Ground Zero ...

Back on 9/11 in New York City; ground zero, was at the base of the now destroyed twin towers.  The most destruction inflicted on that day happened there.  The most deaths occurred there.  The circles of pain would ripple out from there touching and impacting so many other lives.  Even to this day, the effects of trying desperately to save others have brought toxic aftershocks to those who tried to rescue the fallen.  The ripples of pain still circle out from that event.  So we tend to think of that site as ground zero.  And as we shift our minds forward to the upcoming second coming of Jesus Christ where no more events like 9/11 will ever occur again – there is in this world another site that is ground zero for that coming event.  Some might say it is the city of Jerusalem in the state of Israel.  Others might think it will be Rome just over the Vatican.  Still others might say it will be Washington D.C. where so much has been done to keep freedom in the world today.  But those sites are not to be ground zero for the second coming.  There is a far more important site, a site you will care far more about.  Ground zero for the second coming will be directly in your heart, whether that is for salvation and redemption, or whether it is for destruction.

You will note, I did not say ground zero will be in your head or your brain.  What you think may matter, but often what you do, and what you think, are keenly influenced by how you feel about a given matter.  For instance, when you love something, or someone, you tend to focus on it.  The object of your affections matters to you, and your actions, and your thoughts, tend to reflect that.  We humans like to think we are governed completely by logic.  We imagine ourselves to be more like Vulcans from the program Star Trek than would ever be truly possible.  For example, we refrain from speeding while in our cars, because we do not want to get the traffic ticket that comes from disobeying the speeding laws.  That is the biggest deterrent.  Rare is the person who refrains from speeding because of the wisdom of keeping his speed down in order to keep himself and others safer on the road.  Most of us are in too much of a hurry to even think that way.  We have no time for that kind of thinking.  We reason that we are good drivers and can still keep safe even at a higher speed.  Until the red lights come on, and the feeling of dread in our stomachs begins to overwhelm us.  Speeding has little to do with logic, and is more driven by a feeling of impatience than anything else, deterred only by the dread of the consequences.

So it is any wonder that Jesus focuses His discussions about the second coming right back to the ground zero of your particular heart.  All the signs and wonders are meant to affect your heart, and remind it, who is important to love, that love itself is critical to your very salvation.  Even if God the Father were to whisper in your ear the very day and time when the second coming were to occur, would that knowledge impact your head or your heart?  In the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 21, Jesus has just laid out a series of predictions regarding both the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, and of His own second coming, an event the locals have no reference point to understand.  After all, the local believers think that once the Messiah comes, He comes forever, so what need would He have to return, if He is supposed to be there all the time?  But that mistaken belief, you could call it a doctrine, was a misinterpretation of scripture combined with desperate circumstances in living conditions at the time.  And beliefs are all in the head.  Jesus does not bother to correct their thinking, that will come over time.  Instead He zooms in on what is most important about what He is saying, that all of this is meant to impact their hearts, for it is in their hearts where salvation will come to rest, or be rejected.  It is your heart, that is ground zero, for you.

Jesus picks back up speaking in verse 29 saying … “And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; [verse 30] When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. [verse 31] So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”  The people of His day could predict the nearness of summer by examining when the fig tree branches, leaves, and shoots began to grow and become visible.  They could not tell you the exact day.  But they could tell you that summer was close.  Tree science is not supposed to be exact, but nearness was the point.  All the warning Jesus has given above for both key events, for the destruction of Jerusalem, and for His own Return to Earth, are meant to show us the nearness we are to each of these.  They are not meant to be exact science, that is not the point.  Jesus has already said nobody knows the exact day, not even Jesus, only the Father knows that.  But to understand we are near is meant to change our perspective.  It is meant to shift what we find important in our lives, in our hearts, to what is truly important.

He continues in verse 32 saying … “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.”  This needs to be understood in context.  The primary audience for the event to come in the lifetime of this generation was the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem (both His Temple body, and His Temple located there).  The people listening would largely live long enough to see both Temple’s destroyed.  Coincidentally they would also see the body of Jesus rebuilt in three days as He would ascend from the grave as He prophesied as well, though they would not see the rebuilding of their Temple building happen in their lifetimes.  The location would disappear.  But the Lord would not.  The second coming however obviously did not happen in their lifetimes.  It may happen in ours.  As noted earlier all the signs listed to occur before that event have all occurred.  The only thing left, is for Jesus to come back and take us home.  This nearness Jesus describes is again meant to impact the hearts of His listeners.

Jesus continues in verse 33 saying … “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”  Yet another prediction.  Our world will one day pass away, it will be recreated.  But the words of Jesus will not pass away.  They will be recorded in Scripture and compiled into a Bible, that will live on down through the centuries, even to our day and beyond.  It took no small effort on God’s part to insure those words remained accurate, and survived the onslaught against it that Satan would never stop.  Even in our day Satan’s attacks continue, and God’s preservation continues.  Our freedom to read the words of Jesus comes at no small price to our forefathers.  Some laid down their very lives to see us have this word.  Yet we treat it so casually.  But Jesus said His words would endure, and endure they have, as witnessed by the very Gospel we are examining today.

Jesus continues in verse 34 saying … “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. [verse 35] For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.”  And here is where ground zero is fully identified by Jesus Himself.  Take heed, or pay attention, says Jesus, lest at any time “your hearts” be … and then Jesus lists a variety of common conditions that plague the lives of men and women.  It is your heart that Jesus focuses on.  Keep in mind, Jesus is obsessed with saving you.  It is His primary mission, His love for you drives Him to want to save you.  Because Jesus so wants to save you He zooms in on the mechanism for your salvation.  Your salvation will occur in your heart first.  Before you think differently, you will love differently.  Before you let go of selfishness, you will learn to love others first.  Before you will lose the desire to even consider committing a sin, you will learn to love like Jesus loves.  All of that based squarely in ground zero of your heart.  And because the “nearness” of something does not mean it is here now, or perhaps even here tomorrow, it is easy to get distracted by other things.

