period, so this would be equivalent to giving 2 cents into the offering plate. But this was all this woman had to support herself as Jesus said “This woman gave all she had to live on “ (verse 4)

Now to the world , where we like to track numbers and statistics, this woman gave probably the least amount of money then anyone there, but Jesus said “The poor widow has put more in than all the others” in Christ eyes, the woman gave more than all the rich men that were there that day, why? Because these men didn’t give from their heart, they gave to put on a show for others, they gave out of obligation, they didn’t truly trust in The Lord with all their heart

Even though this woman was poor but worldly standards, she loved God and trusted He was going to provide for her. Do we have that faith to put it all in The Lord’s hands? Or do we hold tight to this world to save us? We trust in our money, we trust in our medicines, we trust in our governments, but how many trust in God? We have a heart issue, and there is only one Great Physician who has the cure, Jesus Christ, Amen

Luke 20- Don’t Be A Legalist

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Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; Which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. Luke 20:45-47

You often hear people say the phrase “You are a Pharisee” or “Don’t be a legalist” they are often referring to the religious leaders of the New Testament. These were men who devoted their whole lives to studying scriptures and training to be High Priests, yet they were some of the most wicked people on the planet. How and why did this happen? Because as Jesus said “They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8) They were hypocrites, they never truly loved God they loved the thought of God

Reading your Bible and going to Church are great things, but they mean nothing if your heart is still hardened. This is why Jesus said “Unless you are Born Again, you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven” (John 3:3) You can memorize scripture and do religious practices but do you truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? This is why James said “Faith without works is dead” (James 2) you can pretend to be a Christian, but what fruit are you producing? Jesus said “We will be known by our fruit” (Matthew 7) Often times your actions speak louder than your words

The religious leaders didn’t really love God, they loved the power, they loved the money, they loved the prestige that came with being a High Priest. They abused their authority, they preyed on the weak, they were wolves in sheeps clothing. We see this alot today in the Church also, many religious leaders falling into sin and being total hypocrites. Jesus said “Beware of the scribes”, this was a shocking message to his audience, they all respected and honored their authority. However these were the same men who killed the Son of God, so much for being righteous

So what does this all mean? Well first off , don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because there were corrupted leaders back then and today doesn’t mean everyone was or is corrupted. We still have Godly leaders in the Church today and there were some good Pharisees during Jesus times also. We just need to make sure what they are doing and saying is Biblical and not contrary to Gods nature and Law

Most important is our own self reflection, make sure that we ourselves are not hypocrites. If you spend any time on social media , you will run into alot of “Pharisees” , don’t be like these people, they are only bringing condemnation on themselves. Everything you do, do it all for the Glory of God and worship Him in Spirit and Truth, Amen

Luke 20- Son of God

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And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David’s son? And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son? Luke 20:41-44

The religious leaders continually challenged Jesus , as they often stated “How can God have a Son”? We still hear these arguments today from Jews and Muslims, how can God have a Son? Well Jesus answers the question, he provides a prophecy foretold by David in the Old Testament (Psalm 110:1) David prophesied “Yahweh said to My Lord” if you look at the original Hebrew of Psalm 110 , The LORD is translated from Yahweh. So in this prophecy God the Father is talking to God the Son

Now one thing to note here, the concept of the Triune God is not unknown to the Orthodox Jews. Here in this prophecy the Triune God interacts with each other. If this concept was completely foreign to the patriarchs of Israel , such as David, then this prophecy would have made no sense. Those who claim the Trinity is a creation of Roman paganism, don’t really know or understand the Old Testament. You only have to look at far as Genesis 1 to see the Triunity of God in creation, “Let US make man in OUR image “ (Genesis 1:26) God is not only the Father, if he were God the Father would be talking to himself.

A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies Psalm 110:1-2

Jesus pointed the religious leaders to Psalm 110 to understand he is the Messiah and the Son of God. As Jesus was pointing out David addresses God as Lord, how then can David be the Messiah or Son of God? Because we know he’s not, David was not talking about himself, but was prophesying about Jesus Christ. And we see the Messiah will come through Israel as Christ accomplished through Mary.

For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:34-36

Apostle Peter also preached about Psalm 110 by the Holy Spirit. He made it clear , David was not the Messiah, because he is dead and buried. Jesus is the Messiah and Lord of Lord, the same one who Israel crucified. None of this is Roman paganism or Greek mythology, this is straight from the Torah

Jesus proved to the religious leaders that He is the Messiah, He is the Lord, He is the Son of God. Yet the self proclaimed legal experts rejected and crucified him. Don’t harden your hearts like this world, let the Holy Spirit reveal to you Jesus is Lord and God , Amen!

Luke 20 – God of The Living

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Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife. Luke 20:27-33

Again here we see Jesus being tested by the religious leaders, hoping to trap Christ into misspeaking or saying something that would contradict the Torah. However as they don’t seem to get, Jesus is the Son of God, he has all knowledge and power over everything, human wisdom will never outsmart God. And here we see them use a ridiculous scenario, a woman whose husband dies so she keeps getting remarried to their brothers because they keep dying. Now understand this law was meant to protect the widow, as women in that time period couldn’t work and support themselves. So the law was that the brother of the husband would support the woman as his wife. However the religious leaders took this example to the extreme and killed off 6 of the brothers

Now their trap for Jesus , was whose wife will be this woman when everyone gets resurrected. The interesting part of this is Jesus reveals a little bit about the afterlife. Also to demonstrate how insincere this question was, the Sadducess asked this question even though they didn’t believe in the resurrection. So it shows you they really didn’t care about a truthful answer, they were just looking to trap Jesus with a trick question.

And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. Luke 20:34-38

Jesus gives us some insight to the New Heavens and Earth, those who are resurrected in the afterlife will no longer marry and they are equal with the angels. It kind of gives us perspective on the purpose of marriage in this current world as a foundation of creation. But also shows us the afterlife will be alot different than this current fallen world. I think it shows us why the Bible is so adamant about the covenant of marriage and against sexual immorality

Jesus makes a profound statement here “He is not God of the dead, but of the living” for those who believe in “soul sleep” we don’t worship the God of the dead, we are alive in Christ forever. As the Apostle Paul said “To depart from the body is to be with The Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) Those who believe they are going to become dust until the resurrection would have to contend with the words of Jesus Christ

Jesus reveals to us that we worship the God of the living and not the dead for those that are Children of God through Christ Amen!