Category: Band

I think that if Jesus were walking on the earth today, there would be a good chance that he would be accused to be a zealot, or an extremist, or something similar to that description.

Just take a look at the type of behavior that he celebrates:

The rich people in the area to up to the temple to give their offering. They put a couple of coins in the offering. It is, in fact, what is required. Great! That’s good news.

But then there is a widowed woman who walks up and puts in a couple of copper coins. Barely anything, but it is everything to her, and what does Jesus say?

“Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Luke 21:3-4

Wouldn’t it be better if Jesus – who is also the God of the universe! – were to run up and give her back those two coins? Or maybe he should take two coins out of the common purse that he and the disciples are carrying around and replace them for this poor woman?

But that isn’t what he does. Jesus isn’t telling the woman that she must put in these coins, but he is certainly celebrating the fact that she has done so. And he isn’t taking any steps to replace the woman’s money.

In fact, Jesus goes on to say that she has put in everything that she has to live on. She doesn’t have more money to pay the rent. She doesn’t have more money to buy food tonight. What will she do?

We don’t know, but we certainly can see that Jesus has commended the woman and her faith. He has certainly shown that what this woman has done is worth much more in the eyes of God than what the rich people have put in. The rich people have deposited, in terms of monetary value, much more than this woman. In fact, the parallel recounting of this story in Mark 12 says that the rich people put in large amounts. But this woman only put in two copper coins.

Someone figured out that this would essentially amount to, at that time, the equivalent of about 1% of a day’s wage. In short, it was nothing. What she put in really wouldn’t buy anything, and yet it was all that she had, and she gave it all.

And Jesus says that she gave more than all of the others. She gave more than each of the rich people because they gave out of their abundance, but she would give all that she had.

This woman sees God as worth it all. Everything that she has. Everything that she is. God is worth it. Not a little bit. Not just a part. All.

And that is what Jesus is celebrating. Jesus is looking for people who will give it all. To repeat, all. Not a part, but all.

God cares for those who serve him. He himself is our provider. This woman lived that out completely. She gave, I believe, with the assumption that God would provide for her, that God would give her what she needed. Whether she knew Jesus’s teachings about God’s provision or not, she truly lived out what Jesus taught, that we shouldn’t worry about what we will eat or what we will wear because God provides for all of these things. This woman gave all, all that she had to live on.

Jesus routinely quoted scripture back to the people with whom he was speaking. He relied upon it, whether for identifying himself, understanding the nature of God, or in helping even the religious leaders understand that they truly did not understand the ways of God.

One of the instances in which he did this was when Jesus was being confronted by the Saducees in the temple courts. They believed that there is no such thing as the resurrection, so they confronted Jesus with a type of riddle that they wanted him to try to sort out.

But Jesus, being Jesus, skated around them. He helped them to understand how wrong they were by quoting the scripture to them, the scripture that they should understand as the religious leaders, as the teachers of the law. But clearly, they did not.

Jesus quoted from Exodus 3 to them:

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Exodus 3:5-6

Specifically, Jesus was making the point that God is the God of the living, not the God of the dead, and for this reason, he says, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive. The patriarchs are alive, not dead, because they are God’s children as they are the children of the resurrection. They did die, but they are the children of the resurrection, so they will live again and never die.

Obviously, this is great news! In Christ, we can also be God’s children and we also can be children of the resurrection, living and never dying again.

But the point that I see here is that of the reliability of the scripture. Think about what Jesus is doing here. He is quoting the scripture back to the Saducees, relying upon it for what he is explaining to them.

If you believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be, you have to believe in the reliability of the rest of the scripture because he learned from it and quoted from it.

Who did Jesus claim to be? He used God’s name for himself, therefore claiming to be God. He showed himself to be the Messiah, therefore claiming to be the one sent by God that would rescue his people. He claimed to have all authority in heaven and on earth, therefore claiming to be the King over all kings.

So if the one man who also claimed to be God himself, who claimed to be the Messiah, and claimed to be the King of the universe, is actually all of those things, and you believe that he is who he says he is…and he is quoting the scripture to you, then you must believe the same texts that he is quoting. In other words, God is quoting the scriptures to you. Believe what God is saying. Believe that the scripture is truly God’s word.