It is not just pointless entertainment that can perhaps distract you, and mold your heart the wrong way.  Your heart can become chemically addicted by booze, or drugs, to seek escape than to seek Jesus in sobriety.  We look for escape from our problems in the wrong places, not finding escape, only finding further burden.  And those hard workers among us, who do not spend their time on frivolous things, nor do they drink or abuse drugs, look down their heads and ridicule those that have embraced these weaknesses.  Surely hard workers are not at risk.  But Jesus says plainly that they are at risk.  The cares of this life are equally able to distract the sober away from Jesus, as anything the drunkard may face.  Same disease, different cause.  Hard workers come to think, they carry the burdens of the world on their own shoulders.  They think themselves indispensable, either to their families, or to their companies, or both.  They come to think that what they do working, is more important than any other kind of time or love they could be doing.  Until words and memories of feelings of love are all they have left.  And age or burden will one day close the eyes on lives spent in toil, not living they way Jesus intended for us to live, not doing the work He intended us to do.  That work is to love one another.

So what should we do, to escape this fate?  Jesus does not leave us without hope, even though He knows all of us may be afflicted by these common conditions of life.  He continues in verse 36 saying … “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”  Watch.  Keep an eye out for these signs, and for the nearness you may be living in.  And as you keep a watchful eye, stay in prayer literally always.  Pray when you are alone.  Pray as you work.  Pray as you eat.  Pray as you watch TV or listen to music.  Talk to God like He was a friend sitting with you in your car, or listening to the same music, or watching the same TV show, because He is.  He is with you when you spend your time in all of these things.  Keep the channel of communication with Jesus open literally all the time.  When you face a problem, pray about it first.  Pray for your own heart to change on the matter, not just the other guy’s heart, but your own heart.  Pray to find the humility you need to find to put an end to a fight.  Ask no repentance from others, but be repentant on your own.  Forgive generously.  Put aside the pains of the past, and embrace the hope of the future, the potential of now.  Come to see how much ground zero of your salvation is your heart.

It your prayer and your open channel with Jesus that will come to change how you love others.  And in loving others, you will change who you are.  To be worthy to escape all the calamity that is coming, and to stand before the Son of Man, we must become like the Son of Man.  Ground zero for that transformation is the battle zone of your heart.  If you are constantly busy, constantly distracted by work, or knee deep in chemically altered states, how will you ever come to hear the still small voice of God?  Jesus longs to save you.  Open your heart, and find that salvation, and make love the most important priority of your life both now and forever.

 

Skipping Through Time [part two] ...

For Jesus, time does not exist like it does for us.  We see time as a line, moving along it from our starting point to our ending point, each second in between keeps clicking by, one after another until the time of our lives reaches its end.  But for the Creator of time, all of it happens at once.  There is no concept of a beginning because no beginning could ever be identified.  The human start of Jesus at His birth from Mary can be tracked.  But His beginning as the Son of God has no starting point, it just always was.  So if you swing your perspective to look forwards (for us) and examine the future, the same phenomenon is true, there is no end.  Infinite time forwards or backwards, and the ability to see any second of it from a first person perspective all at once, makes Jesus God, and mankind not god.  So when we pose a question to Jesus about the future, to understand His answer we may want to consider a few things.  He sees time differently.  He knows what is important.  He loves us and is ever consumed with saving us.  And as for any preconceived notions we have about what He might say, we should just go ahead and throw our own ideas right into the trash bucket where they belong.

The disciples of Jesus asked Him when the Temple might be destroyed, and what signs they may witness when that event is about to come to pass.  They were looking at a single event just foretold in the previous texts by Jesus in the history of our world.  But that event was not germane to the salvation of any of them.  Men are not saved because a Temple stands or falls.  But pride in our accomplishments, even our spiritual ones, has killed more than a few [see Lucifer].  What they needed was more time, in order to get to know Jesus better.  That time leading to strengthening of trust through our humility, which ultimately results in salvation brought about by God, now “that” was important.  But these folks asked a question because they were sad to think that their precious Temple would one day be so destroyed not even a single stone would last on another.  Jesus would answer from an entirely different perspective.

Luke picks up again in verse 20 saying … “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. [verse 21] Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.”  Jesus warns His followers to flee from advancing Roman armies.  This is NOT a fight they will win, if they stay, they will die.  There is to be no miraculous salvation save for listening to the prophetic warning being offered right here and right now.  Jesus extends His warning beyond just the city of Jerusalem to the entire region.  Get out.  Flee.  Go to other countries and do not fall in with the other Jewish folks who refuse to yield to Roman authority and are about to die for making rebellion.  No seas are to be parted.  No invading armies to wake up dead like in the Old Testament days.  Salvation, is to be found in submission, not rebellion.  Whether it is your earthly life you wish to preserve, or your next one, it is to begin with submission.

That is NOT a message a modern American Christian wants to hear.  To submit ourselves to authorities that make our lives harder is no easy feat.  We are a nation founded on freedoms and the throwing off of authority in which we have little say.  But the very words of Jesus Himself here do not specify a strategy of making rebellion, but rather running and forsaking all, finding a way to live in submission to a pagan authority no less.  Our God does not need us to defend Him at the point of a sword.  But Jesus does not say to submit our belief, only our actions in governmental matters.  This was not a war of rebellion about being forced to worship another god, if and when it ever came to that, it was the very life of the believer that was to be submitted rather than acknowledge anything but the one True God and His only Son Jesus Christ.  But serving in humility can also form an example of love offered, that converts the world from what it is, to what it could be.  No other course does that.  The unconverted rarely listen to hate or rebels bent on their destruction.  But they do listen to simple, humble, love offered without condition, as that example becomes some kind of lure and example they just cannot escape.

Jesus continues in verse 22 saying … “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. [verse 23] But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. [verse 24] And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”  This prophecy is further described here by Jesus.  When it comes it will come swiftly.  It will be harder if it falls in the winter.  Other versions say harder if it falls on Sabbath.  Luke continues it will be harder for nursing mothers in those days.  Those of them running have a hard time.  But those of them who refuse to run will wind up being trapped in Jerusalem under siege so long they will consider, and then eat, those very small children in order to stay alive.  Nothing paints a more horrific picture than a nursing mother willing to eat her very own children to try to stave off hunger that is killing them both.  No manna will fall.  No miracles will be offered.  With rejection comes a price for our choices.  This is one of them.  We will pay it too, if we make the same choice.  This prophecy itself was meant to be a warning to help us make better choices, put off our rebellion, and find salvation in Jesus.

