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GOSPEL PARABLES 8 LEAVEN IN THREE LOAVES

PARABLES 8 Leaven in three loaves

This is the shortest parable of Jesus in the Bible and it occurs in Matthew Ch.13 and in Luke Ch.13. Jesus taught this after he had taught the parables of the mustard seed and the growing seed. Reading now from Matthew.

Matthew 13:33 Another parable He spoke to them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was fully (holos) leavened.’

Three measures of meal means three portions of flour made into three loaves of breadcake. The leaven is ‘hidden’ and the Greek word for hidden that Jesus uses here is (egkrypto – encrypted) and this word is not found anywhere else in the Bible. The usual word that is used for hidden in all other Scriptures is ‘krypto’. The word Krypto means something hidden but egkrypto means not only hidden but encrypted with a code, and there is a big difference between the two words.

Encryption is a two-way process because encrypted information has to be decrypted by someone who has the appropriate code or key. You can find documents hidden in a room if you look hard enough but if they are in a fixed safe in the room you need to know the combination or the code for the safe.

The phrase ‘three loaves of bread’ occurs in three stories in the Bible and in each story that phrase hides truth concerning the Trinity of the three Persons of God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But there is also an encoded message of the ‘End Times’ beyond what is hidden in each story of the ‘three loaves of bread’ because Jesus was speaking in that parable of the loaves being fully leavened - speaking of the work of the Kingdom of God until it is being expressed fully (holos) in the earth in the last days before Jesus returns.

This parable of the leaven in three loaves of bread is followed in the Gospels by another ‘End Times’ ‘three loaves of bread’ parable in Luke Ch. 11 about the man who comes to his friend at the midnight hour desperately requesting three loaves of bread, and we will look more fully at both those parables in our next episode of the Gospel parables.

 

But today we will deal with the first ‘three loaves of bread’ story in the Bible in Genesis 18 where three men appear to Abraham to announce to Abraham and Sarah that Sarah will have a son in her old age, in a year’s time. When Abraham sees them, he greets them as ‘My Lord’ – Adonai – which is only ever used to mean Almighty God. That alone hides the fact that Abraham must have been given a revelation of God as being three persons. He didn’t say ‘My Lords’, plural. He then asks Sarah to make three loaves of bread for the three guests. The three loaves of bread was a visible representation of the Trinity of God as was the appearance of the three men.  This was a veiled appearance of God as the Father and Son and Holy Spirit in angelic form. That is called a Theophany - and this appearance of a Triune God sets the pattern of the three loaves of bread in the Scriptures as a symbol of the Trinity and it also unveils the three distinct natures of the different Persons of the Trinity.

 

To this day when Jewish families celebrate the Passover feast, they place three small cake loaves of bread on the table in front of the guests. They then hide the middle cake of bread somewhere in the room and the children have to find it. The feast cannot be completed until the second loaf cake is found. That piece of bread is called the ‘Ransom’ and the child who finds it gets the Ransom reward.

That of course represents Jesus as the second person of the Trinity who is currently hidden from the spiritual eyes of the Jewish people. This is an encrypted message to the modern-day Orthodox Jew, and the key to decrypting this message is in receiving the gift of faith and grace through the Holy Spirit that brings a revelation of Jesus into their hearts.

 

After the three messengers deliver the message to Abraham about Sarah giving birth to Isaac they set off towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and one of them, whom Abraham calls ‘The Lord’, stays aside and declares to Abraham that he will bring severe judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, but Abraham pleads with him, finally getting him to agree to save the cities if ten righteous men are found there. Meanwhile the other two men have gone down to Sodom and Gomorrah as angels (malak – messengers). Abraham’s plea was a prayer to the Father, the Person of the Trinity who represents judgement and justice. The other two Persons represented mercy and truth, with Jesus being mercy - in saving Lot’s family, and the Holy Spirit being truth – in shining light and truth and exposing the deviant culture in that place.

So the reality of the Trinity was revealed in the three Persons of Father, Son and Holy spirit, but encrypted in that story was also the nature and activity of the three Persons of the Trinity. And what is even more deeply encoded in this story and in the other ‘three loaves’ parables is a prophetic message of what will happen in the last days before the return of Jesus.

We see that message in the story of Abraham and the three messengers at Mamre which finishes with the judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the judgement on that wicked culture is spoken about in the Book of Jude 1:7 in the New Testament where Jude speaks of prophesies that liken the judgement upon the wicked culture of Sodom and Gomorrah to the ‘End Times’ dealings of God that will come upon the wickedness abounding in the world before Jesus returns.

The Holy Spirit who shone light and truth into the wickedness of that culture is shining light into our culture today. The Bible foretold that these days would come and that when they did there would arise a polarity between darkness and light in the earth. And that brings us great hope. Isaiah prophesied these things to Israel and was speaking beyond Israel to us as well as followers of Jesus all over the world. Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you (who follow Jesus). For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the people; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and people shall come to your light…

When we see the work of the Father as being the justice and judgement of God, we have to ask ourselves how we relate to that regarding our faith in a loving God. In fact my personal experience is that the judgement of the Father is critical to the final reality of my faith. We can easily relate to Jesus as being the author and finisher of our faith and as being the one who enables us with his grace, and we gladly accept that the Holy Spirit takes what Jesus says to us and reveals that to us and leads us into all truth. However, the judgement of the Father isn’t just about bringing us to account for the consequences of our wrongdoing – his judgement means his capacity to bring his absolute love and wisdom into what he regards as being best for our lives.

The question I ask myself is. ‘Can I trust the judgement of God to decide what is right for my life?’ and ‘Whose judgement should I trust to guide my life and bring the best future for my life to me each day? Should I despise and disdain and complain about disagreeable circumstances that come upon me? Should I question the integrity of God for letting me go through loss and affliction?

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all agree as one about what is right and good for my life. But it is the Father who supernaturally works the things that are good into my life experience. The Father takes all the imperfect things that I do, that have negative or nuisance consequences, and the testing things that others might do to me, and the unavoidable challenging tasks and difficulties, and he supernaturally works them all together for my good. But it is difficult to experience that goodness if I do not know or believe that that is what he is doing. ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God ‘(Romans 8:28)

My faith is not about summonsing a more intense effort to believe that God will give me my judgement of what is good and right for me. Only the judgement of the Father is critical to the reality of my faith, and thanking the Father in all things is the greatest expression of my faith. Moments of thanksgiving to our Father are moments to be cherished no matter what. If God is hidden from us it is only because he wants to be discovered by us. Thank you Lord for drawing us aside to be with you even in the midst of all the other things that are going on round about us and thank you for reminding us that you are unceasingly working your good will into our lives as you have done from the very beginning.

 

GOSPEL PARABLES 7 THE GROWING SEED

GOSPEL PARABLES 7 THE GROWING SEED 

The parable of the growing seed is only found in the Gospel of Mark, and it comes after the Parable of the Sower who sows seed on four different types of soil – the wayside and the rocky ground and the thorny ground and the good soil. It follows the same Kingdom theme that sets the overall framework of the seed as being the word of God and the soil being our hearts of faith. Today we are reading from the Gospel of Mark.
Mark 4:26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

We see in this story that the farmer or husbandman does his work and sows the seed and then sleeps and rises day and night while the unseen seed silently grows and then emerges into sight. This is how God began his work of creation in the world of the unseen. The Bible says that Jesus, the creative logos Word, spoke creation into being (John 1, Genesis 1). And that same logos Word is what speaks our spiritual growth into being. The Bible says this about us - having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word (logos) of God which lives and abides forever (1Peter 1:23) 
This parable is about the stages of growth of our spiritual life through the life of Jesus within us. It shows the gradual process of our spiritual development and our need of patience and trust in God's timing on our journey of faith as he nurtures us into our fruitful eternal destiny. 
In the parable of the growing seed the blade represents the initial stage of growth after the seed germinates or sprouts and begins to emerge as the tender green shoot. This speaks of the early signs of spiritual growth or the beginning of faith, where new hope for a new life of faith lies ahead.
Then comes the ear (Stachys- standing out) – that is the next stage of growth, where the plant begins to differentiate and stand out from the main stem, showing its individual potential in forming within it, the head of grain. This stage is about us learning about our faith and about who we are in Jesus. The ear of the plant is still vulnerable at this stage and needs protection within a covering just as our spiritual growth receives the grace and mercy of God and also flourishes within the protective framework of the teaching of God’s word and fellowship with other believers. 