The Veritas Forum captured a discussion between Tim Keller and Martin Basheer as Keller spoke about this very point. You can see it online here:

If you speak English and grew up in the church, or even having gone to church as a child, I would guess that you probably know this song:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see

And as the Savior passed that way
He looked up in the tree
And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!”
For I’m going to your house today
For I’m going to your house today

That’s a well-known kid’s song, and in truth, it is probably still the main reason that I remember the story of Zacchaeus’s encounter with Jesus.

Jesus was passing through Jericho and found Zacchaeus, this short little guy who was also a tax collector, up in a tree because he was curious about Jesus and wanted to see him as he passed through his town. Jesus, this famous teacher who does all of these miracles that only God can do, calls Zacchaeus down and tells him that he wants to be a guest at his house. Whoa, what an honor! This guy that I have heard about wants to come to my house? Incredible!

So Jesus goes, and he stays there as a guest in Zacchaeus’s house. Here Jesus is, yet again, spending time with the sinners. All of the people knew who Zacchaeus and his friends were and they most certainly comment that Jesus is with the sinners.

But it is this next part that I find incredibly interesting.

Zacchaeus knows who he is. He knows that he is a sinner and has betrayed his own people by working for the Roman government. Beyond that, he knows that, as a tax collector, he has charged more than what he has needed and pocketed the rest, effectively also stealing from his own people for his own gain. And he knows how the people think of him. He knows that he is hated.

And now, with Jesus having come to his house, he wants to make it right. The Lord has come to him and he wants to come to the Lord.

So Zacchaeus repents. He repents quickly, and fully:

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Luke 19:8

His repentance is going to cost him. For him, it isn’t just a matter of saying “I’m sorry” and praying a prayer. No, it is going to cost him. He isn’t going to be the person that he has been. He is going to be the person that God wants him to be.

And that is a true picture of repentance. That is what it looks like. In a moment, his heart was changed and he truly wanted to give his life, his whole life, his entire life to Christ, such that what he has been, he no longer wanted to be. Instead, he would give his possessions and then much more, to completely change his life.

Jesus’s teachings are often taken out of context. They are frequently quoted or misquoted based on the desire to teach something fantastic, frequently so that the teacher can get other people to believe in something that they want the people to believe instead of what Jesus was wanting his hearers to understand.

Here is a good example. Tell me if you have heard this one before:

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

I read that today and wondered why Jesus would have said this. And for that matter, what use would it be to say to a mulberry tree to be uprooted and be planted in the sea? What good would that serve? Yes, it would be fantastic to have a faith so powerful that I could move the mulberry tree with a word. Or, as recounted in other Gospels, to throw a mountain into a sea. Yes, that would be awesome. I want to have a faith like that!

But Jesus isn’t talking about having some sort of personal superpower. He isn’t saying that you can develop the power, as a result of your faith in Christ, to be able to move things around physically with your mind. No, he is using this teaching as a response to his disciples about forgiveness.

Forgiveness is one of those topics that is easily accepted, but hard to practice when it becomes personal. When someone has hurt us, has wronged us, has betrayed us, or even more, we want vengeance. We want them to feel what we have felt. We want them to know the pain that we have known. They need to pay, and they need to pay dearly.

Because we know that we are right. We know that we are justified. We know that the truth is on our side.

But before I get back to the story, I think a reminder is in order at this time. Each of us, every person, has been in rebellion against God. Every person, in our sin, has denied God, who he is, and what he has done. And so, in our sin, we were God’s enemies.

Think about that. You and I were God’s enemies.

If you had to say who God’s enemy is, who would you say? Probably Satan, right? We would see the most evil being that we could imagine in our mind’s eye. We would imagine him as the enemy of God. And you would be right. He is God’s enemy.

Yet the Bible says that we were God’s enemy. And while we were God’s enemies, Jesus came for us, he came to die for us. He did that so that God would be glorified. He did it so that all of the glory for the love and grace and mercy that he displayed to his people would be given back to God. Jesus did not come to save us because we were good enough to be saved. He came to save us specifically because we could not save ourselves, and because he did that, God would be lifted up and glorified before all of creation. Amazing!

But remember, at the time that he did that, you were his enemy.

So now, let’s go back to the story. Jesus is explaining to his disciples that they must forgive. The disciples don’t realize it yet, but Jesus is saying that they must forgive their brothers and sisters – not literally brothers and sisters, but anyone who has wronged them – over and over and over. Jesus says that they should rebuke them, they should call out their brother’s sin, or their sister’s sin. But if that brother or sister asks for forgiveness, they must forgive them.

If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.

Luke 17:3-4

Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.

Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.

Wait, what? The disciples were confused. How is that possible? I have to forgive them even if they keep doing the same thing over and over? Even if they keep hurting me? Even if they keep offending me? Even if they keep insulting me? I still have to forgive them? Shouldn’t they have to pay? Or maybe I can just get away from them? Or maybe I can…

No, Jesus says. Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.

Wow. One time is enough. How could I possibly live like that? How could I possibly have a faith that is solid enough that I could forgive like that? This is what the disciples are thinking, and that is why they say in response, “Increase our faith!”.

Rightly so, they realize that Jesus is teaching them to do something that is other-worldly. From a human perspective, this is not done. From a human perspective, in fact, this is impossible.

And so Jesus explains that, no, in fact it is possible. Not on your own. Not in your own way of thinking. No, instead, only by faith. In fact, a faith as small as a mustard seed can make this happen. He is saying that with the same measure of faith that you could uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea… in the same way that you could do something that would look fantastic, would look amazing, would be an incredible outward display of your faith… in that same way, you can forgive. And, Jesus is saying, you know what guys? Forgiving others in this way would be just as fantastic and just as amazing. It would not only show your faith, but it would show the power of God flowing through you. You do not have the strength and ability to forgive others in the way that I am telling you to forgive them any more than you have the strength or ability to uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea. But by faith, you can do it. Even if you have a faith as small as a mustard seed. That is how it could happen.

If you have ever been hurt, or lied to, or betrayed, you will know what Jesus is talking about here. He knows what he is asking because he has come proactively to offer forgiveness by sacrificing his own life for the sake of the sin of the world. The entire world has been against him. His entire creation has rebelled against him, and yet he is here to offer himself for every person, for all of creation, so that every person in all of time, along with the entirety of the rest of his creation, and worship him and glorify him. Jesus is telling his disciples that they can do it precisely because he is in the middle of offering his same type of forgiveness to us even in the middle of saying what he was explaining to them. What he has done, as his disciples, they must also do.

Imagine what that would look like. Imagine a people who lived with a mustard seed-sized faith. Imagine what could happen within our world. Would it not be as amazing as seeing someone, by faith, uproot a mulberry tree and have it planted in the sea? Of course it would! The world would change. Everything would be turned upside-down. That is what the kingdom of God is like. That is how it works. That type of love and grace and mercy is what Jesus displayed to his entire creation and is exactly what he calls us to give to others as well, forgiving them because of even a mustard seed-sized faith.

The religious leaders sneered as Jesus sat with the tax collectors and the other sinners. He was sitting around with those who had betrayed their own people. He was hanging out with those who were far from God.

To them, to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, it wasn’t a good look. Jesus wasn’t giving a good impression as a religious leader, from their perspective. He welcomed sinners. He ate with them. He seemed to them to actually enjoy hanging out with those people.

So Jesus turned to those religious leaders and told them three separate stories, just to make sure that they got the point:

In the first story, a man has one of his one hundred sheep wander off. He stops what he is doing and goes looking for that one lost sheep.

In the second story, the woman lost one of her ten coins, so she lights a lamp and sweeps her house to find the coin.

And in the third story, even after a son had betrayed his father, brought shame to his family, and squandered half of what the family owned, Jesus says this is what happened in the end:

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

Jesus expresses God’s heart clearly through these stories. He explains how much God desires that all lost people would be found.

All people.

Regardless of what they look like. Regardless of what they smell like. Regardless of what they have done. Regardless of their religious background. Regardless of the language that they speak. God’s heart is that all would be saved.

So we could make the point that Jesus is available. If they wanted to come to Christ, they can do it!

Yet we see that, instead, Jesus went to them. He went and had dinner with the tax collectors and the sinners. And each of his stories shows that someone goes to find or welcome that which was lost. The shepherd went to look for the lost sheep. The woman went to look for the lost coin. And the father, upon seeing his son, ran to him and brought his son back into his home.

And what was more, God rejoices when that which is lost comes to be found. The shepherd and the woman, upon finding the lost sheep and the lost coin, called their friends and neighbors to rejoice, to have a party together.

That is exactly what we see the father do as well. When the lost son returns, he calls everyone together and throws a party. His son had returned! They rejoiced and celebrated together!

We must adopt God’s heart for that which is lost. We must go looking. We must find those who are far from God and help them to know God through Jesus. Only in this way can we truly know the joy that God feels as the people who finally know Christ can truly know God. In this way, we will rejoice and celebrate with the angels in heaven and together with God himself.

