luke 22 - LIFE ''be like'' in the New Covenant

As we meditate Luke 22 today, verses 19-20 say, 

Luke 22:19-20 

19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

What is a covenant?

• A covenant is an agreement between at least two parties. 

• The word covenant comes from the Latin convenīre, meaning “to come together, agree.”

• In the Old Testament, the phrase “make a covenant” is most often a translation of the Hebrew kārat berît, which literally means “cut a covenant’’ - “establish” or “confirm”) and (“give”)

Examples of covenant:

• In our day a contract often becomes legally binding when the parties sign a document detailing the terms of the agreement. Such as in marriages, adoptions, business partnerships etc.

• It makes a very serious affair: life and death

• It’s not just a legal agreement, but brings two people into a relationship

• The vilest enemies become trusted friends as soon as the covenant is established.

• No man takes advantage of the covenant or breaks it. It is so sacred that the children of the third and fourth generations revere it and keep it.

• In other words, it is a perpetual covenant, indissoluble, a covenant that cannot be annulled.

The Old Covenant:

• In ancient times, the covenant practices often became binding by killing and cutting an animal.

• When God made a covenant with Abraham, there came blessings (to obedience) and cursing (to rebellions) up to the next generations of the Israelites. 

• When God heard the groaning of the Israelites in Egypt He remembered His covenant with Abraham so He delivered them from the enemy. 

God couldn't break the Covenant. He could not forget it nor ignore it. He is the covenant-keeping God.

The New Covenant:

• Whenever we do the Lord’s Table, We are entering into a covenant that is unbreakable. We are establishing a strong ties relationship with God.

• The covenant that God had with us through the blood of the Lord Jesus is indissoluble. 

1 Corinthians 11:26, 

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

• It is more special than any other covenants in the past because the blood sacrifice was not merely from the slaughtered animals but from the blood of the ONE and ONLY Son of God, Jesus Christ. 

• When God hears our groans and cries for help, He would remember His covenant with us and would come to rescue us.

• When we sin, Jesus' blood does not only cover our filthiness but cleanses it.

• Along with the covenant, there comes blessings, protection, and assurance. 

How’s life in the new covenant?

The promises:

1. Life in you 

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:53-54

• The meal serves as a taste of what is to come—a taste of true life.

• Life is secured on Earth and in Heaven

2. Remain in you

John 6:56“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

• The relationship between you and God is unbreakable and cannot be untied. 

3. Purpose in you

John 6:57“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

• Imagine, waking up everyday with a sense of purpose.

• We don’t just live, we live for the Lord. 

• Philippians 1:21 For me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity].

God is true and faithful to His covenant. He will remain forever as long as we keep His covenant with us we will live forever. 

“This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

John 6:58

luke 19 - BE LIKE ZACCHEUS!

 Let us medidate the word of God in Luke 19.

Let us learn from the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

—- Zacchaeus is wealthy and powerful yet he did not use his power to see Jesus. Since he is small, he can hire and pay a big person or big animal to carry him to see Jesus. 

He is humble enough to climb up the tree to see Jesus clearly. Climbing the tree is not easy, he took effort, its not comfortable to stay on the tree to wait for Jesus to pass. Zacchaeus did this to intentionally see Jesus.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

—— Zacchaeus did not wait for second call or never hesitate to welcome Jesus. He did not think twice. He followed Jesus’ call immediately with gladness. He was happy that Jesus noticed him. He was happy to be called by Jesus.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

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

—- Zacchaeus was a sinner, he is the chief tax collector, but after called by Jesus he acknowledged Jesus as his Lord and repented at once. He repent not after Jesus leaves his house, not after a day or two, but at once. Immediately his heart was changed. 

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

—-The reward of Zacchaeus’ repentance and obedience is his salvation and salvation of his whole household. 

Let Us…

Be humble. Surrender your pride.

Be intentional in seeking Jesus.

Once called, Immediately follow with gladness. 

Repent at once, clean your conscience, let God purify your heart. 

Believe and accept that Jesus is your Lord and you will be rewarded with salvation. Not only your salvation but salvation of your household.

Father God in heaven, we praise and thank you for the wisdom you have given to understand this story of Zacchaeus. May we be like him. Let us continuously seek Jesus and everyday repent for our sins, that we may be an instruments for the salvation of our family. May we bring Jesus to our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors and to everyone we meet. And may in everything we do give glory to you our God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

FAITHFULNESS VS. REBELLION

 

As we meditate the Word of the Lord in Luke 19:11-27, it reminds us of the resources that God has given us to cultivate, use and invest on it.

This parable is like that of the talents in Matthew 25. Those that are called to Christ, he furnishes with gifts needful for their business; and from those to whom he gives power, he expects service. 

In this parable, a nobleman goes away to receive a kingdom and entrusts ten of his servants with minas, a form of currency. When he returns, he evaluates how the servants have used the minas in his absence.

The first servant brought a good report. He did business with his master’s mina, and had ten more to show for it. This was an impressive 1000% increase.