The ear continues to develop and fill out as healthy grain with the potential for full maturity, and with faith and patience it will become more robust before it reaches the final stage of ripening and being ready for harvest. For us this means that our spiritual growth is more about inner transformation than outward appearance, as we accept the sure and steady patient progress of spiritual development and do not become discouraged and lose hope.

Then comes the stage where the fruit of the Spirit which is our spiritual growth becomes more visible and develops into the full grain in the ear. This fruitfulness can now be seen in us as the love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When the disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father he said ‘if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father’. And God is saying to us in this parable that he has placed his life-seed in us so that as that seed grows we may be able to say ‘if you’ve seen me you have seen Jesus’ (John 14:9) Jesus expresses his life in our soul as the expression of our unique God-designed spirit.

The parable said ‘The earth produces by itself’ The earth is the soil of our hearts of faith in which that seed is embedded. The seed of the life of the Spirit of Christ in us contains all the DNA of the essential nature of God as the spiritual fruit of our lives. Jesus is the life in which our life exists, but our soul gives it a unique expression through the work of the Holy Spirit in growing the fruit of the spirit in our lives. 
The fruit of the spirit of love grows in and through us as we receive the love of God into our hearts and minds. That is the starting point, and every other expression of fruit is tinged and coloured and flavoured by God’s love that mercifully accepts us and makes us feel we belong and can feel safe and satisfied with life. That love can then touch others.
The fruit of the spirit of joy expresses the cheerfulness and elation of being a victor and not a victim of life’s struggles. The Bible says ‘we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8). (Jesus our team coach in tough Grand Final, injuries galore but glorious win)

The fruit of the spirit of peace is ours when we know that once we have placed everything in his hands our oneness together with him stands guard over our hearts and minds and banishes our anxiety concerning our future.

Longsuffering is our faith in his mercy upon our shortcomings that takes away the fear of judgement and replaces it with grace filled opportunities to be transformed into our true and destined selves - in his likeness. We can learn to withhold judgement upon others also and see God bring about change in their lives. 

Kindness comes from the word kindred and expresses the kind of compassion and protective care that we would have for the most defenceless person in our family.

Goodness is not just a display of virtue but is simply the effect of making a person feel better off after having known us than they did before. Jesus said ‘only God is good’. His goodness works itself into us and flows out as us being a blessing to those who know us. 

Faithfulness describes God’s devotion to ‘being there’ for us without wavering, even when we waver in our being there for him. Our faithfulness to God and to other people grows within his loyal faithfulness to us.

God’s gentleness to us creates a safe and accepting space for our feelings of vulnerability and is part of the healing of the soul we can offer to someone who has been mistreated in their lives. 

Self-control is giving place to God’s control over our lives, spirit, soul and body. It is the highest form of spiritual authority that we can possess in this life. When we give this place to God nothing of darkness can overcome us and no weapon that is formed against us will prosper.

This fruitfulness is a final stage of maturity, where the fruitful grain (kartos - fruit) is ripe and ready for harvest – But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Paul writes about this time of assessing the fruitfulness of our lives at the time of the second coming of the Lord. When the Lord comes, he will bring to light the things now hidden and reveal the motives of the heart. Then each one will receive praise from God. 
We will each be affirmed and commended for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
James also writes about the second coming of the Lord in his story of the farmer who sows the seed and patiently waits for the outpouring of the rain before the harvest. 

James 5:7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the latter rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
The farmer is the Father who waits for the fruit of harvest, and we as God’s people are also told to be patient and establish our hearts of faith and to expect the outpourings of the Holy Spirit before the second coming of the Lord. ‘so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, whom heaven must retain until the times of restoration of all things’ (Acts 3:19). 

One barrier to allowing that fruitful seed to grow in us is that we can feel that we are too prone to making mistakes and failing short in our dealings with life and our attitudes. 
How could such an Almighty Holy God work through such flawed human beings as us?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
The Bible shows up that kind of thinking as being a lie. 
Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to bring to life the spirit of the lowly, and to bring to life the heart of the contrite ones.
The only way we can truly appreciate and give thanks to our God who is in the highest place, is to know him as the one who loves us in our lowly place and that is in fact the most perfect place. The glory of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus is that he took his human weakness to the cross to bring forth the power of his life in us. The spiritual growth journey is about us being able to carry our own human weaknesses at the same time as we carry the powerful life of Jesus within us. We can now carry our weakness without fear or shame. Amen

GOSPEL PARABLES 6 THE MUSTARD SEED

GOSPEL PARABLES 6 THE MUSTARD SEED 
This parable comes after the parable of the Sower and the seed in the three Gospels of Matthew Ch.13 and Mark Ch.7 and Luke Ch.13. It follows the same Kingdom theme that sets the overall framework of the seed as being the word of God and the soil being our hearts of faith. Jesus told his disciples that if they did not understand that truth they would not understand any of the parables (Mark 4:13). Today we are reading from the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 13:31 He told them another parable, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all other shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 

The birds in the mustard tree parable symbolize the Gentile Nations coming to find shelter in the kingdom of God, a theme rooted in Old Testament prophecy and fulfilled in the New Testament. There are two Old Testament prophesies in Ezekiel (Ch.17 and Ch.31 about Lebanon and Assyria) and one in Daniel (Ch.10Babylon) that speak of kingdoms as trees growing to a great size so that the migratory birds of the air come and take shelter in the branches, symbolising those birds as foreign nations becoming included in those three kingdoms. The mustard seed parable highlights the inclusive nature of God's kingdom, where all nations and families of the earth are invited to enter in by faith and become part of God's family.

With the framework of the seed as being the word and the soil as being the hearts as our reference point, we see that the lesson in the parable of the mustard seed is that the seed of the word of faith can be of the smallest size and yet it can grow to be a faith of great magnitude. 
If all we do is trust Jesus to exercise his faith and grace in interceding to the Father on our behalf, we will see the Father’s goodness and faithfulness come to pass in our lives. That is what it means to cultivate a surrendered faith, and the smallest of seeds grows into the greatest fulfilment. 
Trusting Jesus in that way means that we say to Jesus in our need, ‘I can trust in you to speak your word into my heart and intercede for me according to the will of the Father’. We don’t exert our own mental and emotional energy to muster the kind of faith and power that thinks we own and direct the outcome we want as the answer to our prayers. We leave those answers and outcomes under the command of Jesus because he intercedes to the Father for us to bring about the Father’s will for us and the Father manifests that answer openly. ‘He (Jesus) makes intercession for us according to the will of God and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are invited to live according to His purpose.’ (Romans 8:27-28 and 34)

In this way our surrendered faith has the ultimate hope of God’s will coming to pass for us. And this is in contrast to non-surrendered faith which demands its own result and gets confused and somewhat surprised that it doesn’t get what it thought the Bible said it would. But surrendered faith never demands its own results and is always surprised by the astonishing results that God grants to that greater mustard seed faith. Surrendered speaks the word that Jesus gives us to say, like when Jesus on the Mt of olives said if you have faith like a mustard seed you will say to this mountain be removed and cast into the sea (Matthew 17:20). 

There are two striking examples of people exercising that kind of surrendered faith in the Gospels that Jesus praises as being ‘great faith’, where both of these people receive a miraculous answer to their request - and both of them are Gentiles and not Jews. This is prophetic of the New Testament gathering of all the Gentile Nations of the world into the mustard seed tree of the Kingdom of God as told in the parable.