Jerusalem will be effectively destroyed.  Judea will as well.  This will begin the time of the gentiles and it will not end until that time is fulfilled.  Some have argued that the time of the gentiles ended after WW2 when the nation state of Israel was created as a defense against future holocausts.  But that tiny nation has never known peace, ever wonder why?  And this version of Jerusalem that exists today after it has been rebuilt is not the New Jerusalem.  It is merely another temporary version.  The New Jerusalem is being built by Jesus and will descend from heaven to earth at God the Father’s appointed time.  Only then will there be something permanent on planet earth, for it will remain there after the fires of hell are consumed, after death is a memory, and after the earth itself is made new once again.  And Jesus will be that city’s King of Kings forever more.  And the residents of that city will not just be Jewish by bloodline, but will include perhaps a far greater number of those same gentiles that came to know and believe in Jesus Christ.  I would argue until this final situation occurs, the time of vengeance and gentiles will never disappear.  After all, to this day, the most fundamental distinction between the Jewish faith, and the Christian one, is whether or not you believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of the world.  Modern Jews still reject this idea, modern Christians are built upon it.  So while the nation of Israel may still contain a good number of Christian citizens in it, it is still defined by its rejection of Jesus Christ as in any way divine.

And while the disciples did not ask Jesus anything about a second coming, keeping in mind, they had no reference point for such a question, as they believed the Messiah would never leave them.  Jesus skipped the needle down through time and saw the same question would need an answer for those whose only hope became fixated on when He would return again.  Believers like you and me who would be reading the Gospel of Luke centuries later.  We may not want to know exactly when Jesus would return.  But we would still want our faith affirmed by knowing Jesus is indeed coming back.  Offering signs of such an event, would affirm our faith.  It would help the disciples as well, even though when they asked this question, they could not understand how Jesus chose to answer it.  Jesus continues looking through the ages and begins to outline signs that would precede His second coming, the one event more meaningful to believers than any other that would ever occur. 

Jesus picks back up in verse 25 saying … “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;”  Signs in the sun and the moon and the stars.  Thinking about these, every eye on planet earth could see them as the vastness of the sky offers a canvass none could ignore.  Historically all of these could be attributed to the mid 1800’s when various events occurred that focused the minds of believers on each category of these items.  But since that was nearly 200 years ago, modern believers may yet look for them again.  Few of us are content to believe all the signs of a soon coming of Jesus were completed before we were even born.  But perhaps that says more about our impatience than it does about truth.  Next comes distress of nations with perplexity or worry.  There has been 2 great world wars since the 1800’s ended, does there need to be more of these before we come to believe this part of the signage has been fulfilled.  The sea and waves roaring.  Tsunami’s we can track all over the world today due to far greater action in tectonic plates than we know about in generations past.  A mountain of trash so great in the ocean it resembles the size of a continent just floating out there polluting and leaving destruction in its wake.  It would be hard to argue that any of these signs still remain, even though it is possible.

Jesus continues in verse 26 saying … “Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”  Men’s hearts failing them for fear as they consider what is coming on the earth as the powers of heaven are shaken.  Global climate change anyone? Anyone?  The level of destruction we have experienced so far is a small fraction of what will come if we do not change fast enough.  And most scientists say we have already passed the tipping point.  Rich and poor alike are destined to suffer a similar fate.  Entire regions we have lived in before may fast become completely uninhabitable.  Millions may die either by catastrophe or starvation.  While there is still a glimmer of hope today.  Many believers falsely believe God would never let this kind of worldwide destruction occur.  When here is Jesus right hear stating it in prophecy and we choose to look away.  We are not meant to ignore the plight of our world, or to indulge our every pleasure at the growing cost to our world.  And if we do nothing, be assured the fate of a destroyed Temple in Jerusalem with mothers eating babies from starvation may also be one we too have yet to experience.  For it is our arrogance that kills us the quickest.  And our humble submission that could see us live.

Jesus concludes these events in verse 27 saying … “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”  It is only after all of these things that we will ALL see Jesus, the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.  One could argue all the signs have already occurred, if that is true the only one left is the physical return of Jesus in the clouds to carry us home.  So why do we live as if that is a mere fairy tale, ignoring how we live, ignoring any impact on who we are.  We deny the power of Jesus to change our lives because we have lost faith that He will.  We have tried so long to make ourselves into “good” people we have lost sight of submitting to Jesus to allow Him to change who we are, how we think, and how we love.  The second coming of Jesus represents an end to all struggle on earth.  Those who have been made holy will rejoice in that event.  Those who remain evil, will remain evil still, and have only fear and horror at it.

Jesus offers an epilogue to all of this in verse 28 saying … “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”  Lift up your heads, your redemption draws near.  This verse has become lyrics in some of the music we sing.  But I think we somewhat miss the point.  We are not to be waiting for actual second coming of Jesus to look up.  We were meant to lift our heads as we see the signs of His coming unfold, and as we live in the time just before His great return.  We do not need to wait to find redemption.  It is here for us now.  We are meant to find our redemption now, ahead of the second coming.  We are meant to witness a change in how we live now, how we think, and how we love.  All of these changes in the here and now.  And we the modern Christian church of our day could be experiencing all of this now.  If we simply humble ourselves and submit to Jesus.  Lose the pride we carry in what we have built, or what we think we have accomplished.  Tear all of that down, by submitting it all to Jesus.  And find what He builds within us as all that matters at all.

Jesus sees this interim time we live in as very brief.  For Him that time we live in is “soon” next to His pending return.  Obviously He thinks about time differently than we do.  But for you, any number of unexpected endings to your life, could make your timeline much sooner than you thought.  Yet, none of these warnings were meant to inspire fear in us.  They were meant to take the fear from us, and through submission in Jesus, learn to live like we were really meant to live.  One second of that is worth 10 years of the old way.  And seconds turn into minutes that turns into weeks, months, and even years.  Imagine living like Jesus has in mind for you for years, even here in this world.  Now if you can, skip the needle of time in your mind down through the millenia to come in the city of New Jerusalem that Jesus built.  For there you will be the new creation He intended.  But beyond being physically different, you will be living the way Jesus enables you to live.  So why wait one second longer than needed?  Why not start right here, right now, and from now till then, and then beyond to a time with no end.