Because he demonstrated faithful handling of the master’s resources, he was given authority over ten cities in the kingdom his master just received.

The second servant brought another good report. He did business with his master’s mina and had five more to show for it – a 500% increase.

These two servants have demonstrated FAITHFULNESS to their master.

BUT the third servant did not have a good report. He did not obey the master’s command to do business till I come. He merely kept the master’s resources and did no good with them.

The master did not reward the third servant. Instead, he rebuked him because the great power of the master should have inspired the servant to greater diligence, not to disobedience and laziness.

Sometimes we do not understand the plan of the Lord because of our rebellious heart.

It was not to make money by his servants, but to make CHARACTER in them. He didn’t need them to make money, but they needed to work with him to BUILD THEIR CHARACTER.

HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE FAITHFUL TO THE LORD?

-       When we do the things that He asks us to do with 100% effort and no grudges, no complaining.

-       When we are always excited to serve Him even though we will not shine or we won’t get any recognition, or we are tired, or sick.

-       When we make sure we keep His commandments.

-       When we totally submit to His will.

 

HOW DO WE KNOW WE HAVE A REBELLIOUS HEART?

-       When we complain about everything, simple things, simple activities, simple tasks.

-       When we start counting our effort and contribution to the ministry and slowly refusing to participate.

-       When we are not excited anymore to do the things that we used to do and would always come up with excuses like – sick, tired, busy etc. When we love to do things, we never get tired.

-       When we already have the thought – bahala na sila diyan, tingnan natin kung ano mangyayari pag wala ako, tapos na ako diyan, sila naman, walang bawal bawal sa akin (bakit bawal ba?)

-       When there is no submission because we feel we are better, more prayerful and more capable than others.

-        

Let us check our hearts -   DO WE HAVE THE HEART OF THE FIRST 2 SERVANTS OR WE HAVE THE HEART OF THE 3^RD SERVANT?

Let us remember that the Lord will judge us according to our hearts. In verse 22, he warned us about our own words – He judged the 3^rd servant out of his own words.

²² And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow

In real life we are judged according to our actions and words as Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

We can always pretend we are obedient, we are loving, kind etc. but our words will betray us if we do not guard our heart. When we testify in the pulpit, expect that our words will be tested and we will be exposed.

A man testified about his obedience to the Lord, how he always obeys the Lord and how he dedicated his life to the preaching of the gospel.   After the service he was asked to go and visit a sick brother and he immediately excused himself saying he is busy. His true heart was exposed! No matter how sweet and noble is his testimony his true heart was revealed.

Let us pray: Lord may we find ourselves truly faithful and we rebuke the spirit of rebellion in my heart. Amen.

Be ONE out of ten (1/10)

As we meditate Luke 17 today, verses 11-14 say, 

Luke 17:11 

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,[f] who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 

- These lepers are outcasts from society, and had no company other than other lepers. 

- They stood afar off, knowing that by the law their disease obliged them to keep their distance.

- A sense of our spiritual leprosy should make us very humble in all our approaches to Christ.

- Who are we, that we should draw near to him that is infinitely pure? We are impure. Yet He healed us all. 

- The truth is: We are all lepers spiritually (we belong to these 10 lepers) - we are all unclean/impure, but there is nothing that cannot be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 

Matthew 8:17 

This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”

HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Luke17: 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 

- Are we like the 9 out of ten who did not return to Jesus?

- Or we are those one out of ten, who intentionally and purposely returned to glorify Him?

Let us be one out of ten. Let us always give what is due to Him. How?

3S' of Thanksgiving

1. Be speedy

 Luke 17:15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;

- The man returned to Jesus before he could reach the priest to clear his name as being cleansed from leprosy. 

- Similarly, right after experiencing the moves of God, our automatic response is to give back the praises to His name.

- We do not have to wait for too long to celebrate by ourselves or with everyone, but we celebrate with the Lord and let others be the witnesses.  

2. Be strongly audible

 Luke17:15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;

- Out of the fullness of his heart, he couldn't help but shout with praises.

- Similarly, our praises should not only be heard by man but it should reach to heaven to be clearly heard by God. 

- This will be a pleasing sound that reaches His ear and will give a smile to His face. Doesn't He deserve it?

3. Be sincere

16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

- The man showed his sincere gratitude to Jesus. This act of taking no credit for himself but giving all back to God.

- It is the proper posture of our heart to God. A simple way of saying, ''I don't deserve this, but thank you Lord.''

- Words are not enough to express our gratitude to God so we fall down in surrender. Knowing that, ''if He's able to heal my physical body, then He's also able to heal my soul.''

-  It is at Jesus' feet that we recognize our place before Him and honor and acknowledge His power and authority over all things. 

- It is at Jesus feet that we feel true humility. 

- The higher we can lift Jesus up, the humble the state of our hearts are. 

We all need healing. Our bodies need physical healing and our soul needs spiritual healing. 