One ‘mustard seed great faith’ story is of the Gentile mother who asked Jesus to heal her demon possessed daughter, and Jesus refused, saying I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:21).  He was letting her know he was here to fulfill the mission of his Father to Israel. He even told her that Gentiles were regarded as dogs by the Jews.
The other ‘great faith’ story is about the Centurion who asks Jesus to heal his paralysed son and when Jesus makes a decision to go to his home the Centurion says ‘no Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but just say the word and my son will be healed.’ 
The peculiar similarity between these two stories is that Jesus makes an immediate decision about what he should do, and then changes his mind about it in both cases when each of these people query what he decided in the first place.
The question is – why would Jesus listen to the Gentile mother and the Gentile Centurion, and pause and then change his mind about his decisions? 
I’ll need to answer that with more questions.
Was Jesus always waiting to see first what his Father would do in a situation or waiting to hear what his Father had to say into a situation before he acted? 
And would the Holy Spirit bear witness to Jesus about what his Father would do or say? 
And would Jesus then speak and act accordingly? 
The Bible says ‘yes’ to each of those questions.

In the situation with the Gentile mother with the demon possessed daughter, when she hears the remark about the Jew’s calling Gentiles dogs, she says ‘even the dogs are allowed crumbs from the table’. She took a lowly place and accepted that she had no place in claiming anything from God, but something in her heart also trusted totally in Jesus and she surrendered everything to him. Jesus as a Jewish man under the law whose heart was to please his Father had made a just reckoning of this situation and obediently aligned himself to what his mission to Israel was. However, when the woman spoke about dogs getting the crumbs Jesus was faced with having to give her an answer. 

And she did not realise or understand that Jesus would also surrender everything he did to what his Father might want to do in the matter. ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner’ (John 5:19). The Bible says that Jesus did change his mind and the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour. The woman’s faith was rewarded not just by her daughter being delivered and set free, but also by the unexpected praise of Jesus for her great faith. The Father wanted that woman’s prayer answered. Is that where ultimate surrendered authority ends up? Did 
Jesus surrendered his authority to his Father’s will.

The other ‘great faith’ story is of the Gentile Centurion who asks Jesus to heal his paralysed son. Jesus says he will go to his home but the Centurion counters that decision of Jesus and says ‘no Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but just say the word and I know he will be healed.’ because I am also a man under authority having soldiers under me and when I say ‘go’ they go, and to another come and he comes and to another do this and he does it. (Matthew 8:8). The Bible goes on to say that Jesus marvels at this and says that he has not found such great faith even in the children of Israel. Here is another example of ultimate surrendered faith and surrendered authority. 

But even though the Centurion understood the principle of authority and believed that Jesus was in charge, he did not know that Jesus did nothing unless he heard his Father speak to him. As the Bible says ‘As I hear, I decide; and My decision is just, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me (John 5:30). Jesus knew that the Father was in command of that situation, and when Jesus heard his Father speak into that situation, even perhaps through the Centurion’s own words, Jesus decided to not walk in his own strength to the Centurion’s home but to allow his Word to do the travelling. This is all we need to know – how to surrender to the authority of Jesus and the authority of Father God in our struggles and prayer burdens – and we can enter into the rest of faith. This is the mustard seed faith that grows into a great tree of hope.

God the Father was always in Jesus doing that work in the world of the unseen, and the Holy Spirit always empowered the word that Jesus spoke. The Holy Spirit communicates God’s words to us in ways that so often seem like natural occurrences, like the Gentile woman’s statement about the dog getting crumbs or the words of the principled Centurion entreating Jesus to save himself a long walk and simply send his Word. This was a work of the Three in One Trinity of God - This was the way The human and Divine work of Jesus took the burden of the peoples’ needs and heard the Father in Heaven and left the manifestation of the outcome in the hands of the Father. This is how God has ordained that we now are to connect with the Three Persons in One God. Their loving care and attendance to the lowly Gentile woman outsider and the principled Gentile Centurion is the same loving attendance they give to our struggles and needs with our mustard seed faith.

We can now see our life experience of faith as being not just about us, but as an extension of the very life of God. The life of Father God is in Jesus and of the life of Jesus in us and we are in them, working together through the power of Holy Spirit and into our world. Our world can be touched by God through a mustard seed of faith that grows into a tree of the Kingdom of God. And we will see many people in our world blessed and healed as they dwell in its branches.

 

 

PARABLE OF THE HUMAN DIVINE SPIRIT BARRIER

PARABLE OF THE HUMAN DIVINE SPIRIT BARRIER 

Today we are revisiting the last parable that we looked at where Jesus was describing the four types of soil that the Sower sowed the seed into, symbolising the four states of the human heart in receiving and understanding and acting upon God’s word to us. Seed was sown by the wayside, some on stony places, some on thorny ground and some on good soil. 

The type of heart soil that spoke to me the most was ‘Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun was up they were scorched. Jesus explained that these hearts receive the Word with joy; yet they have no root in themselves but endure only for a while and because they had no root in themselves, they withered away. This speaks of our human heart needing more resilience or staying power when life gets difficult and our faith gets tested at the root level of who we are.
It speaks to us about not understanding that root level of ourselves that makes us feel anxious about enduring through our feelings of loss or disappointment or difficult life situations and thinking ‘can I really trust God to be with me and for me in this situation?’ The Greek word for ‘endure’ here is eimi which means ‘I am’, and we often don’t understand the depth of our ‘I am’ with God. But God digs into the stony soil of our hearts and enriches it to let us know that his ‘I am’ can cross the seemingly impassable barrier between the human spirit and the Divine Spirit allowing us to be found within the ‘I am’ of Jesus. 

I would like to explain that seemingly impassable barrier between the Divine Spirit and the human spirit. the Bible says ‘For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16). The faith and grace that Jesus brings into our world crosses the Divine Spirit to human spirit barrier and allows the Divine nature to supersede and achieve what our human nature is unable to achieve. The material world and the Divine Spirit world are two distinct worlds and two distinct realities. God lives in the Spiritual world of the unseen as an uncreated being and we live in the world of the seen, as created beings. We can comfortably occupy this magnificently created world and see it and hear it and measure it and use it and appreciate it, but we need different eyes and ears to see and hear the unseen world.

God had to cross from the unseen world of the Spirit into the world of created humanity and find a way to get humanity into the world of the uncreated unseen world of the Spirit. The Bible says ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.’  Jesus entered into humanity with his Divinity, and we enter into his Divinity with our humanity. This is a two-way transaction. This was God’s plan to make us partakers of his Divine nature and to create what the Bible calls the ‘New Creation’. 

The Bible tells us what this supernatural two-way transaction is and how it takes place. It is called ‘Reconciliation’, and Paul is the only one who explains what that means and how the supernatural miracle work of reconciliation acts upon humanity through Jesus.
The word Reconciliation in the Bible here is katalasso – meaning ‘to change mutually’ (Strong’s Concordance). The word for reconciliation used here is different to the more common Bible usage of the word reconciliation (dialasso) about forgiving someone who has offended us. 

Katalasso means that two things act upon one another to become one new thing. The supernatural miracle of God’s act of reconciliation for us is that he caused both himself and us to experience a change of Being to become a New Creation Being through Jesus. This miraculous mutual exchange is catalysed or enabled by the faith and the grace of Jesus that he brings into the equation. The Bible says we were saved by grace through faith and that was not of ourselves, it was the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). And that is what it means for us to have our new spiritual being in Christ.

2Cor 5.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, all things have become new. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself… 
God became one of us – forever – both now as the risen Christ in Heaven, and in making us one with him within our hearts to become ‘partakers of his divine nature. We are in him, and he is in us - We are reconciled. It can be illustrated as an equation.

DIVINITY + HUMANITY + CATALYST (faith and grace of Jesus) = NEW CREATION.

Paul teaches about reconciliation but Jesus did not need to teach a parable of Reconciliation because the whole Bible is that parable - the story of the plan of God from before creation to send Jesus into the world to finally bring humanity through that impassable Divine barrier by the grace and faith of his Son. 
But there is a modern-day parable about the crossing of another impassable barrier that wasn’t available in the time of Jesus. It is found in Medical Science, and it is called the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB). This impassable barrier protects the brain from substances in the bloodstream that are harmful to brain activity, selectively allowing only certain substances to pass through into the brain. But that barrier also makes it difficult for the delivery of a very effective hormonal substance into the brain which helps to restore and enhance neuronal brain function in Parkinsonism. It’s called dopamine - a large complex protein molecule.
To overcome this, a substance was synthesised called Levodopa which is able to pass through the blood brain barrier where it is catalysed by an enzyme in the brain that converts levodopa into dopamine – which then acts upon the nervous system allowing more bodily movement and positive motivation and enhancing heart function and peripheral blood flow. 