 

Skipping Through Time [part one] ...

What if your mind became untethered by time?  What if you could see not only what is happening now in front of you, but what happens tomorrow, in a year, in 100 years.  What if this worked not only forwards but backwards as well.  Imagine the mind of Jesus for just a moment.  Jesus is human, that is, one of us born of Mary.  But Jesus is also God, that is, the only begotten of The Father.  So Jesus knows what is happening now as it happens, but He also knows what happened with Moses, or David, or Abraham because He experienced their lives with them so long ago.  And what is more Jesus can see what happens in the near future, the distant future, and through the eons of time we have yet to experience.  For us humans this is hard to imagine.  We have a distinct perspective anchored by our present lives in this time and in this place.  Time is our tether.  And to imagine time passing or rather existing in a different way is difficult for us to imagine.  Though lately I have begun to understand this idea of time much better through visions I have been experiencing.

But when people refer to Jesus as a prophet, this is a radical understatement.  Prophets typically have a very constricted view of events coming in a future they do not fully understand.  Jesus has the full view of everything, in every time, across every locality.  He does not just see the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem by the Romans coming in just a few decades.  He also sees the destruction of the Vatican in Rome, by the upheaval of His second coming leaving all that art, and all those treasures left with not one stone upon another.  Christians, particularly Catholics, do not enjoy thinking this way.  We treat the Vatican, with all that beauty and art, as if it were meant to stand forever.  But it is not.  It is only a very ornate building destined to be just as destroyed as the very city of Rome itself at the end of all things.  No difference between the Vatican and the local power plant in Rome except perhaps the perceived value of the pieces left in the pile.  The second coming of Jesus will inevitably result in all that destruction, even of Christian sites we cannot imagine that happening to.  But alas destruction is surely coming.  Your heart on the other hand, the heart of a true worshipper of our God, is never meant to be destroyed, only shattered and then rebuilt and made new by Jesus.

When Luke then describes the foretelling of the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, perhaps it would be good for us modern Christians to imagine Jesus was talking about the destruction of our Temples, of all of them, at the end of all things if not before.  Perhaps only then we can equate the feelings of the people back then for their venerable institutions as we might have for our own.  Perhaps only then it would be as hard for us to understand how hard those words were to hear, then and now.  Luke picks up in chapter 21 of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why starting in verse 5 saying … “And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,”  It begins for those folks the same way it begins in your heart, in my heart, with a pride in what we have built to honor God.  Precious stones, precious art, not entirely different.  We think the Vatican so important in terms of art, it could never be destroyed.  All those marble carvings by artists whose like has never been seen since.  That magnificent painting in the Sistine Chapel.  It must surely be meant to endure forever.  But it is not.  It is meant for the junk heap.  It is meant for the trash pile of history, all that work destroyed in an instant, by the one event every Christian should cherish even more.

The people of Jesus’ day were equally proud of their Temple.  It was not as glorious as the one David planned, and Solomon built.  None was ever so glorious.  No statues, but as ornate as ornate could be.  Yet due to the sin in the hearts of the Jewish people of earlier days, who looked away from God and towards the orgies of other false deities, that first Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.  Now in the days of Jesus, a rejection of the Messiah was to lead to once again the destruction of the symbol of the worship of the very coming Messiah that they refused to accept.  The people were proud of the precious gems.  Jesus saw those stones as hard as the current leadership’s hearts.  What the people took pride in, that is the great structure of the Temple, was to be destroyed and cast down.  It was their own hearts the leaders refused to yield.  Do we yield our own hearts any more today?

Luke continues in verse 6 saying … “As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  What we take pride in must needs be destroyed.  Perhaps it is the only way our pride might ever diminish.  For pride is not something we are supposed to cling to, or treasure.  Modern man craves the legacy of notoriety, or at least remembrance.  We hope that what we do will last, even though we will not.  That painting in the Sistine chapel has been preserved through the centuries, its artist remembered well for it.  More recently the sermons of Billy Graham have been remembered as well, those words leading many to the foot of the cross.  Neither men perfect, but both remembered.  But I dare say there was less pride in reciting the grace of God from a pulpit, than there is in creating one of the greatest painted works of all time, even though the subject matter was identical.  But it is neither the elegant words that convict the hearts of men, nor the magnificent visualizations that inspire his heart to the feet of his maker.  It is only the power of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of man that can do that.  Billy Graham was merely a tool.  Michael Angelo was merely a tool.  The tools pass.  The power of conviction does not.  We should take less pride in what we believe we accomplish, and recognize more the real power comes only from God, not anything we have been inspired to do, or believe we accomplish, or build.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?”  Now understand that those hearing this pronunciation of Jesus regarding the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem were not asking when the second coming was bound to happen.  They did not even have a concept of a second coming as yet, because to a man, they all believed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Messiah was meant to last forever.  So for them, this prophecy represented only a small defeat in a Kingdom meant to last forever.  Those from the other ten tribes may even have thought this just retribution upon Jerusalem for its arrogance in thinking worship could only be legitimately celebrated at this one location.  The other ten tribes worshipped on a different mountain in general.  But whether the audience knew it or not, the question they posed to Jesus, asked Jesus to look ahead, and Jesus could see it all.  Not just the answer to what they were asking but the answers all of us need, and the same dangers all of us face, both then and now.

The mind of Christ loosens the tether of the human imposition of time, and He looks ahead as He responds to them picking up in verse 8 saying … “And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.”  The first sign, is also the first warning, of men who claim to be our savior and Messiah.  We should not go after them.  I wonder is Jesus talking about you or me?  Oh of course, neither of us claim to be Jesus or God or any kind of Messiah.  That would be crazy talk.  But then, how many of us decide we are able to break the bondage of sin by our own self will power.  How many of us dare to believe we are strong enough to defeat the devil and make it to heaven by performing good acts, and avoiding the bad ones.  To never again sin, as if sin is nothing more than a choice on our part.  By any of this logic, we make ourselves a partner in our own salvation, in effect we make ourselves our own Messiah.  And we start following the guy in the mirror cause he seems to know what is needed to move on and move up.  While neither of us might follow a David Koresh, or some other wacko (pardon the pun) who claims to be Jesus.  How many of us so easily follow ourselves, placing pride in all we have done spiritually, all we have accomplished, all we have built.