Among the 10 lepers, guess who received spiritual healing? Of course, that ONE out of 10. The one who returned to God. The one who praised and glorified God. 

Let us reflect:

- Do we give what is due to the Lord daily - our praises and worship to Him, the glory He deserves?

- How quick are we in giving praises to God? Do we glorify Him right after we receive the blessings, and undeserved favors?

- Do we intentionally take time praising and glorifying God after the whole day, after church services, after our victorious missions, victorious soaking, victorious equipping? 

- or we just tend to serve ourselves first after a whole day, or tend to just sleep right away  after a long exhausting travel period from mission, or keeping busy again with work after church activities without falling on Jesus' feet and simply say thank you, I give back the glory to you, or sing a song for Him instead?

- After receiving the blessings or prayers, do we automatically praise Him? or tell the good news to our friends first before talking to God? 

- Are we loud enough to be heard by God? Are we loud enough to be heard by others so they too will glorify God?

- Do we share our testimonies to others? or we still feel hesitant to testify God in front of everyone?

- Are we sincere and humble enough to give 100% credit to God without taking any of it for ourselves?

May we give what is due to our God. May our eyes be more open to things of God in our everyday personal set-ups. Small or great things give glory to Him. Oh how beautiful our walks would be with eyes that see goodness of God.

Luke 17:19

 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

GOD'S POSSESSION: Am I using it right?

As we meditate Luke 15 today, 

Verses 11-12 say, 

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.

The story of the Prodigal son tells us the truth about God’s inheritance for His children. 

• In the Bible, ‘inheritance’ refers to the blessings, promises, and rewards that God bestows upon His people.

• It can include spiritual blessings, the promised land (as in the case of Israel), and eternal life through faith in Christ.

As children of God, we have been given the inheritance from our Father in heaven.

Legally, our inheritance is our divine birthright, a legacy that is eternally secure. God’s resources have been made accessible to us both on earth and heaven. We receive the glorious richness of God upon receiving the Lord Jesus in our lives (Ephesians 1:11-23).

This includes:

1. VIP Access: Heaven’s Exclusive Gift

• Imagine your divine inheritance as a VIP pass to the most exclusive place—Heaven itself.(1 Peter 1:4)

• being invited to a grand event where you’re welcomed with open arms, where your seat at the table is reserved, no question about it.

• This is the essence of the VIP status God has granted you as His child. 

• A foreshadow of this heavenly gift on earth: When we experience how God gives us VIP access to things that we do not deserve to have and places to be (e.g giving you opportunity to lead in a ministry, or special task in your workplaces despite of your weaknesses and incapabilities etc.)

2. The Spiritual Gifts/blessings

• Even on Earth, The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of this heavenly (gift) inheritance. The HS is the downpayment of the eternal life we look forward to. 

• (see also The gifts of the Holy Spirit and fruits of the Holy spirit).

• These heavenly gifts are also already manifesting through spiritual blessings received in answered prayers and divine favors in God’s eyes and in the eyes of man. (Proverbs 3:1-4)

 

• Have you noticed and experienced the favor of God everyday through using people around you, through divine set-ups, perfect timings etc.?

• How many times has God forgiven you, delivered you from sins, and spare your life from any harm?

3. Our dominion on Earth 

• Since the creation, our inheritance is to have dominion over the works of satan (Matthew 10:1)on earth. But it was stolen by satan when Adam disobeyed God. Jesus has restored this dominion and give back to man. We are to rule and dominate in the Kingdom of God that Satan stole, we spread the love and light of the gospel of Christ. 

• Do we know how to rule over the works of the enemy? Do we know that there is power in the name of JESUS? Do we use the name of Jesus to wrestle against the spiritual forces?

How do we use and manage God’s Inheritance on Earth? 

13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.

• Are we like the prodigal son who went away from the Father after receiving his inheritance?

• Does it cause us to be too far from God? After receiving any blessings we prayed for, does it cause us to skip God’s work/church's gatherings that we used to attend because we become too busy?

• Are we enjoying it so much that we’re the only one who could benefit from it? Do we share our gifts and blessings to others, may it be our talents, the words and revelations of God, and our personal testimonies? 

• Do we spend it recklessly or in vain because we don’t know exactly how to use them? Are we always using the name of Jesus to declare or we do not even declare the words of God in our lives, heal the sick or we tend to prolong sickness before making it leave, cast out demons or we are the ones being deceived by the enemy instead of casting it out?

• Do we use God’s inheritance to give back the glory to the Father and as a sign of gratefulness? Do we remember God when we receive divine favors after victories in personal or in church’s activities?

Let us learn from the story of the prodigal son, 

Remember this: 

• Our inheritance is not coming from us but from God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to look at the giver and not focus on the gifts. 

• We have to be reminded that God is our inheritance Himself. Staying away from Him will stop us from having access to the things that we have. 

• We have to return to God if we catch ourselves wasting His resources and using it recklessly. 

• God is willing to accept us again. Repent. 

Luke 15: 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.