When Jesus crossed the Divine/human barrier, through his faith and grace, the Bible said ‘All this is from God’. That supernatural work allows the Divine nature within us to supersede and achieve in us what we are not able to achieve in our own strength. Jesus brings Divinity through that human barrier so that he becomes the being and doing within us, and we can understand who we are and what we can do. That barrier is called the ‘veil’ in the Bible (Hebrews 10:x19) and on our side we need the faith and understanding of God’s miraculous work of reconciliation – the mutual exchange of our humanity with his Divinity. (Roman 5:10).

We play a role in this New Creation spiritual journey by cultivating a surrendered faith, believing that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1). This involves "labouring" to enter into the rest of faith (Hebrews 4:11), which means ceasing from our own efforts and enduring the limitations of our humanity with patience. While we might often rely on our own strength to try and feel worthy of achieving this fulness of God, the gifts of faith and grace we have in Jesus says NO to this approach. Instead, we must practice holding together at the one time the reality of our world of human *struggles and the reality of our world of New Creation faith – it takes practice – and neither of these worlds can be denied or avoided. 
The Holy Spirit can then enable us to choose the world of the faith and grace of Jesus’ at work in us to overcome the world of human struggles. *Struggles include tedious tasks and personal suffering of pain and sickness and loss and - burdens of prayer – Burden = spiritual struggle – Matt 11.28. This holding together and overcoming disposition means living in an unceasing state of hope for what God will show us what he is doing in our lives.

The Bible says that Faith is the evidence of things NOT seen (Hebrews 11:1), and what is not seen is the supernatural work of God on our behalf in the world of the unseen. The more we learn to endure the afflictive nature of this world upon our damaged souls the more we can enter into the rest of the faith of Jesus in his real world of the unseen (and that takes more practice). It is here where we can say ‘I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me’ because we are doing his things and yet in an awesome kind of way, they have become our things. We thank you Lord that we can cross that human Divine barrier because we have been invited to live life together with you in the true reality of your healing and saving world of faith no matter how the other reality of the material world tries to disrupt our peace and oneness with you – in Jesus’ name - Amen.

 

GOSPEL PARABLES 5 THE SOWER AND THE SEED

GOSPEL PARABLES 5 THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER 

We have come again to the place where the three Gospels all write about the same parable and it is about Jesus teaching the parable of the Sower. (Matthew 13:3 Mark 4:1–9 Luke 8:4).
Matthew 13:2 Great multitudes had gathered to Jesus, so that He got into a boat and sat down and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Jesus then explains that last statement about having ears to hear which is found many times in many books in the Bible. He does this because the disciples interrupt him to ask him why he has to speak to the people in parables. He then says ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Jesus then speaks that challenging riddle - For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. (will look at that in a minute)

God has blessed them even more than the prophets of the past and had given them the grace to understand the hidden or deeper meaning of what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God because of the yielded state of their hearts. Jesus then explains that challenging riddle – It is that that their attitude of submission brings even more grace for them to receive even more understanding. That is entering into the ‘more for more’ equation of grace - as the Bible says ‘For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16). The grace that Jesus brings into the world crosses the Divine Spirit to human spirit barrier and allows the Divine nature to supersede what our human nature is able to understand and to do. But to the others who do not have hearts of submission to God, they will have their understanding taken from them because of the resistance in their hearts that stops them from ‘hearing’. 
Jesus then goes back to what Isaiah prophesied in the past about Israel not hearing, to explain what is happening with those who were not hearing Jesus then and that includes us now. 
‘And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled - hearing you will hear and not understand and seeing you will see and not perceive, for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and they would understand…
Isaiah then asks God ‘Until how long Lord? – until the cities are laid waste and the land is made desolate.’ In other words – until there is disorder and disarray everywhere - the world coming undone. 

Those who do not ‘hear’ God end up with wrong perceptions, wrong logic, wrong reasoning, wrong conclusions, and wrong ideologies and belief systems - as is happening today. This lack of hearing accumulates and it is currently accumulating, and only harsh reality can put a dent in that kind of delusion. Driving on that highway results in nasty bumps and dents, and there are many people on that highway today and there are more bumps and dents to come.

The word in the Greek that Jesus uses for ‘hearing’ is akouo which in its simplest sense is to physically hear something that is said and to pay attention to it. A further intended sense of ‘to hear’ in the words of Jesus here is to understand what is said. But the ultimate intended sense in what Jesus is saying is for something to happen in our hearts when we do understand, and to turn towards God and to do what he says. It is interesting to note that the word for ‘obey’ in the Greek is hypakouo, and hypo means ‘under’ which explains the meaning of the word ‘to obey’ which means that we ‘hear under’ – or rather that what we hear is over our life like a banner or a flag that says that our heart has chosen to yield to what Jesus says to us.

Jesus then goes on to interpret the parable. He explains the meaning of the four different types of soil as representing four different states of the heart which are heart resistance, heart resilience, heart anxiety or heart submission. The seed sown by the wayside that the birds pluck out of the mind describes the state of a resistant heart that hears the word of the Kingdom and allows the Wicked One to take away any perception of its truth - because of a heart of inattention or indifference. 
The seed of the word might be fine, but the wayside attitude is one of being on one’s own personal self-absorbed journey that wanders wherever its own self-serving ideas want to take it. This would make up probably the bulk of today’s society with little or no interest in understanding God’s Word. But I believe God is finding ways of getting peoples’ attention like never before – the Bible says Where sin abounds grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20)

The seed sown on stony ground, where the root cannot take hold because of a lack of soil for any roots to go down, describes the state of the heart as one of lacking resilience or staying power when life gets difficult, testing our faith in what we have heard. The parable says that he receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. This describes an impulsive or emotional heart that is enthusiastic and fascinated by something that sounds new and helpful but who can’t hang on to the truth of what he has heard deep within himself. 

There is something deep within that he does not understand about himself which is fearful of suffering too much loss or disappointment and so he ‘endures’ for only a while. He thinks within himself ‘can I really trust God to be with me and for me in this situation?’ The Greek word for ‘endures’ here is eimi which means ‘I am’ – that is our sense of identity - so this person does not know the depth of his ‘I am’ with God and can only feel okay about his ‘I am’ with God for a little while. God can redeem this state of the heart by digging around that shallow rocky place and enriching the soil and letting him know that his ‘I am’ by the grace of God which crosses the human/Divine Spirit barrier allows him to be found within the ‘I am’ of Jesus. I believe that God is dealing with all of us graciously in these days in this way.

The seed sown on thorny ground where the thorns choke off the word describes the state of a heart that is distracted and anxious concerning the things of the world. Heart anxiety is not about resilience or resistance or even submission to God. It is just a state of not finding the place of inner stillness that allows us to ‘be still and know that I am God’. There is too much that has to be done and there’s just not enough time to ‘be still’ because something is likely to go wrong when it shouldn’t and that will make me more anxious. So I’ll just have to complain or protest even though that makes me even more anxious but at least I feel I’m doing something and that’s what counts. 
But God can unchoke us. Jesus says Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy (elathro in the Greek), and my burden is light (elathro).”  (Matthew 11:28). both those elathro words mean ‘easy’ which means that he wants to make it easy for us to be joined to him as he walks beside us (yoked to him). Jesus lifts from us the feelings of loss and failure that we bring to him in our burdened souls and we can now find rest for our souls, now yoked with Jesus instead of yoked to our anxiety.

The seed sown on good ground describes the state of a heart which is in submission to God and hears the word and understands it and obeys it (hypakouo- to hear under). We can be that person who ‘hears under’ – so that what we hear is over our life like a banner that says that our heart has chosen to yield to what Jesus says to us – we choose to yield and we produce the yield that God brings forth in us. 
Remember in the parable Jesus said that some would yield a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirtyfold. But yielding only thirtyfold with a submissive and trusting heart does not mean we will miss out on becoming a hundredfold, because we enter into the ‘more for more’ equation of grace which I mentioned before ‘For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16). Crossing the human/Divine Spirit barrier by faith allows the Divine nature to supersede what our human nature is capable of understanding and doing, so that if we yield thirtyfold, we will get grace upon grace to yield sixtyfold, and then even more grace upon grace to yield one hundredfold, and as we read that in the parable - ‘For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance’. You have come that we may have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10.10). 
Let us enter into the abundant life that is on offer from God today. 
Thank you lord we all know the experience of each one of those four states of the heart, either too resistant, or not resilient enough, or too anxious, or getting stuck and not growing, and we all go through those seasons of feeling we are not yielding what we could or how we could. But our faith is in you as you bring us through that human/Divine barrier - so that you are the being and doing within us and we can understand who we are and what we can do - Amen.
 