Jesus continues in verse 9 saying … “But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. [verse 10] Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:”  The destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem was actually caused by the rebellion of the people against Rome.  It was not some external war that just strafed the land of Judea and took out the Temple in its wake.  It was instigated by the people who felt cheated that the real Messiah did not throw off the yoke of Roman oppression, and so decided to take matters into their own hands.  Sound familiar?  How often does God not do what you ask Him to do, so you try to help Him out by doing it yourself?  That is not some external war, or actions caused by others that comes and destroys you, it is what you do, what you decide, what you think is best, that is really only pain and death wrapped up in some shiny appealing wrapper.  The end of all things, will not be caused by wars we start with each other.  It will be hurried or delayed by whether we learn to submit ourselves to Jesus and allow Jesus to do all the fighting.

Luke continues in verse 11 saying … “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.”  Nature’s own upheaval will mark what is coming.  It is said not a single Christian died in the siege of Jerusalem, the end of which marked the full destruction of the Temple.  For a great sign appeared in the heavens of a chariot riding towards the city and every Christian knew what it meant, and fled before it was too late.  In our day we have seen these earthquakes on a global scale.  We know where famine still lives today.  And the pestilence of Covid is not the first to strike the world, nor will it be the last.  These are milestones, signs of a coming Savior we need so desperately.  But they should not cause us fear, they should motivate us to surrender and find peace.  Our lives, and our deaths here in this world are truly incidental.  But our salvation in the next is the only thing important, and should provide us motivation to help others while we still have time to help.  To love others when they need it the most.  Who cares about earthquakes, if my heart is so sedentary it cannot be moved by the plight of my own neighbor, by my own spouse, by my own children or parents?  If it is my heart that is so set in stone, perhaps it is my heart that so desperately needs the earthquake to shake it loose from its apathy.

Jesus continues in verse 12 saying … “But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. [verse 13] And it shall turn to you for a testimony.”  Before Jerusalem would be sacked, early Christians would face persecution from those who refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah.  Believers would be dragged into courts and synagogues and prisons.  Brought even before kings and rulers, in order to see them crushed by those refusing to believe.  But God would turn this persecution against the persecutors in the form of delivering His testimony of love to those who might have never otherwise heard it.  Instead of squelching the gospel, they amplified it.  Members of the court heard a new message of love.  Secretaries, and wardens, gaurds, and ministers of the rulers heard a gospel of love that literally broke their hearts and put them at the feet of a cross.  By trying to kill the gospel message, persecution only widened its reach and its passion.

Jesus continues in verse 14 saying … “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: [verse 15] For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. [verse 16] And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. [verse 17] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. [verse 18] But there shall not an hair of your head perish. [verse 19] In your patience possess ye your souls.”  So some of this sounds like superficial contradiction in what is said.  First Jesus says don’t even worry about what you are going to say when you are brought into courts and such.  Jesus Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will take over your words and your delivery, making sure it is effective.  But also don’t figure everything will always turn out OK.  Your own families will betray you all the way to death.  You will be hated for the love of Jesus you reflect.  But not one hair of your head will perish.  How could that be if you are dead from a family betrayal?  Perhaps the same way that in patience you can possess your own souls.  Trusting to Jesus your lives.  Whether you are spared death for a while, or taste it much earlier than you imagined, what is important is your salvation, the salvation of your souls.  Being patient to let Jesus save you, in this you follow not lead, you are humble no kind of partner or replacement for the Messiah, and ultimately your faith in Jesus to save you bears fruit.  Life and death are not important, salvation and eternal life are all that is important.

The mind of Christ is untethered by time, and He reveals to His followers what is to come, some of it right away, some of it not.  But Jesus is far from finished yet …

 

A Light in Jerusalem ...

The modern American Christian community has long been fixated upon Jerusalem.  They seek the literal fulfillment of prophecies that would point to the end of all things.  So underlying political interests have always found an ally within the Christian community for support for Israeli longevity.  Hitler became nothing more than a catalyst for a “never again” philosophy, and a nation was born.  But it was not a deep and abiding love for our Jewish brothers and sisters that has maintained America’s support of Israel.  It has been political self-interest in a hostile region, and a twisted view of what prophecies may yet reveal themselves in Jerusalem.  But I would submit, modern Christians are looking for the wrong things, the wrong ways, and without the love that should truly motivate them.  What remains of anti-Semitism in this country is proof of that.  If the citizens of the world had held a deep and abiding love for our Jewish brothers and sisters in their hearts so many years ago; Hitler would have been nothing but a lunatic in a need of an asylum.  Instead quiet disinterest, apathy, and perhaps an active resentment for how Jesus was treated so many years ago, has led the world to witness systemic exterminations.  And now, even decades later, continued prolonging of the original conditions we swore would never happen again.  Quiet racism continues in our hearts, because the primary teaching of Jesus to love others, has never truly found a home there.

The city of Jerusalem has a vaunted history.  It was King David who conquered it from the Jebusites, and made it the capital of the burgeoning nation of Israel.  It was King Solomon (David’s son) who constructed the greatest Temple ever constructed for the honor of the true God.  David made the plans, and collected the materials, but it was Solomon who actually constructed it.  David was forbidden because of the blood that stained his hands.  When Solomon was finished, perhaps the greatest light ever known in history to that time then stood proud in Jerusalem.  But over the years, as hearts grew cold, and wickedness prevailed, that same city witnessed the executions of the very prophets of God, who modern Christians still look to for prophetic fulfillment.  And the city lost its light, to the point where the sacrifice of its own children replaced the sacrifices our God called for.  When abomination had reached that kind of zenith, Jerusalem was overthrown, conquered, and its people scattered to the winds and enslaved.