I think we frequently just “read over the top” of what Jesus said. What I mean is this: We ignore his words. Or we change them. Or we put our own meaning, or what we think they mean, into his words. We might say:

You know, he doesn’t really mean…

You know, he’s trying to say…

I’ve heard both of these many times before.

But I tend to think that Jesus really meant what he was saying. In fact, I would tend to go so far as to say that he backed up what he was saying with what he did. I’ll explain as I go forward.

On the one hand, Jesus was hated by the religious leaders, by the Pharisees and the Saducees. He routinely spoke against their practice of the law and their religiosity. The religious leaders were very “moral” in the sense that they worked to follow every jot and tittle of what had been written, meanwhile ignoring the spirit of why it had been written.

On the other hand, Jesus was loved by the people. The crowds followed him. Why? Well, maybe at least a part of his appeal was that he spoke against the practice of the religious leaders, a practice that created a heavy weight for the rest of the people. The teachers of the law claimed that the people needed to follow the law in the way that they followed the law, and by not doing so, they were sinning. Of course, this not only disturbed the people but, as Jesus pointed out, even prevented them from coming to God because of their weariness of what the religious leaders required.

But Jesus spoke against all of this. Jesus was clear that all of this striving to try to follow every detail of the law and be a good moral person had nothing to do with knowing God or pleasing God.

Yet at the same time, if you love yourself, if you love who you are, if you love and serve your life, you have also missed it. Jesus explained to both the religious leaders and to the regular, everyday people that one thing was needed:

Him.

In Luke 14, we see a couple of scenes where he explains this with amazing clarity. First, as Jesus was having a meal with several Pharisees and teachers of the law, he teaches them the importance of humility in the kingdom of God and then calls them to prioritize one thing in their life: their relationship with the master.

Jesus knew that the Pharisees and Saducees were so busy building their own position, their own status, their own lives, that they were hardly ever actually in connection with the One whom they said that they were serving, God himself. Instead, the religious leaders would have many other things to do:

Purchasing property.

Working and making money.

Getting married. Connecting and relating to others.

And of course, none of these are bad things. But Jesus is explaining that they are doing these things instead of knowing the master, instead of spending time with him, instead of celebrating at the banquet of the kingdom of God, and so their positions at the banquet will be given to others. To those who have not, up until now, been connected to the master, the doors will be opened and the invitation will be given, and the banquet hall will be full. In the case of the Israelites, the doors were opened to the Gentiles, but this same teaching can be applied to each of us. Regardless of whether we say that we are God’s people or not, regardless of whether we say that we are Christians or not, the only thing that matters is our relationship to God through Christ, through Jesus.

As Jesus leaves the banquet on that particular sabbath, he is followed by a large number of people. The crowds want to be with him. The crowds want to follow him, to be healed by him, to know this curiosity that has come to them.

At that point, you might think that Jesus is having great success in his ministry, but look at what he says:

If you don’t hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, or even your very life, you can’t be his disciple.

Or this: Anyone who doesn’t carry his own cross – meaning, to his own death! – can’t be his disciple.

Jesus tells the people that they need to be like a man who is going to build a tower or a king that is going to go to war. He had better understand the cost before he starts the process. He had better be ready to go all of the way through with it. And to go all of the way through with it, when it comes to following Jesus and being his disciple, means that he is more important than all of the rest.

More important than your family.

More important than anything you have going on.

More important than your very life.

And so Jesus finishes all of this by saying:

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Luke 14:33

Let us not try to simply explain away what Jesus is saying. Instead, let’s listen carefully! Not because we should see this idea of giving up everything to follow him as a great loss, but instead because we see it as an incredible gain. I like to remember back to what Jesus told his disciples when he was explained the kingdom of God as being like an amazing, valuable treasure:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Matthew 13:44

See, the man, when he finds the kingdom, he sells everything that he has with joy! He isn’t upset. He isn’t a type of ascetic who is just living by discipline. No, he gains a great treasure that he gladly gave up everything to receive.

And this is what Jesus is commenting upon to the religious leaders and to the crowds of people. They preferred their own lives instead of preferring him. They liked their money and they depended upon it instead of depending upon him. They wanted every other thing instead of him. And yet he, Jesus, is the king in the kingdom of God! He is the one whom we should prefer because he is the most valuable person, over all and above all.

