Looking for Jesus according to Luke

[JLG]

20) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 11: Jesus tells to keep asking to receive and to keep on seeking to find and to keep on knocking to be opened!


- Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking!


- Jesus’ message is alive, it’s not a tomb!


- And to keep it alive, we need to ask and seek and knock!


- We need to do our job!


- We must speak about God and Jesus and what they will bring in the near future!


- But to do that we need to keep studying the Bible and searching and explaining and teaching!


- We can’t let others do the job!


- We must take a share!


- Otherwise why God should remember us!


- Remember the workers are few and are required!


- And active ones, not lazy ones!


- There is no excuse!

 

[JLG]

21) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 11: One of those versed in the Law tells Jesus that he is insulting them!


- And Jesus answers him telling woe to them because they put hard loads on men but they don’t touch them with their fingers!


- Man, do you see the balance: on the one side A MOUNTAIN and on the other side A PEA!


- How is it possible not to see the difference?


- Is that a habit?


- Like doing something without thinking?


- Is that what we must do when dealing with God’s and Jesus’ affairs?


- Are we ZOMBIES?


- Do God and Jesus need ZOMBIES?


- Is God’s word a LIVING SPRING or a DEAD ONE?

 

[JLG]

22) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 11: Jesus tells them woe to them because they took away the key of knowledge!


- They didn’t go in and they hinder those who go in!


- It is as if the religious leaders let the door of knowledge closed or they shut it!


- In both cases it is a personal choice!


- They do it on purpose!


- They mislead people!


- By doing this, they oppose God!


- That’s why we can’t let people think for ourselves!


- It is too easy to let others do everything!


- We need to do our parts!


- We need to study the Bible daily and check everything!

 

[JLG]

23) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 11: So when he goes out from there, the scribes and the Pharisees begin to put extreme pressure on him, asking him with many more questions and trying to catch him in something he might say!


- They are not looking for God’s word!


- They just want to protect their own interests!


- And their interests go against God’s ones!


- It has always been so and it is not going to change!


- As a consequence they work against the people who follow them!


- And they bring them into the pit!


- And they mislead them!


- And they are ready to do anything for that!

 

[JLG]

24) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 12: Jesus tells his disciples to be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees, that is hypocrisy!

- Everything will be revealed and whatever someone says in the darkness will be heard in the light or whisper in private rooms will be preached from the housetops!


- Hypocrisy is well developed among religious leaders, politicians and business leaders!

- It is a game!


- It was revealed through history sooner or later!


- Everything has always been made for a minority to control the majority!


- So much corruption!


- Everything for money and power!


- But that’s human history, why should it change?


- It won’t in this human society!


- Only through God’s intervention to cleanse the old world!

 

[JLG]

25) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 12: He tells them to keep away from greed!


- And he gives the example of a rich man!


- His land produces a lot!


- Thus he decides to build bigger storehouses to store all his goods!


- He thinks he can enjoy life because he has many things!


- But then he is going to die the same night!


- Thus Jesus speaks about the man who is rich for himself but not toward God!


- It is so true !


- We are nothing and anything can happen at any time !


- So we should use a bit more of our brains !

 

[JLG]

26) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 12: Jesus tells his disciples to be dressed and ready and have their lamp burning and waiting for their master to return from the marriage!


- Thus they will open to him when he comes!


- And he will minister to them!


- The thief comes when the householder doesn’t know!


- So we must be ready because we don’t know when he comes!


- Will you be ready when Jesus comes back?


- Do the religious leaders prepare you to be ready?


- Remember what happens to Jerusalem!


- It should serve as a warning!


- The religious leaders brought many people with them to death or slavery!


- And not only once!

 

[JLG]

27) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 12: Jesus tells he has come on the earth to bring division instead of peace!


- Division in the families!

- Yes, Jesus didn’t come to bring peace on the earth !


- We must understand that !


- We must understand that each one of us must be ready to save oneself first !


- Then whoever we can if they want to be helped !


- Of course, everybody's free to do like Adam !


- But we know what happened next !

 

[JLG]

28) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 13:


- The Jews are selfish!


- The Jews have no hearts!


- The others don’t exist for them except when it means to control them and get power!


- The Jews are Hypocrites!


- The Jews are conservative!


- They are not flexible except for their own interests!


- LIGHT VS DARKNESS!