Generations later, Jerusalem was rebuilt.  The glory of Solomon’s Temple could not be replaced, but what emerged in Jerusalem was a light far greater.  The Messiah came.  Jesus Christ walked among us.  And now for certain the greatest light of all time walked within Jerusalem.  The glory not of earthly Temples, but of universal prominence, now walked those city streets.  But even then, hearts had grown cold, particularly in the leadership.  And so craving for control, lead to a betrayal of the Lamb of God.  And once again the capital city, heart of the nation, rejected the glory that had been sent unto it.  But this did not happen casually, or because God simply permitted it.  Quite the opposite.  God is never “content” just to see us choose evil, and then walk away.  Instead God turns over every rock He must, in the pursuit of our salvation.  If there is a chance, He will take it.  If there is a way, He will pursue it.  The greatest difference between us and God is found in the light illuminated in His heart.  When you examine His heart,  you find His love overflows the boundaries of His heart.  Whereas our love, is so small, it is barely measured in a trickle.  And once again the light is snuffed out.  But this is not the will of our God.  Luke talks about the heart of Jesus on this matter.  He picks back up in the 13^th chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.

Beginning in verse 31 it reads … “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. [verse 32] And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”  Here at the outset, there is a threat against the greatest Light that would ever walk the streets of Jerusalem or the nation in general.  Herod was a vain ruler, who like every other man granted power, sought to keep his power absolute over the people.  And Herod was fine with killing anyone who threatened it.  But before we simply read this as Herod being a wicked man (and who of us is not), how is it different with any modern ruler of our age?  Oh sure, perhaps political murders are less common today, but political corruption has almost become the norm.  We expect it.  We see it and turn a blind eye to it.  When a politician is caught, we are seldom surprised.  If anything, we are surprised they got caught, not surprised at what they did wrong.  Men who are granted power, seldom are happy to relinquish that power, more often they want more, and will do what it takes to get more.  In Herod’s case, if that meant murder, he was fine with it.

But Jesus had a mission.  And He did not waste this opportunity to tell even the Pharisees the outcome of seeking His life.  Today He would cast out devils and do cures, and tomorrow as well, but on the third day, He would be perfected.  Behind every wickedness is the self-love that would motivate that wickedness.  It was self-love that molded Lucifer from the perfect creation of our God, into the pathetic creature of Satan, twisted, and full of nothing but evil.  That evolution, is undeniable.  And as we choose to embrace evil, and look away from Jesus to save us from it, we find ourselves on the same road as Lucifer, ever inching towards Satan, until the difference between us and Satan is imperceptible.  Even church leadership is subject to this phenomenon.  Think about it.  It was Pharisees and the Sanhedrin that became the sworn enemies of Jesus.  Jesus loved them.  But they hated Him.  Not because He was evil, but because they were.  Are we so certain we are different?  When we lose love for others, quiet evil is allowed to persist in our hearts, and the depths to which it will go, Hitler did not even define the bottom of.

Jesus continues in verse 33 saying … “Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. [verse 34] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”  Again Jesus offers a veiled reference to what awaited Him in the capital city and heart of the Israelite nation.  Jesus knows that He travels towards His own torture and death at our hands.  He will be murdered by His own church, carried out as they would gladly betray Jewish blood into sadistic Roman hands.  And this is not new to our God.  When His people strayed, our God sent the prophets that preceded Jesus.  But those prophets often met the same fate Jesus was traveling towards.  They were stoned and killed as well.  Instead of breaking the hearts of His people that they might return unto Him.  His people became hardened to their own evil, even to the point where murdering the messenger of God, seems preferable than having to listen to that same message.

Are we any different here and now?  How often are you willing to hear the words of our Bible, when what it says runs counter to the pathway of your life?  What do you do when you discover this?  Do you put the Bible back on its shelf willing to let it collect dust and never touch it again.  So many do.  So many Christians look to find a grace that is content to permit sin, to excuse sin.  They do not seek a remedy for sin, only a justification for it.  We are content with forgiveness, but do not seek reform.  This would leave us looking to extinguish the light of Heaven itself were we given the chance, rather than have to face our inadequacies in the light of His divine mirror of Love.  Our evil today is no different than the evil that preceded us.  A different time, but the same disease.  A different people, and technology, and set of abilities, yet all content to misuse what we have been given until it becomes the method of our own destruction.  Few of us look at a message different than what is in our hearts and ask to have our hearts change.  Instead we ask for forgiveness and wish for God to wink at our sins as we have every intent to continue them.  And nothing has changed.

But what God wants is not this.  What God wants is to love us, like the love of a mother hen, who would bring her chicks under her wings where it is safe and warm.  It is the mother hen who puts herself between any danger of the world, and her baby chicks who reside under her wings.  This is what God wants.  He wants to love us, and nestle us under His divine protection and keep us in His very heart.  But then come the saddest words Jesus could utter: “and ye would not”.  Instead of looking for a warm safe place where we could be showered by the love of God, we look to stay away from that very place.  We don’t want to have our sins, and sinful desires, cleansed from us.  Instead we define ourselves by those very sins.  We falsely state that you cannot separate the sin from the sinner.  When in truth, our salvation is just that.  We are to be saved from “who we are”, from what we want, from what we do as a result.  Our very salvation was meant to be a gift to cleanse us from who we are, so that we are not ever forced to our knees again in repentance.  Salvation is more than just forgiveness.  That is only a beginning.  There is more, so much more.  There is freedom beyond your current imagining.  But do you run away from this, or are you willing to run towards it?

Jesus concludes this segment picking back up in verse 35 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  What is the result of running away from the love of God?  It is a house left in desolation.  Not the desolation caused by the will of others, but by the choices we make for ourselves.  For love of self put in action destroys the happiness of others, and ultimately of ourselves.  And it is empty, it is void of meaning.  But there is another light on the horizon.  If we were to examine Jerusalem in the context of history we know of its greatness.  If we look to its future, it carries the honor of being the site where Heaven itself will descend and come to rest at the end of all things, when the earth is to be remade new.  But what of the intervening time?  What about now?  A stricter read of this passage would seem to indicate there is no role at all for Jerusalem until Jesus returns.  So much for all that hope around as yet unfulfilled prophecy.

