Looking for Jesus according to Luke

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13) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 7:

- John the baptist sends two of his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah!

- They can see Jesus curing people and doing many miracles and teaching about God’s Kingdom!

- And Jesus tells them to tell what they have just seen!

- Action is better than words!

- When what we say corresponds with what we do, it is more powerful than anything!

- Jesus doesn’t answer directly to John but he tells him about his miracles and his teaching! Isn’t it the best answer?

- John the Baptist understands perfectly well and he rejoices!

- But not the religious leaders: where is the mistake?

- They understand but they don’t care because it is against their own interests!

- Jesus looks for his Father’s interests, they don’t!

- So we must be careful not to serve the religious leaders’ interests instead of God’s interests!

 

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14) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 7:

- People declare God to be righteous, for they have been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and those versed in the Law disregard the counsel of God to them, since they have not been baptized by him!

- There is a big difference between ordinary people and the religious leaders!

- Humility vs Pride!

- In fact, the religious leaders don’t care about God!

- They prefer looking for their own interests!

- How can they really help ordinary people?

 

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15) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 7: Now one of the Pharisees keeps asking him to dine with him. So he enters the house of the Pharisee and reclines at the table.

- When people keep asking Jesus, he listens and answers them, whoever they are!

- And look! A woman who is known in the city to be a sinner learns he is dining in the house of the Pharisee, and she brings an alabaster jar of perfumed oil.

- Jesus does everything in the light and people can find him!

- Taking a position behind him at his feet, she weeps and begins to wet his feet with her tears, and she wipes them off with the hair of her head.

- She is known as a sinner but look at what she does!

- The religious leaders are far away from her because she is humble and they are arrogant!

- Also she tenderly kisses his feet and pours the perfumed oil on them.

- Ordinary people vs the religious leaders who have dried hearts!

- How is it possible to be so far away from God’s truth!

- You can’t look for power and God’s truth at the same time!

- It is incompatible!

- Then they think that Jesus can’t be a prophet otherwise he would know the woman is a sinner!

- That’s really a good summary of the religious leaders: mentally short-sighted, mentally limited, spiritually limited, spiritually dead and leading people to nowhere!

- They are completely blind!

- How is it possible to be so limited!

- But in reply Jesus says to him: “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

- Then he tells him about an analogy to make him understand and give him a lesson!

- There is only one teacher!

- Then he tells Simon about the woman and everything she does for him and because of that her sins are forgiven!

- What a lesson!

- But they don’t understand anything!

- So they prove themselves good for nothing, useless!

- And they start thinking how it is possible for a man to forgive sins!

- Authority vs meaninglessness!

- Wow: what a powerful action! It seems like a vision!

- How is it possible not to see the difference: it is so evident!

- The problem is when we get accustomed to something, we don’t see it anymore!

- What a pity!

 

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16) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 9:

- The apostles have a discussion about who is the greatest!

- Jesus tells them about a child!

- He tries to show them how to behave!

- They must show humility!

- It is usual among those who think they are important in this world to be the greatest or want to be the greatest but the one who belongs to God must be humble and gets away from this attitude which has nothing to do with God!

- Jesus showed how humble he was which is not the case of the religious leaders!

- Moreover, once again we see that Jesus knows what people think!

 

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17) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 10: Jesus explains that the harvest is great but there are few workers!

- He adds to beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest!

- And he is sending his disciples out as lambs in among wolves!

- Yes, workers are needed and the religious leaders are certainly not workers!

- The harvest needs workers who are ready to work hard!

- Workers who are 100% active, not passive!

- Think about all the faithful servants of God: they were active men not passive ones!

- If we don’t participate, nobody will do it!

- The religious leaders are certainly not the lambs but the wolves!

- The harvest needs hardworking lambs!

 

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18) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 10: Jesus praises his father because he has hidden these things from wise and intellectual ones and has revealed them to young children.

- Wise and intellectual ones vs young children!

- When we look at the world situation it is going worse and worse every day with more and more unsolvable problems!

- And there are many researchers!

- We may ask what they are doing!

- We can say the same of political leaders!

- Yes, God’s word is not for such men!

- They are too busy looking for nothing and doing nothing!

- We need to be humble if we want to understand God’s word and will!

 

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19) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 10: The man wants to prove himself righteous so he asks Jesus who his neighbor is!

- Being righteous is a condition of heart!

- If you want to prove yourself righteous, you look for appearances!

- But appearances are not real!

- It is only superficiality!

- So are the religious and the political leaders and the commercial leaders because of power and so is human society!

- The world is burning but they do as if everything was normal!

- And people listen to them!

 

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20) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

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

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

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

- We need to do our job!

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

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

- We can’t let others do the job!

- We must take a share!

- Otherwise why God should remember us!

- Remember the workers are few and are required!

- And active ones not lazy ones!

- There is no excuse!

 

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21) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

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

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

- How is it possible not to see the difference?

- Is that HABITS?

- Like doing something without thinking?

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

- Are we ZOMBIES?

- Do God and Jesus need ZOMBIES?

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

 

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22) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

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

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

- In both cases it is a personal choice!

- They do it on purpose!

- They mislead people!

- By doing this, they oppose God!

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

- It is too easy to let the others do everything!

- We need to do our parts!

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

 

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23) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

- They are not looking for God’s word!

- They just want to protect their own interests!

- And their interests go against God’s ones!

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

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

- And they bring them into the pit!

- And they mislead them!

- And they are ready to do anything for that!

 

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24) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

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

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

- It is a game!

- It was revealed through history sooner or later!

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

- So much corruption!

- Everything for money and power!

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

- It won’t in this human society!

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

 

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25) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

- And he gives the example of a rich man!

- His land produces a lot!

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

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

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

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

- It is so true !

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

- So we should use a bit more our brains !

 

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26) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

- Thus they will open to him when he comes!

- And he will minister to them!

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

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

- Will you be ready when Jesus comes back?

- Do the religious leaders prepare you to be ready?

- Remember what happens to Jerusalem!

- It should serve as a warning!

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

- And not only once!

 

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27) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

- Division in the families!

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

- We must understand that !

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

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

- Of course, everybody is free to do like Adam !

- But we know what happened next !

 

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28) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Luke 13:

- The Jews are selfish!

- The Jews have no hearts!

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

- The Jews are Hypocrites!

- The Jews are conservative!

- They are not flexible except for their own interests!

- LIGHT VS DARKNESS!

- GOODNESS VB BADNESS!

- Both are incompatible!

- The choice should be easy to make!

 

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29) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

- He never refuses the confrontation with religious leaders !

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

- They are always many against him !

- « They are closely watching him »

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

- It is always in a negative way !

- They belong to two different opposite worlds !

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

- They are looking for their own interests !

- No comparision possible !

- They are always fighting God like the devil does !

 

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30) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

- But they keep silent!

- So Jesus heals the man!

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

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

- First he asks them a question!

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

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

- Thus he shows how selfish they are!

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

- Jesus takes into account people’s interests!

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

- It is always useful for us!

- So once again he shows us the way!

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

 

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31) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

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

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

- They think they know better!

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

- And each time it is going faster and faster!

- And we are always in the same train!

- We can’t escape!

- And scientists have been warning them!

- But they don’t care!

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

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

- They went up and down!

- Man never understands!

- And they keep teaching history at school!

- What for?

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

- Animals live in harmony with nature!

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

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

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

- They are only wolves!

 

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32) Jesus vs the religious leaders

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

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

- We follow Jesus’ example!

- We work for God!

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

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

- And the more we get closer to them!



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