GOSPEL PARABLES 4 THE FIG TREE

GOSPEL PARABLES 4 THE FIG TREE
The next parable that Jesus taught while he was still in Galilee is recorded in Luke Chapter twelve and it is about a fig tree that had not borne any fruit for three years and the owner of the vineyard had ordered the vinedresser to have it cut down. 

Luke 13:6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilise it. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

This parable tells a different fig tree story to the other parables about fig trees that Jesus taught later in Jerusalem which were all about the signs of the times and his returning to the earth at his second coming (Matthew 24:32; Mark 13:28–31; Luke 21:29–33). However, there are certain similarities in the stories because of the fact that fig trees in the Bible are symbolic of God’s people Israel, and one of the major themes of fig tree narratives is about them bearing fruit, and we will look at those similarities at another time.

This parable tells a story about a healthy fig tree that showed potential but was not bearing fruit. In Bible days people would often grow fig trees in and around vineyards because the soil was good for growing vines and other trees. But the owner was also diligent about the use of the limited space that was available in the enclosed vineyard, and he wanted whatever was there to produce fruit otherwise it was a waste of space. There had been inspections with the vinedresser each year for three years and the owner thought that was enough time to make a final decision on whether it could stay or had to go.

There are some interesting peculiarities to this parable. One thing is that it has no real ending and in fact we have to write our own spiritual ending because in the end this parable is about hope and faith winning over despair, but it doesn’t discount the consequences of presumption or carelessness – like presuming that our fig leaves alone look good enough, and also not caring about anyone being blessed by the fruit that the tree is designed to produce. 

The story says that the tree is getting to the point of having to be cut down, but then it graciously gets given an opportunity to become fruitful and to stay fruitful from that time on because there is someone there who wants to save a tree rather than lose a tree. Another peculiar fact is that the outcome will depend on not just the quality of the tree but on how intent the vinedresser is about giving the best to the tree for the tree to give the best of its fruit, and that would also involve what the vinedresser finds when he does some digging up and how nutritious the fertiliser is.
The tree has all the potential and the soil is good, and the leaves are healthy but it needs input and nurture somewhere deep down under the surface that can’t be seen from above the surface.  

This parable can firstly be applied to the prior three years of ministry of Jesus to Israel and their failure to bear any fruit from all his teaching to them in those three years of the goodness of the Father and of his plan for their salvation and of the blessing of his mighty works of healing and provision as he lived amongst them and went about doing good. And at the end of those three years of the training of his twelve disciples plus the many other disciples most of whom we don’t have names for, there were some around him that wrote a wonderful ending to their ownstory as a fruitful tree. But there were some that sadly became offended or failed in their faith or were afraid of being associated with such a controversial person as Jesus. And there was the tragedy of Judas who took his own life rather than letting his old life die in exchange for the new life that Jesus would have given to him.

Jesus was the ultimate compassionate vinedresser who dug around the tree of Israel both corporately and individually and went deep into the soil of the hearts of each one to find wherever he could, a heart like that of King David who said to God ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart, Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting’. 
Jesus came to his people to bend back the resistance of the nature of Adam in each one of them and to invite them into becoming partakers of his divine nature. He finally died on the cross for them and took their feelings of separation from God and their guilt and forsakenness upon himself, finally saying to his Father ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’. On that day of his death he was rejected by most of Israel, who can now be likened to the tree that Isaiah prophesied about, that was cut down and left as just a stump in the ground, waiting to be revived again in God’s time (Isaiah 6:13).

And of course, Jesus is also talking about all of us as fig trees in a good vineyard and looking to see if we are bearing fruit. And Jesus remains as the compassionate and dedicated vinedresser, and the vinedresser had lots of work to do back then for Israel, and he has lots to do now for all of us. There is a digging up around the tree of each one of us and there is the lifegiving and fertilising nutrient of his love and truth that brings life into each wounded and dying thing that is hidden deep within our roots. Jesus looks to see what kind of damage may have been done to those roots in the soil of our hearts as we first began attaching ourselves to our world around us.

Jesus looks at our roots now to see if they are grounded in his love, as the Apostle Paul says ‘that you, being rooted and grounded in God’s love, may have the strength to comprehend with all those who believe what is the breadth and length and height and depth of that love, knowing the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ (Ephesians 3:17)
The parable said that the tree had to be cut down because it was wasting space, so there are times when the timing for us to accept the vinedresser’s digging and nutrifying activity becomes critical. The space that is being wasted is simply the time we waste in not responding to the gracious compassion and mercy and goodness of our vinedresser, Jesus, and not responding to the plan of our Father God for our fruitful and productive life on earth. The vinedresser’s nutrient lifegiving Word and Spirit transforms in us what is holding us back from growing the kind of fruit that says to starving people ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’. 

Paul encourages us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and to welcome home the new and true self which is created after the likeness of God and aligned with his heart and is devoted to him (Ephesians 4:19). Our faith allows us to see our true self the way God sees us and to live our new life as God created it to be lived. Each part of our vulnerable heart that has been wounded can now be healed, and each false image of our self that has covered us with shame can now be divinely remade in all its dignity. Every lie that we have wrongly believed about ourselves is now able to be corrected and brought into line with God’s idea of who we truly are. And whatever other peoples’ negative ideas have done to us to devalue our true worth are being erased by faith and truth, as the Holy Spirit recomposes our heavenly narrative. Our life was written by God for us in eternity by the Father, as David wrote in Psalm 139:16 ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book.’ Amen… 
So thank you Lord for causing our fig tree to blossom and for doing the digging in our hearts and we know we are not alone in those times but that you are walking around with us in our hearts and holding our hand and bringing new hope and new life and new growth. Amen.

 

GOSPEL PARABLES 3 BUILDING A BIGGER BARN

GOSPEL PARABLES 3 BUILDING BIGGER BARNS 

We have been reading in chronological order the Gospel parables that are common to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and there are also some that are only recorded in two of the three Gospels. And the next small group of parables that come in chronological order that we will do are only found in Luke. Today, we are looking at a parable in Luke 12, where Jesus teaches about a man building a bigger barn for more grain. We begin with Jesus answering a question from somebody in the large crowd. 

Luke 12:16 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 

In disputes like these, an arbitrator appointed by the synagogue would legally apportion property or wealth, and Jesus was not interested in this legal role. His mission was about people’s hearts and not about possessions or positions of power, and coveting was about possessions and power. Jesus taught people to have a good conscience and to be aware of the consequences of being covetous about those things and he now illustrates this by teaching us the nature of covetousness in the parable of the man driven to build a bigger barn.

Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build bigger barns, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry. “But God said to him, ‘You foolish man! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will all those things be which you have stored up for yourself?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself and does not find fulfillment in God.”
Jesus says a few verses later ‘Sell what you have stored up and give graciously to those in need; store up for yourselves the valuable assets which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not waste away, something that no thief can have access to or that could get eaten away by moths. For where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be also.’ (Luke 12 :34)

In this verse Jesus is addressing the issue of people having plenty of goods in store that they could easily sell off and convert into money that could be given to the poor who begged on the street or in front of the temple. This challenges people like the covetous rich man in the parable who accumulated his goods, thinking that what he owned defined who he was in order to feel fulfilled in his life – but he wasn’t growing in the grace and compassion that God wanted to grow in him, to be really fulfilled in his life. 

Coveting comes from a feeling of unfulfillment and a mindset of insufficiency and scarcity. This mindset of never having enough shrinks our soul which now searches for fulfilment with yearnings for things that other people have, or for more than we already have and would ever need to have. 
Those things we want and don’t have become the ‘good’ things we feel we need and the things we are left with become the not good enough things and even the ‘bad’ things. Coveting totally confuses our understanding of good and evil. 