The desolation Jesus speaks of here was not meant only to apply to Jerusalem, or to the sinners of His own day.  Desolation is the hallmark of any who choose to embrace sin, and look away from the gift of salvation Jesus offers.  It is the second half of this verse I find interesting.  You will not see Me, Jesus says, until the time comes when you will say, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”.  Blessed is he that comes.  You could argue that was the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  You could argue that is a reference to the second coming itself.  But what if Jesus is talking about you?  What if the light in Jerusalem is “you” who are willing to go, to live, in the name of our Lord.  There are Christians today who still live in Jerusalem.  They profess His name.  And if they are willing to love like Jesus loves, are they not still the light that remains in Jerusalem.  When a Christian can love his Jewish, and his Muslim brothers, as Jesus would love them still – is not that Christian a reflection of the love and light of God?  For light will always point to love.  It is only in darkness where love cannot be found.  Light will always illuminate love.

And beyond the borders of the city of Jerusalem.  What of the light meant to illuminate the world?  Between now and the end of all things the world craves the light and love of God.  Will you be willing to be a reflection of that light, or merely look to be its customer?  We cannot see Jesus again, until we find one who comes in the name of the Lord.  That messenger is blessed, as we are blessed from encountering them.  But what if it is you who Jesus is referring to?  What if Jesus always intended you to be a reflection of His light to the world around you in the here and now.  Are you willing to accept His ideas for your life, even if they come, at the loss of your own ideas?  So many of us think we have a plan for our lives.  We have desires we have so long pursued.  We have jobs, homes, and families, and count them all as among our accomplishments, instead of as blessings of the Lord.  But we then take His gifts and elevate them beyond the gifts they were intended to be.  We make our lives revolve around what we have been given, instead of around the transformative love of Jesus Christ.  We live for career.  We live for family.  But we do not really live for Jesus.  We simply squeeze Jesus in, when we have time, or find ourselves in time of need.  But our jobs, and our families are not His light, they are His gifts.

It is our love alone, a love reflected through the very Son of God, empowered by it, sustained by it, that could ever be the light of Jerusalem, or the light of the world around you.  The love for others, will be illuminated in your own heart and mind, as Jesus re-creates you back into His image.  And in so doing, you become a light to others, to point them back to the same Savior we all so desperately need.  I don’t know about you, but I want a place under the mother-hen-wings of Jesus.  As a baby chick, I know I need it.  And the last thing I ever want said about me, is that “I would not”, that I refused for the mystery of iniquity.  I want instead the good riddance of iniquity.  Let us live and reflect His love in such a way, that no matter where we are, we bless those who see us coming.  Let us be a light in Jerusalem once again.  There is no prophecy more powerful than that.  There is no promise more meaningful to you or the world around you than that.  It is in love where quiet racism finally disappears forever.

 

The Fish Rots from the Head [part 1 of 2] ...

 “Self” is an enemy we should never underestimate.  To assume that “right” will always win out over “evil” is to assume that “self” will be subjugated to the will of God.  And “Self” is not inclined to be subjugated to anything.  Sometimes we think all that is needed is to “hear” the word of God, and that upon hearing it, we will be changed.  There is a temptation of those in the clergy, and of those in evangelism, that simply spreading the Word of God is what is required to change our world, to bring people to salvation.  And it is true that without hearing the Word, it is hard to imagine anyone finding out where to seek change.  But the “how” to seek change is another matter entirely.  Often the lives of those who attempt to spread His Word are no paradigm of aspiration in “how” they live their own lives.  They look just like we do.  Sometimes they get caught doing things worse than we do.  So if the lives of even the preachers and the evangelists are not much different than our own, what Word exactly are they offering us?  It would appear the Word has not been able to subjugate “self” in their own lives as yet.

Luke writes the story of one the world’s most powerful evangelists ever known.  A preacher whose life matches his oral offerings.  A servant in whom “self” and “self interests” were fully subjugated to the will of God.  A servant that clean before God is sure to have an easy life right?  Wouldn’t you expect the blessings and protections of our God to be upon one of His clearly most righteous servants; particularly when there appear to be no other alternatives to turn to, to continue preaching the message he was inspired to give?  But that is not the happy story Luke was destined to offer, nor the truth of the life of even one of the greatest evangelists this world would ever know.  Instead to us, the outsiders, the story of John the Baptist looks like a sad one, a persecuted one, that ends in losing his life, and being restrained from offering his message.  How did it get there?  More importantly “why” did it get there.

You will recall Luke spent quite a bit of time at the writing about the great joy of John the Baptist’s birth.  John was a miracle baby.  Announced by heaven itself, named by God himself, messaged by the angel Gabriel himself.  John was born of parents way too old to have a child, and who had been barren throughout their entire lives.  They were righteous, but not blessed with children of any kind, until John.  The song of Zacharias was just offered a few short verses ago upon the birth of John.  And the prophecy of the power of Elijah predicted to follow his work.  If ever there were high expectations regarding the life of a child, they were set here.  Jesus was to be greater, but that is because Jesus was God Himself in the form of the Son of God, shielded in the cloak of humanity.  John was only human.  John broke with the tradition of following his father into the formal priesthood in Jerusalem.  Instead of being educated in the finest religious schools, he was educated in solitude in the desert.  He read.  He grew.  He waited, until He was finally called.

Luke tells his story in overview beginning in chapter three of his letter of the gospel, picking up in verse 1 saying … “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, [verse 2] Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. [verse 3] And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;”  The fish rots from the head.  The Roman empire does not degrade over night, but it does degrade because it centralized its power in the form of a single ruler who pushed down the power of the senate (of democracy), and pushed up the power of a single dictator (autocracy).  Sound familiar?  How many presidents going back long before the current one, have advocated policies, and made executive decisions by fiat that in effect do the very same things.  At this point in the history of Rome it was now Tiberius Caesar in charge.

And in the land of Galilea or Judaea, things were no better.  Pilate was governor.  Herod the great was dead.  His three sons were put in charge of three different sections of the Judean kingdom.  There were no kings exactly anymore, only the word tetrarchs.  Three vicious children out to kill their siblings and take over their section of the former kingdom, but restrained by Rome in doing so.  Corruption takes root, feeding the animal of “self” who lusts for wealth and power.  People who have been subjugated by the sword offer plenty of both (whether they want to or not).  So you would think in times of such political turmoil and persecution, the people would turn to religion to offer them relief, they would turn to God right?  But alas, Annas and Caiaphas have been installed by Rome to head the priesthood as high priests.  Without Roman approval the priests would have been normally selected by God, but not now.  Since Rome was in charge, Rome wanted leverage within the religion of these combative Jews to keep them in line.  Ergo Annas and Caiaphas, to keep the lid on things under Roman scrutiny.