So let us give up everything, and in our joy sell it all to be able to be his disciple, to have him.

Pretty frequently I hear, or see posted on social media, the idea that this person deserves what they are getting, whether or good or bad. Or that we should treat a person based on what they deserve, whether good or bad. For example, here is a statement I saw yesterday:

Never give anyone more than they deserve.

If we aren’t careful, we can find ourselves carrying around the idea that there are different classes of people based on our behaviors. We will admit, “Yes, we are all sinners.” But at that point, we will determine that this person or that person are worse sinners. They – those other people – deserve the bad that they are getting in their lives, or maybe even more pointedly, we deserve something better, because we are much better.

That is the type of attitude that Jesus addressed as people came to him to tell him about how the Jewish people from Galilee’s blood was mixed with the sacrifices:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Luke 13:1-5

The people that came to Jesus likely came to complain about what the Romans were doing in the hopes that Jesus would lead a revolution against the Roman government. Pilate had committed a great offense and a great sin against the Jews, so now they were hoping that Jesus would raise up an army and throw them off.

But Jesus’s kingdom is bigger than that of Israel. In fact, much bigger. And so Jesus begins to explain that, if the people think that the mixing of blood or the tragedy of the falling tower in Siloam is bad, they haven’t seen anything yet.

No, instead, those are relatively small tragedies, to say the least, in comparison to what is in store for the people if they will not repent. If they will not leave their sinful lives in the past, they will all perish. All of them.

But why? Why would they all perish? Yes, they are all sinners, but doesn’t it seem like those people who experienced these tragedies deserve worse?

No. When compared to a holy God, even “a little sin” is evil. God has no evil within him and cannot be where there is evil, so if the people will not repent, they will perish. They will be judged. All of them. And the punishment for being guilty of the judgment that they will be under will be that they will perish.

Jesus is trying to help the people see that there is a reality that is much greater, much more real, and much more important than anything that they can even begin to imagine here on earth. The people are rightly indignant about what has happened with those who were killed and had their blood mixed with the blood of the sacrifices. That was wrong and a great offense against the Jewish people, no doubt.

But it is also true that the tragedies that we see today, in our physical time, have nothing to do with whether you are a good person or a bad person. We are all sinners, and in fact we all deserve to perish! But this is precisely the reason that we can say that we are saved. Because of Jesus! Not because of us, but because of him.

Jesus is trying to help these people that are reporting the tragedies to understand this reality. They each deserve to perish. But if they will repent, if they will believe in him, if they will go forward understanding the eternal reality in which they are living, then they will be able to truly live as Jesus is calling them to live. Not as ones destined to perish, but as those alive and serving him within his kingdom.

There was quite a lot going on in Herod the tetrarch’s world. As the son of Herod the Great, he had inherited a part of his father’s kingdom and now ruled over the regions of Galilee and Perea, exactly the areas where Jesus and John the Baptist, respectively, had been doing their work.

Herod the tetrach was also known as Herod Antipas.

John had gone to do his work, baptizing people “beyond” the Jordan River, which landed him directly in the region of Perea, within Antipas’s governance, which ultimately had placed Herod within John’s crosshairs. John’s work, his ministry, was to call the people to repentance, and of course Herod Antipas had sent away his wife Phasa’el in favor of his half-brother’s wife Herodias, wrecking both his brother’s marriage as that of his own and even going to war King Aretas because of his disloyalty to his wife.

Then, here comes John. John the Baptist now is a type of celebrity in Antipas’s world and he starts criticizing Antipas for his divorce and remarriage to Herodias, calling him out as being illegitimately married and for having sinned in doing this. Antipas throws John in prison as a result of his criticism, thinking that the problem was now solved. Yet, now what happens? Now there is suddenly a movement of people talking about a new kingdom that is about to spring up. And it is happening right under his nose!

Jesus had, of course, also been calling people to repentance, so it might have been easy to confuse John’s work with that of Jesus. Except now, it is ramping up even more. Jesus is healing people, performing miracles as he speaks about the kingdom of God so as to confirm what he is saying. A new kingdom, the kingdom of God, is coming, and now it isn’t just a localized discussion near the Jordan river or up in Galilee, but the discussion is everywhere!

Jesus’s disciples had been following him, but now Jesus sent them out to go and proclaim the kingdom of God. He sent them to heal the sick and to drive out demons. The disciples went from village to village to tell everyone about the kingdom and to heal people. And now, word was getting back to Herod Antipas:

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.