This parable is about understanding the difference between what the true inner treasure is of the good things that God has for our lives and the things we store up for ourselves because of that empty sense of inner unfulfillment and desolation. 
A coveting unfulfillment mindset causes a downward spiritual spiral to shape our future. But God desires to reshape our future by giving us the inner fulfillment of living a life with him.

The human mind and heart became deceived about good and evil from the moment that Satan crafted a lie about God. Satan said to Eve You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of that tree you will be like him, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:4)
Eve was made to think that God was withholding something good from them and Eve let that lie into her mind and heart and was left feeling unfulfilled and not having enough, and so did Adam, and they both believed it and ate the fruit. Darkness had put it into their minds that God would be threatened if they were to become like him and so he had forbidden them to eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. 

The human mind and heart became deceived by the Prince of darkness concerning both the nature of God and the nature of good and evil. We as Mankind had now inherited the covetous mindset of confusion about what was good and what was bad and so from that time on whatever or whoever spoiled the getting of the good thing that we covet is bad, and that would even include God. 

Lucifer, the mighty dark angel was there when God said ‘let us make man in our own image and after our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26). Lucifer was the first being to commit the sin of covetousness because he believed in his heart that he should be like God and not these puny human creatures. He has weaponised his corrupted knowledge of good and evil against humanity and has tempted them ever since with the same sin of covetousness. And that also became his resentful war against God.        

He coveted the place that Jesus had, and that pride made him fall, and Jesus saw him fall. Luke 10:18 ‘I saw Satan fall as lightning’. Satan resented that he was created as a lesser being than God and he resented feeling insufficient and unfulfilled. He had deceived himself about who he should be and about what he wanted for himself and his eyes were opened to his own evil and his pride has kept them open.

Lucifer was also there when God summed up the disastrous beginning for humanity’s journey in life. He now comments on the effect and the cosequences of disobeying him and of heeding the lie of darkness. had observed the effect that their  - Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, it may well be that he will reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22) (paradeisos - an enclosed garden, a place of protection (Luke 24:33). Satan would now cause Mankind to struggle in a world full of human covetousness, outside of the protected paradise of the Garden of Eden - a world that he had damaged with his lying darkness. 

God knew that mankind could not handle their corrupted knowledge of good and evil but he had to cast them from the Garden of Eden or Paradise – because if they disobediently ate from the Tree of Life before humanity was ready for that Tree, then they would live forever trapped in their corrupted covetous confusion about good and evil. And God knew that Jesus, our Tree of Life would come and bring eternal life to humanity at the appointed time and then we would understand the true meaning of fulfilment and know that God is ‘good’. He desires to fulfill the lives of his children with his goodness toward them and not have them live trapped within their own interpretation of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’. 

God becomes to us the source of all blessing and fulfillment in our lives. This allows us to pursue a mindset of inner peace and fulfillment in God within our spirit, which releases us to give out to God and to others graciously from that inner spiritual fulfillment. That movement of faith towards God further expands the inner spiritual life and expresses that fulfillment in our soul as a disposition of contentment where we trust that God will provide enough and we can say ‘I have enough’. God reaches out to us to heal that sense of forsakenness and desolation that turns our souls into an inner wilderness. He wants to awaken us to his promise to prepare a table of his goodness ad provision for us in our wilderness and to bless and fulfill our inner and outer lives and the lives of those around us. Amen

 

GOSPELS 2 PARABLES 2 BUILDING ON ROCK OR SAND

GOSPELS PARABLES 2 BUILDING ON ROCK OR SAND
Matthew 7:24 Luke 6:46

The next parable that Jesus taught was about a man who either builds a house upon a rock or builds his house upon the sand.
Matthew 7:24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

When we look at the final comment in that Scripture, we see that it says that the people recognised that Jesus had authority when he spoke, not like the scribes. The scribes would quote other well-known rabbis, but Jesus never quoted a single rabbi. His authority meant that he knew that what he said was true and what he said is what he lived, which is the basic theme of the parable about building your life on the right foundation, the rock and not the sand.
 
The relevance of this parable is not a stand-alone parable. is that it is spoken in reference to seven prior sayings of Jesus that he has just spoken from Matthew 7:1. Jesus had been sharing sayings (logos) with the people that were foundational. They were sayings that needed to be heard and put into practice, otherwise they would just be idle words that could not be built upon. 

There are seven ‘sayings’ starting from Matthew Chapter 7 and verse 1 that Jesus speaks before teaching that parable about building a house on the right foundation, and they are; Do not judge others. Vs 1. Throwing pearls before swine vs.6. Asking the Father for good things Vs.7. Doing for others what you would have them to do for you Vs.12. Entering through the narrow gate.Vs.13.  Recognizing people by their fruits not their advertising campaigns (false prophets). Vs.15. Saying to Jesus Lord, Lord but not living our life for him as our Lord. Vs.21

Jesus then talks about the forces that come against the house that you build, which is your life. ‘And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. (That Rock is Christ)

The story is about building a house that will stand through the times of natural affliction of wind and storm and floods, and the spiritual application of that is for people’s lives being able to last through the experiential and relational afflictions of life, because the house represents our life being built on a firm foundation – the rock of faith in Jesus and not the sand of human effort. These inner afflictions of life are like high impact forces of nature – they come and go and leave some maintenance work behind and some attendance to any weak spots but life goes on and we end up stronger because of the faithful resilience we are taught at these times. 

But what about the house that is built upon the sand? Sand is made of the same material as rock, and is the result of the breaking down of the cohesive and reliable structure of rock over a long time into the non-cohesive unreliable form of sand. the ground of Galilee where Jesus was teaching had large, basalt rock shelves buried just below the sandy soil surface – just the right place the perfect place for a house to be built. However foolish people who didn’t check below the surface might expediently choose a cosier location near the palm trees closer to the river or in a sheltered valley where there was no rock underneath - and the house would not withstand the floods and wind and storm.

Our society has chosen the sandy soil of its expedient self-serving choices and much of the rock of Judaeo-Christian culture has been discarded or despised over the years, so that much of what has been built cannot stand the social and political and economic storms and raging winds – the house is not standing strong and things need to change and the strong foundations be reestablished. 

But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

We said earlier that there were seven ‘sayings’ (logos – creative foundational design words) starting from Matthew Chapter 7 and verse 1 that Jesus spoke that had to be put into practice to give meaning in his teaching of the parable about building a house on the right foundation. 

The first one was ‘Do not judge others, in verse 1. This speaks about seeing the spot in our brother’s eye and not seeing the big blob in our own eye. Not seeing the big blob in our own eye means that we are blind and cannot see who we really are and yet we think we know exactly what is wrong with someone else. It is a sign of a defensive ego trying to feel better about itself by making someone else look worse. That brings disconnection with other people and there is no real peace or fulfillment in that. Disconnection with others in this way also means disconnection with our real self and disconnection with God - and that robs us of the great gift of God’s mercy and forgiveness to us which brings peace and fulfillment into our lives. God want us to not crush into sand his rock of compassion and mercy that comes from him and is then extended to another imperfect person. His amazing grace wants us to be able to say, ‘Was blind but now I see!’

The second one was ‘Don’t throw your pearls before swine’ (verse 6) and that could sound a bit mean, but it simply means not trying to please or impress someone who despises what you aspire to as a treasured value in your life. It is what you do and not your impressive talk that finally makes the difference to what can be built upon.

The third one was about asking your Heavenly Father for good things (verse 7) - if a son asks his father for bread, will he be given a stone? We can expect that our Father God will give us the best thing for our need and this is the wisest way to learn how to trust in God and to learn the true lessons of his giving us what is really good for us and not what we sometimes think would be best. Not knowing what that good thing is for us has caused many a house to collapse and also many a nation to fall. Our current culture builds on that sandy foundation with its negative bias and confusing social experiments and the wearing away of our principled cultural foundations. But there is an answer for us in these perilous days, and that is to pray for God to expose what is toxic for our nation and to show us what is his good for our nation and then to live within his principled goodness. That will allow the bedrock of a godly foundation to emerge for this nation to build on. 