- GOODNESS VB BADNESS!


- Both are incompatible!


- The choice should be easy to make!

 

[JLG]

29) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 14: On another occasion he goes to eat a meal in the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath, and they are closely watching him.

- He never refuses to confront religious leaders!

- He even goes to eat with them at their houses!

- There are always many against him!

- « They are closely watching him »

- They are always watching him to find something wrong against him!

- It is always in a negative way!

- They belong to two different opposite worlds!

- He is looking for God’s interests and for people’s interests!

- They are looking for their own interests!

- No comparison possible!

- They are always fighting God as the devil does!

 

[JLG]

30) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 14: Jesus asks those versed in the Law and the Pharisees if it is lawful to cure on the Sabbath!


- But they keep silent!


- So Jesus heals the man!


- And he says woe to them because if their son or bull falls into a well they will immediately save him!


- It is interesting to analyze Jesus attitude towards the religious leaders:


- First he asks them a question!


- As they don’t answer, he cures the man!


- Then he condemns them through another question using an illustration enhancing their personal interests!


- Thus he shows how selfish they are!


- They say one thing but they will do something else if they have to protect their own interests!


- Jesus takes into account people’s interests!


- When he says something it is always to teach people!


- It is always useful for us!


- So once again he shows us the way!


- If we only say empty words, that’s not Jesus’ way!

 

[JLG]

31) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 14: He then told the invited men an illustration when he noticed how they were choosing the most prominent places for themselves. He said to them: “When you are invited by someone to a marriage feast, do not recline in the most prominent place. Perhaps someone more distinguished than you may also have been invited. Then the one who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Let this man have your place.’ Then you will proceed with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the man who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, go on up higher.’ Then you will have honor in front of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”


- It seems to be similar to what Jesus says about the rich people!


- We can say the same for the people who are supposed to be important in this world!


- They think they know better!


- But the reality is that the world is only going down!


- And each time it is going faster and faster!


- And we are always on the same train!

- We can’t escape!


- And scientists have been warning them!


- But they don’t care!


- Or they always start to think about it when it’s too late!


- It has always been the same with the wold empires!


- They went up and down!


- Man never understands!


- And they keep teaching history at school!


- What for?


- Why do you want people to work together to improve the situation when the majority don’t care!


- Animals live in harmony with nature!


- Man only knows how to destroy and can only destroy!


- Man is only looking for his own interests but when he destroys nature he works against his own interests!


- And it is worse with religious leaders and political leaders and business leaders!


- They are only wolves!

 

[JLG]

32) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 14: Next he said also to the man who had invited him: “When you spread a dinner or an evening meal, do not call your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors. Otherwise, they might also invite you in return, and it would become a repayment to you. But when you spread a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and you will be happy, because they have nothing with which to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous ones.”


- When we help people to get to know about God’s word, we don’t expect anything in exchange!

- We follow Jesus’ example!


- We work for God!


- If we die, we will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous ones!


- And the more we tell, the more we get to know!


- And the more we get closer to them!


- And we have the prospect to keep working for them in the new world!

 

[JLG]

33) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 14:


Jesus said to him: “A man was spreading a grand evening meal, and he invited many. He sent his slave out at the hour of the evening meal to say to the invited ones, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field and need to go out and see it; I ask you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I bought five yoke of cattle and am going to examine them; I ask you, have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, and for this reason I cannot come.’ So the slave came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly to the main streets and the alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ In time the slave said, ‘Master, what you ordered has been done, and still there is room.’ So the master said to the slave, ‘Go out to the roads and the lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I say to you, none of those men who were invited will taste my evening meal.’”


- What about today?


- Is it so different?


- People are busy and find excuses?


- I am so and so but I am not practicing!


- What do you think will happen when Jesus comes as a king and a warrior to destroy this society?


- What happened to the Israelites?


- They made a bad end!


- Think about Lot’s wife!


- It is so simple and apparently so complicated!


- Remember the destruction of Jerusalem!


- The false prophets said nothing bad will arrive!


- They were wrong!


- When men follow man’s tradition and not God’s word, sooner or later they pay the price!


- God has always been warning men but they usually don’t care!

 

[JLG]

34) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 14:


- Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.


- Jesus tells us that it is not possible to be one of his disciples and be a tourist!