Luke 9:7-9

Antipas couldn’t figure it out. I thought I already dealt with this problem, he seems to have thought. Didn’t I already throw John into prison and cut off his head? Why do I keep hearing about this same problem?

Little did he know, it wasn’t John, but someone even greater than John had arrived, and the word was going out.

In the time of the pandemic, and even today, looking back on that time, one of the complaints that I have heard from pastors is with regard to the restrictions that were placed upon the church by governments around the world. The government said that the churches couldn’t meet and this became a problem. At the time, several of the churches complained that they were dying as a result of the restrictions.

There are several things that could be discussed related to this concern, but certainly one lesson that we could learn is that we should consider decentralizing the church. We should prepare our people to carry on the work of the church where they are such that, if the government were to come to shut down the church, the people should be able to carry on the work of Christ where they are. People within the church should continue to grow in their relationship with Christ because they are equipped to be able to do so. Disciples should be made because the people in the church are equipped to make disciples. Churches should be started anew because, even though the government has closed the centralized church, the Church, the individual people within each of the local churches, continue to operate within the kingdom of God.

This is how the church continues to work and grow where there is persecution. As we look to China or to Iran, or in any of the countries where the church is growing in the midst of persecution, it is because the people have been equipped. It is because disciples have been made who have carried the Gospel to others. Not from a centralized work in one or more larger churches, but the strengthening of the disciples to go and be the Church, carrying the message of the kingdom of God with them, making disciples and gathering new believers wherever they go.

This is what got Antipas’s attention. Suddenly, even after he thought that he had dealt with the situation with John by killing off this person who was critizing his actions, Jesus unleashes the disciples. Now, instead of there being one person proclaiming the kingdom of God, there are 12. And the message and the miracles are everywhere! It has become decentralized. The message and the works of God are traveling everywhere.

Herod Antipas can’t keep up. He is receiving a report from one area, and then he receives a report from another area. And another. And another. Who is this, he asks?

What Jesus did with his disciples is what we must also do today. We must make disciples here in our day, in our time, so that the message will be heard everywhere. We aren’t looking for a fight with the government. We aren’t looking to disobey, but we are looking to serve the one true king, Christ himself, and have his message taken everywhere. And there is only one way to do that: To send out the disciples who will proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom such that people will ask the same question that Antipas asked: Who is this?

For the last nine years, we have lived upon nothing more than donations of people, both individuals and churches, who have supported our family to do the work that God has called us to do. Generally speaking, I have found that we do not like to talk much in the church about money and its use, but I will say that I believe that it is one of the most important topics that we should be discussing.

Why?

Because from my experience, there have been few things that have stretched me and grown my own faith than to have to live based on the donations that others have given so that we can live and do the work that we are doing.

For nearly 20 years, I worked in a corporate job, working my way through various jobs and roles, earning a salary and various bonuses as a result of my work performance. I knew and acknowledged God’s provision, but if I am being honest, I rarely thought of it. I was the one earning the money and the one upon whom my livelihood depended. I was providing for myself and for my family.

But when we sensed a call to change careers and move to Sicily to work here, to make disciples and plant churches amongst the unreached, amongst those who have not known Christ, everything changed. No one came to me asking if they could give me money. No one suggested that they had a bunch of money, and if I just was willing to move to Sicily to plant churches, then they would give it to me. No, it doesn’t work like that.

Instead, it is a discussion related to the vision that God has given to you. God had put his heart for the unreached within us, a heart to see those who have not heard the name of Jesus truly know him, and we needed to communicate that heart, that vision, to others who would listen, who would partner with us and send us. Yes, that meant prayer. We needed people to pray for us. But that also meant that we practically needed to be supported to be able to go and do the work. Money must be involved, or nothing of this vision that God had laid upon our hearts would become a reality.

I was reminded of this as I read the first few verses of Luke 8 today. Jesus was traveling from town to town and doing his work full time. How did he do it? How did he live, and for that matter, how did his disciples live and eat while they did the work? Both Jesus and the disciples were supported by those who shared the vision of what God was doing through his Son to reestablish his kingdom:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Luke 8:1-3

The women were helping to support Jesus and all of the other disciples out of their own means! They had received from God and wanted to give to him. They wanted to provide, not only for Jesus, but also for the disciples and the others that were traveling with Jesus.