The fourth one was ‘do for others what you would have them to do for you’ (verse12).
This is more than just being under obligation to return favours. This is about us demonstrating that we are there for some other person, and this creates in them a sense of being valued by us. This grows a desire within their heart to be that person of value in relationship with us and to want to be there for us. Strengthening this kind of bond in relationships grows us in our spiritual stature of being gracious and grateful. It is also a foundation for communities to grow in mutual service and respect and even for a nation to grow in unity and strength under God.

The fifth one was ‘enter through the narrow gate that leads to life’. (verse 13). This was not designed to make life burdensome or oppressive to enter a life of the blessings of God. It is designed to minimise going down all the blind alleys of self-serving interests that cause all the unnecessary regrets and disappointments. Going down blind alleys wastes opportunities for getting God’s guidance and wisdom, yet he faithfully waits to give us the best life that waits for us to choose it. 

The sixth one was ‘recognizing people by their fruits and not their advertising campaigns’ There were many false prophets speaking from their own hearts and minds at that time. The world even penalises people that practice false advertising because it corrodes community trust until people stop believing in promises that are claimed to be true. The internet is an unrestricted playground for anyone to speak their prophesies from who knows what ego agenda or background. The Bible says ‘despise not prophesying but test all things and hold fast to what is good. (1Thessalonians 5:20). Testing all things means examining the track record of false predictions, especially of religious political activists, as well as testing the track record of the character and moral and ethical behaviour of the people doing the promising. There is one foundational rock of truth – Christ alone, Cornerstone.

The seventh one was ‘calling Jesus Lord but not living our life for him as our Lord’. 
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’(verse 21). 
We can assure ourselves that we are known of God when we name Jesus as Lord, and say that we believe he is the God who is also the Man who created the Universe and upholds everything in it by the power of his word. We are also saying we believe that he is the Man who is also God who loved us so much that he laid down his life for us and joined his divine life to our human life. We are also saying that we believe that he will guide us in our life journey and lead us into truth and bless us with all spiritual blessings in our souls. After affirming Jesus as Lord in that way we aspire to do the things that he tells us to do. Saying yes to him in that way is building our house – our life – upon the rock, not upon the sand. 

 

GOSPEL PARABLES 1 SALT AND LIGHT

GOSPEL PARABLES 1 SALT AND LIGHT 
We have mentioned that there was a turning point in the public ministry of Jesus where because of his influence and miracle working power, he had become Public Enemy Number One, posing a threat to the Jewish leadership and also to the Roman Empire. 
Up to this point we have been studying the major events of his ministry which was mostly in Galilee and after his baptism by John, and that period of time is believed to have taken a little over two years, up to when he appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration where he was visited by Moses and Elijah. The next period of a little over one year of his public ministry involves his setting his face to go to Jerusalem to be tried by the Jewish leaders and by Pilate and be sentenced to his death upon the cross.

Jesus taught a little more than forty parables over his entire ministry, with a handful being repeated in another Gospel with a different setting or time frame or emphasis. About half of the parables were taught in the two and a bit years before the time of his appearance on the Mount of Transfiguration. So, in order to keep the sequence of the Gospels narrative as tidy as possible I would like to now start discussing the first twenty or so parables that Jesus taught. He taught these in Galilee before the latter part of his journey from the Transfiguration through to his death and resurrection and ascension into Heaven. It is interesting to note that all the parables of Jesus are only taught in the three Gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke, with John’s Gospel only telling one parable in Chapter Ten of the story of the Good Shepherd and of Jesus saying that he is the door through which we enter the sheepfold.
We have already discussed the first two parables of Jesus in the beginning of this series, which dealt with patching new cloth onto old garments and putting new wine into old wineskins, and the next two parables are the ones concerning our being as salt in the earth and being as a light to the world.

Matthew writes in Chapter Five (also referenced in Mark 9:50; and Luke 14:34,),
‘You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavour, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.’
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, and people do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl but they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house’.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see that light in all you do and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16).
These parables come straight after Jesus had just been teaching the Beatitudes, in the Sermon on the Mount, about the Blessings of the Kingdom of God. In that sermon he was speaking to crowds of underprivileged people, the poor in spirit and those who mourned, and the pure in heart. He had been encouraging them to find within themselves the attitudes of faith and hope that would gain them entrance into the Kingdom of God that he had come to establish in the earth and that would be available after his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
But now here in these parables he is not urging them to find entrance into the Kingdom, he is telling them what the outcome in their lives would be if they did choose to enter that kingdom. They would flavour the earth with the essence of God. Their lives would be a light in a dark place that could not be hidden from sight, which is what those poor people were at the moment - they were out of sight and out of mind. But things would change for them. There is always an opportunity in all of our lives for things to change. We might want to see things change on the outside in the world around us, but Jesus is saying that the change will come first on the inside. 

These words from Jesus are an invitation for people to enter into discipleship and to release the kingdom of God from within them. Many people seriously think that entering the Kingdom of God is about going to Heaven after surviving a difficult journey of life on earth. 
Discipleship is not trying to get out of the earth and into heaven – it is getting Heaven into the earth right where we are, right here and now. The people that he was talking to would never have dreamt such a thing. 

The interesting thing about the effectiveness of salt and light is that they don’t have to make speeches or even say anything at all. Salt doesn’t have to say how tasty it is. And our spiritual salt just has to flavour the spiritual atmosphere with the essence of the nature of God – and people will taste and see that the Lord is good! Light does not have to make a sound; it just allows something to be seen for what it is, and it will speak volumes of unuttered truth.
When you flavour the atmosphere as salt you allow the nature of God that has been formed in your soul to permeate the atmosphere of peoples’ minds and hearts and cause them to absorb that atmosphere and have it bond to their inner spiritual life.

There is an interesting weather modification process that is used to get rain to fall in dry areas for agricultural purposes. It is called ‘salting or seeding the atmosphere’ and it allows particles of moisture to precipitate around certain salt compounds of sodium chloride and potassium and silver iodide that provokes showers of rain to fall upon the earth. The engineering challenge is to find the methods of getting the salts up into just the right atmospheric conditions to form the raindrops, and gravity does the rest, and the earth is blessed.

We can salt the Heavenly Spiritual atmosphere which it is already there waiting for us. By having our hearts prepared in prayer our faith finds that Heavenly atmosphere where we can seed it with the salt and savour of God’s nature and release the rain of the Holy Spirit to fall upon the earth (David’s prayer as incense (Ps141.2). We are at rest and the earth gets blessed and there is the good soil of people’s hearts ready to receive and believe and bring forth life. It would be a shame for the good salt of a person’s soul to not find that heavenly atmosphere and be left lying on the ground and get trodden underfoot by the atmosphere of this world.

Reading on in Matthew 5 we see Jesus using potent metaphors to convey a spiritual message to his followers about their role as his light in the world. 
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. And people do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl but they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see the light in you that is shining through in all you do and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
God says his people are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. This is the city that is calling people home in these days, the wanderers and the weary. The Bible says that Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God - a heavenly City, and this city of God’s people in the earth reflects the heavenly City. It is not a man made bustling busy city, but a God made city of peace and love. In the world people flock to big cities and get lost, but with God’s city people come to that place and are found, and they find themselves and they find God. 
All over the world in the last few years many big cities from the Middle East and into Europe and throughout our Western civilization have become more and more places of violence and unexpected danger, and there exists now a phenomenon of what is called urban warfare with military strategies as never seen before - our cities are no longer a place of settled peace. 
The city of God is his place of peace and refuge, and it can no longer be hidden. It is no longer a quaint fringe institution or a rowdy corporate event agency competing for relevance in the modern world. It is where there are communities of God that are grounded in faith and love.

