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Luke 18:18-30

eric — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:51 +0000

The Rich and the Kingdom of God

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’^[a]”

²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

²⁸ Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Sermon: Imitating a Jesus Way of Life (Luke 17:1-3)

rob — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:03:50 +0000

Luke 17:1-3 in my own words (interpretation/application)

“Stumbling blocks and snares to people’s faith are a fact of life, but may great misery come to whoever provides such temptations to those seeking to be with Jesus. It would be better for that person to have a 45 pound Olympic weight tied around their neck and thrown into the Bay than for that person to entice a child or young disciple to stumble on their path of knowing and worshiping God. Therefore, take heed and watch out for how your way of living may undermine the faith others have in Christ.”

On Sunday we talked about how stumbling blocks to our faith are often not the obvious sins but the subtle ones that snare and trap our affections away from a Jesus way of life. Sadly, idolatry is still alive and well in America as we have followed in Israel’s footsteps and have our own false gods we give loyalty to in our hearts.

We would look ridiculous if we wore mini idols around our necks today as the one pictured. This idol is the god of wealth. People would sacrifice and pay homage to this god to increase their chances of receiving wealth. Today we do not go around saying that we’re going to roll up our sleeves and pay homage to my god of wealth but rather I hear things like “work hard to get into a top school” or “things are crazy at work right now w/ all the late nights.” We rarely question our cultural disposition towards pursuing success and wealth and yet there can be a cost to such a pursuit. Therefore, on the eve of Facebook’s anticipated IPO tomorrow, I thought the following questions can help us keep a Jesus way of life mindset amidst our culture full of potential stumbling blocks and snares to our faith…

What is your mind/heart’s default “daydreaming” mode right now? Where does your mind/heart turn when you’re looking for comfort or escape? It is to things that draw your affections to Christ or away from Him?
What are their large stumbling blocks to your faith or the subtle snares that undermine your faith?
It’s always interesting to hear people talk about their parent’s faith when they share their testimonies. Most of us have received a “mixed bag” of loyalties and priorities from our parents that can often compete with Kingdom values. If your kids were to describe your faith to their friends when they go away to college, what might they say? It what ways are you encouraging or undermining (aka being a stumbling block to) a Jesus way of life amongst your kids?

Luke 18:9-17

eric — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:49 +0000

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The Little Children and Jesus

¹⁵ People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷ Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Hideyo’s Blog: Officiating & Talking About Jesus

hideyo — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:00:02 +0000

Last weekend, I officiated my second wedding ever. I knew the bride from college.

I had the hardest time writing out the homily for it. The homily’s the part where the officiant gives (hopefully) a short message relating to the couple and their upcoming life in marriage. There were a few contributing factors to my difficulty but the biggest was that the bride’s a Christian but the groom is not.

Homily-wise, I didn’t know what on common ground I could base my homily. On one hand, I could just dispense generic wedding advice. But that wouldn’t be true to who I am as a follower of Jesus Christ who sees Him as the center of all of life. On the other hand, I could base the homily on the Bible. But that would ignore the fact that the groom doesn’t see the Bible as being authoritative in his life. On top of this internal dilemma, I knew that Alinn@ would be up there in the wedding party, just a few feet away from me, rolling her eyes if I went off on platitudes that either had no bearing on real life or I didn’t practice in our own marriage.

This isn’t a novel dilemma for me. Outside of the context of weddings and homilies, when I get the prompting from the Lord to share about my life with Him, I have all these questions. How much do I say? Do I just talk about “God”? Or do I mention Jesus too? Basically, I over-analyze everything and end up saying nothing. Plus, I’m awkward as I say nothing because of all that’s going on in my head.

I’ve found that it’s far better to simply be who I am and who the Lord has created me to be. To speak honestly and plainly about my life with Jesus (when I’m prompted by Him) and not preemptively get weirded out doing that. It’s still strange for me to say Jesus’ name in mixed company most of the time. But the alternative is me being dishonest, stressed-out, and awkward.

P.S. I ended up using the common language of the San Francisco Giants, tying it to the advice to seek the well-being of the other person and briefly showing it as an example of what Jesus did in giving up everything for the sake of His bride, the Church. I probably could’ve talked a little longer about Jesus but I wanted to err on the side of saying less so that people would be interested in hearing more, rather than erring on the side of saying too much and turning off people.

Luke 18:1-8

eric — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:00:47 +0000

Luke 18

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”