Without these funds, Jesus and the disciples would not have been able to go. He would not have been able to teach. He would not have been able to heal all of the people, demonstrating that he is the Messiah. It is a result of these funds, this support, that Jesus and his disciples were able to live and thus do the work that we read about today.

God puts vision on the hearts of the people who will go, but he also puts a vision on the hearts of the people who will send, who will support, who will make sure that those who go can live and continue to do the work that they have been called to do.

I am very thankful to the people who have listened to God’s prompting to support us. It has increased my own faith in ways that I could have never imagined as I worked in my corporate role previously. But I am reminded that this is a calling from God, not only for us, but also for each of those who support us. It is HIS work, not ours. Not those who support us, but God’s work, and he uses each of us to complete the role that he has for us.

Now, may we do even more. We must pray for more workers to enter into the harvest fields. We must teach more people to listen to the Lord’s prompting, to his calling, and to be ready and willing to give to the work of the kingdom of God, to see his work go forward, to see his kingdom continue to expand.

The centurion didn’t even show up. He didn’t even come himself. He sent some of the Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to heal one of his servants. And then the centurion subsequently sent two more servants to say that he shouldn’t come.

If I were Jesus, frankly, I might have been a little annoyed. First, he sends someone else to ask me to come, and I do. Then I come and get close to his home and he says don’t come. What’s the deal?

The Jews in that area liked this centurion, certainly an uncommon scenario. Generally, the Romans hated the Jews and the Jews hated the Romans. It was a pretty mutual feeling between them!

But here, when the Jewish elders from that area come to Jesus, they say that this centurion “deserves” for Jesus to come. The centurion had built their synagogue and was a friend to the Jewish people. That qualified him for Jesus to do a miracle for the centurion they said. He has done good things for us, so could you help him out? Could you do just this one little tiny miracle for him?

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Luke 7:1-10

Hmm… I’m not sure whether or not Jesus bought this “he deserves it” argument, but he did go.

But as they approached the centurion’s house, the two other servants come with the message that Jesus doesn’t actually have to come. He can just say the word. The centurion understands that Jesus has the authority to speak and it will be done.

Now Jesus is truly astonished. Although I can be convinced otherwise, maybe now Jesus believes that the centurion “deserves it”. Why? Because the centurion had done good things for the Jewish people? No, in fact, Jesus says that this centurion has done much more than the Jewish people had done. He wasn’t even a Jew and the centurion actually had faith in who Jesus is. Jesus had never even found anyone in all of Israel who had the faith that this man had.

Why would Jesus say that?

Jesus said that this man had more faith than anyone in all of Israel because he had truly recognized who Jesus was. Yes, the centurion knew that Jesus could heal his servant. The Jewish elders also believed this, but they didn’t believe that Jesus could just say the word. They saw Jesus as a mere prophet. They saw him as one who one need to show up, on site, and talk to God about the centurion’s servant.

Yet the centurion saw the situation differently. He knew that Jesus could merely say the word and his servant would be healed. He saw Jesus is a completely different light. Only God would be able to do what the centurion knew that Jesus could do. Only God would be able to simply say the word and it would be done. Only God would be able to command spiritual forces in the way that the centurion believed Jesus could do.

And so it was for this reason that Jesus stops and commends the centurion’s faith. Wow! Jesus hadn’t heard of this kind of faith in all of Israel! This man believes! This man actually realizes that I am who I have been showing myself to be: God who has come in the flesh.

So Jesus cures the centurion’s servant. Right then and there. In fact, we don’t even see that Jesus says anything more other than commending the centurion’s faith. He thinks it and it is done. No magic words. No on-the-spot rituals. A thought and it is done.

It is interesting that this Roman centurion came to the conclusion of who Jesus truly was on his own. Today, we frequently hear people repeat what others have told them. The Muslims repeat what they heard in their mosque. The Catholics repeat what they have been told from their catechism.

This Roman centurion didn’t have anyone else to tell him what he should think. He came to the conclusion on his own. He figured it out by simply observing Jesus, by simply listening to him and seeing the works that he was doing, and he learned that God was walking around on the earth in the form of a man. He knew that the things that Jesus was doing were things that only God could do.

And what about each of us? This is the most important question: Who is Jesus? We must not only explore this question, but we must dig into it deeply. And we must look to see Jesus for who he shows himself to be. He is God, who has come as Immanuel, God with us, here on the earth. That is who he has shown himself to be, that is who he claimed to be, and he is the one around whom we must orient our lives, because he truly deserves it.