- We must be able to defend our faith!


- Otherwise it is dead!


- We must prepare ourselves for any bad situation!


- We must be at Jesus’ service!


- But the majority doesn’t do that!


- They think like the Israelites!


- But think about their end!


- Compare with the faithful servants of God!


- Jesus’ message is quite different from the religious leaders’ one!

 

[JLG]

35) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 14:


Whoever does not carry his torture stake and come after me cannot be my disciple. For example, who of you wanting to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the expense to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, he might lay its foundation but not be able to finish it, and all the onlookers would start to ridicule him, saying: ‘This man started to build but was not able to finish.’ Or what king marching out against another king in war does not first sit down and take counsel whether he is able with 10,000 troops to stand up to the one who comes against him with 20,000? If, in fact, he cannot do so, then while that one is yet far away, he sends out a body of ambassadors and sues for peace. In the same way, you may be sure that not one of you who does not say good-bye to all his belongings can be my disciple.


- Remember Lot’s wife!


- Whom do we want to look like?


- It is not possible to have two masters?


- The master of this world is the devil!


- If we look toward this world, we can’t look toward God’s kingdom!


- The majority prefers to enjoy life!


- It’s a personal choice!


- Then there will be no surprise when Jesus says I don’t know you!

 

[JLG]

36) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 14:


- “Salt, to be sure, is fine. But if the salt loses its strength, with what will it be seasoned? It is not suitable for soil or for manure. People throw it away. Let the one who has ears to listen, listen.”


- Jesus taught us about God’s word!


- He didn’t teach us about Man’s tradition!


- Or he warned us against it!


- When we read the Bible, we are told how God’s word was corrupted by the Israelites and the Jews!


- They were rejected by God!


- But they kept going after man’s tradition which was corrupted!


- Jesus, the apostles, Paul told us about such corruption!


- But people don’t really care!


- They keep following man’s tradition!


- The Israelites and the Jews kept following their religious leaders!


- They lost everything!


- Yes, “let the one who has ears listen, listen.”

 

[JLG]

37) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 15:


- Now all the tax collectors and the sinners kept gathering around him to hear him. “And both the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”


- On the one hand, tax collectors and sinners!


- On the other hand, Pharisees and scribes!


- Two different categories of people!


- Some want to be taught by Jesus!


- Others don’t care!


- Find the mistake!


- Those who think they know usually don’t know anything!


- Those who don’t know and look for are on their way to knowledge!


- Knowledge is not a point to reach, it is a continuous process!


- The brain is made for it!

- There is no limit to it except death!


- If you are ready, you can make it grow and grow!

 

[JLG]

38) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 15:


- Jesus tells an illustration about a man having 100 sheep!


- If he loses one, he will leave the 99 to go after the lost one!


- When he finds it he will rejoice!


- When he comes back home he will tell everybody!


- So it is the same in heaven, there will be more joy over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous ones who have no need of repentance!


- For Jesus every person is important!


- Quite different from religious leaders!


- Either God and Jesus want the biggest number of human beings to repent and be saved!


- But there are conditions!


- People must show they want to live under their authority!


- They are gathering people!


- And it is necessary to prepare for that!


- Remember the flood!


- Only Noah and his family escaped!


- There is no mystery!


- There is no maybe!


- There are certitudes!


- If we don’t look for it, we can forget it!


- There will be no surprise!


- When Jesus says I don’t know you, it will mean I don’t know you!


- if he says I know you, it will mean I know you!

 

[JLG]

39) Jesus vs the religious leaders


Luke 15:


- “Or what woman who has ten drachma coins, if she loses one of the drachmas, does not light a lamp and sweep her house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma coin that I had lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy arises among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”


- Light!


- Darkness!


- Lost!


- repentance!


- Joy!


- God has given mankind a lot of time!


- The majority of humanity is unable to understand that!

- He wants people to repent and look for him!


- He sent his son for that!


- But they corrupted his message!


- They corrupted every little part of it!


- They pushed men to kill one another in the name of God!


- Or in the name of their gods!


- Always man’s tradition vs God’s word!


- In fact, the majority of mankind doesn’t really care about God!


- It was the same with the flood!


- It was the same with the Israelites and the Jews!


- They all had a bad end!


- And history is going to reproduce again sooner or later!


- But this time it will be to put an end to this society!