The fish rots from the head.  Rome disintegrates as power continues to be centralized into the corrupt form of just one man, each lessor than his predecessor.  The faith disintegrates as power is centralized into puppets of Rome.  The countryside disintegrates as each of Herod’s sons thinks not of greatness and great new construction projects, but instead of licentiousness and how they could conspire to kill their siblings without being caught and punished by Rome.  The animal of “self” is taught that quest for power and wealth are all that are important in Israel.  All of its leaders mimic these attributes.  And none of them are looking to be subjugated to anyone or anything, even if it is a God doing the asking.  And before we move on with their story – have we adopted our own nation’s mantras and religious leader’s teachings that appear very much like what Israel of old experienced?  Today’s world praises fame, power, wealth, and ease – and today’s world is less concerned about “how” you get there, only how you might behave once you do.  But the journey to these goals is itself a journey into the dark abyss of self-interest with no interest at all in subjugation of any kind.  Hearing a message like that is bound to fall on deaf ears if left to our own devices.

It is within this environment of enemies that the Word of God falls upon John the Baptist while he is in isolation in the desert.  His message is to be one of repentance for the remission of sins.  The symbol he will utilize will be baptism in the Jordan river.  Those who would hear and accept what John will offer must wade into the waters of the Jordan, ignore the cold water, or fear of not being able to swim, and be submerged under the waters completely, trusting that John will not let them go or let them perish.  They will in symbolic form die under those waters, die to their former self.  They will be for a moment unable to even breath the air of their former sins.  But through the power of God, they will be reborn, resurrected into a new life, made free from the old by God alone.  They will emerge spiritually new creatures who must depend upon God alone to keep them from the former versions of themselves.  For if God does not do this for us, who ever will.  We will not.  Our versions of “self” are all too happy to take us over.  It must be God who keeps us from self, and focuses us on others.  In our subjugation to God, we find relief from the evil self must always accompany, for self is the source of all evil.  It was so in Lucifer, who because of self, became Satan.  It is so in us.  Self must be eradicated, killed, in order that who we become will never give rise to sin again in the eons of time we are to live through.

Luke continues in verse 4 saying … “As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. [verse 5] Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; [verse 6] And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”  The prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled with the power of Elijah to all of Israel from one crying in the wilderness.  John was not acting in his own self-interest.  To do that might have been to keep silent and let the fallen remain fallen.  But John was moved by the Holy Spirit to see the fallen redeemed, and so allowed himself to be used of God regardless of what it might cost him personally.  Imagine that.  Redemption so important to an evangelist he is willing to confront the entire power of the world to see just you redeemed.  Notice the message of John, and Jesus, was not condemnation, it was redemption, that is “how” to think differently.  How to divorce yourself from the fish rotting from the head, and embrace a new way of thinking, a new way of loving, that turns wicked men into righteous men, that is men who do rightly. 

It is love for others that motivates right actions.  It is ONLY love for others that can do this.  And it is ONLY Jesus who can change your heart in order for you to see it firsthand in your own life.  As you offer Jesus your will, it is your heart that is changed first.  The message is no different today, or rather it should not be different.  Repentance does not come because you will it to be so.  Repentance comes because as you look at what you “could” have done for others, you begin to regret “not” doing it for others, because of your love for them.  While you are just fine, not doing for others, you have not found repentance at all, you have found only words without meaning.  The leadership of the church in the days of John fell into this category hard.  They knew all the words, all the texts, but little of the love for anyone other than perhaps their own families.  They had no love for those who had none, or had little.  As far as they were concerned, if you had little, that was God making a statement about your level of sin.  Poverty accompanied sinners, wealth accompanied saints.  When truth was far from this thinking in any way.  In fact, it might well be the opposite entirely.

But there was a commotion in Israel.  The power of the Holy Spirit could not be denied (He too is God after all).  And the words of John rang in the ears of those who came to hear him as nothing else and no one else had ever done before.  He spoke sermons in the wilderness you just could not shake or forget.  His words pierced your very heart and made you want to change in a way you never felt before.  For it was not just John opening the Word, it was God through John, reaching into the hearts of men as only God can do.  This power could not be denied.  It was popular beyond all measure and all reason.  The leadership of the church could not deny it either.  They must come bear witness of it, to see if John could be controlled.  John was the son of a priest after all.  Perhaps John could be made to see, how things were done in Israel at this time.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [verse 8] Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. [verse 9] And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”  This was NOT the reception men of breeding and refinement expected from this son of a priest.  This was a rebuke that stung for a reason they could none of them explain.  For the weight of these words tugged hard at the hearts of hard men.  The Holy Spirit broke through the carefully erected barriers of selfish men, to tug directly at their hearts.  They knew these sayings, just never expected to have them applied to themselves.  You see “they” were supposed to be in charge of their own spiritual lives.  And by their standard, they were doing very well at it.  Who was this hippy to cast generations of traditions into the fire and call them out for their corruption?  They were part of the rotting fish.  And they did not want to see themselves this way.  But then, who does?

They fled from that scene in haste.  They had no words for John.  Only recoil.  They sped back to the safety of their temple, to debate how to shut up this man.  But they lived in fear he was right about them.  The Holy Spirit is nothing or no one to be trifled with.  That ache in them, was an ache no human could ever console.  And it was at war with “self”.  These men were the fish that rots.  They were the self-imposed example for all of Israel to aspire being.  John had just called them vipers.  John had just enumerated their sins.  He had broken down their defense as if any could be offered.  And now John was outlining their future if this road of self was the one they chose to cling to, instead of the road God would offer in its place.  The people witnessed this tearing down of the beacons of their aspiration.  And it left the common people scratching their heads wondering, if these men who were supposed to be holy were not good enough, what on earth could they ever do?

This is a well thought out question.  Perhaps it is something we should be asking.  This study will continue in part two …