Jesus goes on to speak about the people in that city, and the light of God that is within them. If light dwells within someone it will shine through on the outside without them having to endorse themselves – light endorses itself. 
In 2 Corinthians Chapter Four Paul writes about Satan, the god of this world who is blinding the minds of those who don’t understand or believe and are unable to see the light of the Message of Jesus. He goes on to say. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the presence (prosopon -presence or  face) of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile vessels of clay containing this treasure. (2Corinthians 4:6-7).
Darkness cannot penetrate anything - it can only hide or shroud truth. Only light can penetrate that darkness that blinds peoples’ minds and if it has shone into a person’s heart it will shine into the surrounding darkness. There are people in that city on the hill that shine a light into the world around them and it is not because they want recognition. Jesus said ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see the light in you that is shining through in all you do and they will give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)
That light leads people out of darkness, and it will guide them forward on a pathway of light. Amen

 

GOSPELS 17 THE TRANSFIGURATION

GOSPELS 17 THE TRANSFIGURATION
The turning point in the public ministry of Jesus where he now becomes Public Enemy Number One was the message of Jesus to the disciples about taking up the cross. He had said he was going to the cross and now that journey begins. He had become an enemy to the Jewish leaders, and many of his followers had turned away from him. His influence over his followers included people even among his close disciples who wanted him to fulfill his mysterious Kingdom statements and become a political power to rule the world - so now he was going to become a threat even to the Roman Empire, not just because of his commanding influence,  but also because of the powerful demonstration of the the undeniable miracles that astonished everybody.

The Bible says in Matthew and Mark and Luke that six days after Jesus had just spoken about us taking up our cross he took his disciples up to the Mount of Transfiguration. The Apostle Peter also describes this event in his second epistle.  (2Peter 1:16–18 Matthew 17:1 Mark 9:1–13; Luke 9:27–36). Reading on now from Matthew,
Matthew 17:1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them, as his face began to  shine like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.
Jesus was meeting with Moses, Israel’s deliverer and Lawgiver, who encouraged Jesus, the one  who had been victorious over sin and temptation and had become the fulfilment of the Law for Israel. Jesus was meeting also with Elijah, the prophet that destroyed the idols of Israel, and overcame all the powers of Baal when he brought fire down from heaven on top of Mt. Carmel. He encouraged Jesus, the one who had overcome all darkness and had become the fulfilment of all the prophesies concerning the eternal destiny of not only Israel but of all Mankind. 

But then Luke adds a significant comment that doesn’t appear in the other Gospels. He says that Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus of His decease (exodus) which He would soon accomplish at Jerusalem, and the Greek word for decease used here does not mean death, the word is exodus. The journey of Jesus, from his cross on the earth and then to the grave and then to the Heavens was his exodus. (Luke 9:30). 
And Just as God accomplished Israel’s exodus from Egypt, being led out of bondage as slaves to Pharaoh and led into the Promised Land of Canaan, Jesus is our exodus out of the bondage of the afflictive confusion and disorder of this world. Our togetherness exodus life with Jesus leads us not only out of bondage to the past but into the promise of ‘all spiritual blessings in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:4). Israel was given the real estate of a Promised Land. We are given a spiritual Promised Land great and precious promises of becoming partakers of the nature of God through faith. We have been taken out - in order to enter in.

Matthew writes that while Moses and Elijah were there together with Jesus, Peter spoke up and said, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Here was another one of Peter’s good ideas that wasn’t a God idea - Peter was thinking ‘It doesn’t get better than this so let’s keep it going!’ and again his good idea was interrupted by God’s idea from heaven. Matthew writes ‘But even as Peter spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. hear him” (Matthew 17 4-8). At this the disciples fell face downward to the ground, terribly frightened. Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said, “don’t be afraid.” And when they looked, only Jesus was with them. 
Perhaps it is fitting that Peter is the only Apostle who writes about this occasion in 2Peter 1:16 and we can see that he came to know how to ‘hear him’. He had learned to hear Jesus above all his own opinions and above all the other legalistic voices and religious opinions and false prophesies that were abounding in his day. He wrote, ‘… We saw his majestic splendour with our own eyes when he received honour and glory from God the Father and the majestic voice of God said to him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. (2Peter 1:16-19) 
Matthew continues the story from the place where Moses and Elijah had gone back into the Heavens, and Jesus and the disciples descended from the mountain. Jesus told the disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen until after his resurrection, and the disciples then asked Jesus why the scribes had said Elijah must come before the Christ Messiah came. This was also prophesied by Malachi in the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament - I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers (Malachi 4:5,6). 

Jesus answered them; “Elijah does come and will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but he had to suffer and was killed. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. They understood then that Jesus meant that John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah and so was not recognised. They were still left with the quandary of Jesus saying that Elijah would still come, and he would restore all things, so they wondered why Elijah had just appeared on the mountain and left again, and when and why was he going to come a second time? They knew Malachi's prophecy about Elijah coming before the Great day of the Lord to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the children to the fathers so when would that happen? They didn’t yet understand about the second coming of Jesus in the Last days and about the need for the ministry of the spirit of Elijah for the healing of family relationships in the earth in the last days before Jesus comes the second time – parents and children and brothers and sisters.

Jesus had just likened the ministry of John the Baptist to the ministry of Elijah, in coming to prepare the way for Jesus. But there was a curious difference between the ministries of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus the first time and of Elijah preparing the way for Jesus to come the second time. When John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah he was arrested and killed and that would also happen to Jesus. But Elijah was never arrested and killed as a prophet in his day –Elijah finally ended up going straight to Heaven in a Chariot, and he had just now made a return visit to Jesus on the top of a mountain. That means that Elijah is still alive, and he has to come back again and restore those things of the healing of families that prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus, as Jesus had just said. That completes the John the Baptist and Elijah picture that Jesus is giving us. 

People are understandably eager to see revival in our day and in our land, and to witness the power and the glory of God in the midst, and it has happened from time to time over the last two thousand years – revivals come and go. It would be a double blessing if the prophetic word spoken through the prophet Malachi of God’s burden about restoring families in the earth could be part of the foundation and the framework for another outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for the  softening of the hearts for God’s family of humanity in the earth. That would be a new kind of revival. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is described by the prophet Hosea as the rain that falls to bring forth the harvest, and the rain comes first as the gentle rain that softens the earth and then comes the latter rain that energises the yield of the crop for harvest.
Hosea 6:3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the former and latter rain to the earth. 

The world at this time is like one big unforgiving family quarrel with bitter hostility from one group being aimed at another group and no holds barred, and the only currency that is being valued is power over others. People prize the power to judge and condemn those who do not agree with them. The true currency of God’s people is God’s love and truth and the mercy that will bring about the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. This can begin among people who know their God. This is God’s work, and it has started with God and it will continue, and by his grace we will hear the voice of his Beloved Son as he speaks from the Father’s heart into this world now. This is something that we do not make happen because it cannot be forced and it will be resisted, but we can be there ready to respond when God shows us that he is doing something in setting up occasions for love and truth and mercy to occur that we could not have arranged, and we then open our hearts to it and see the Holy Spirit at work in our world. 
let's pray that by the grace of God we could be able to say ‘these are the days of Elijah- Amen… It's interesting that when Peter wrote after he'd learned to ‘hear him’ he then said listen to what the prophets said – take earnest heed to what they're saying - he was talking about those ones that were speaking about Jesus being the fulfilment of all prophecy. He's giving us a key there, he was saying there are things hidden there that the prophets have said and they have a day and a time and an hour to be fulfilled. 

They won’t be simply filled as some kind of historic event that's very interesting for people to read about on the news. They will fulfil the eternal purpose of God its all about whattalk about what Jesus is doing. every prophecy written in the Old Testament is something that only Jesus could fulfil some of them have not yet not been fulfilled - in fact it was James that said for the Lord will not come until the restoration of all things when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. We move towards times of refreshing every time we come closer to the Lord - yes James said the heavens will retain him, watching over, until those times of refreshing come. It is a dry earth that we see today. 

Thank you, Lord for your Holy Spirit, falling now. If we can just be on our toes in the spirit as it were, with no sense of urgency but a mindfulness of the importance of what God's heart is for this world - even in sending his Son that none should perish, or be wasted - that’s what that word means - and receive eternal life. Bring people that you have in your heart before you - bring them before the Lord. So thank you Lord - you're doing this work. The gentle rain is happening now, I don't know how – and I think if the heavy rain came we wouldn't be ready, we’d make another denomination of it - and we have 36,000 already and we don't need another mega one with a special kind of brand, with people vying for a place of recognition and influence. We need God to work in our hearts, joining with one another in agreement. These are the days of Elijah!