{"id":11561,"date":"2020-09-20T20:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T03:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/luke_10_1-16-copy\/"},"modified":"2020-09-20T19:24:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T02:24:40","slug":"luke_10_17-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/luke_10_17-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Not In What You Do, But On What Jesus Has Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke 10:17-29\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Luke 10:17-29.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy ; nothing will harm you.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 17-20:\u00a0\u00a0The 72 that Jesus sent out return from their mission trips and report of how demons submitted to them in Jesus\u2019 name (v17).\u00a0\u00a0In response Jesus says, \u201cI saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven\u201d (v18).\u00a0\u00a0What does Jesus mean?\u00a0\u00a0I think there are at least two possible meanings here.\u00a0\u00a0One possible meaning is that Jesus is rejoicing with his 72 students over how the kingdom of God was triumphing over the kingdom of Satan.<\/p>\n

A second possible meaning for verse 18 is that Jesus is warning his disciples, because in heaven Jesus once saw Satan, who at one time was a powerful member of God\u2019s kingdom, suddenly fall from grace and ousted from heaven because he desired his own fame, power and glory more than he wanted God to be glorified.\u00a0\u00a0Thus verse 18 could be taken as Jesus warning his disciples to guard against pride and placing their hope in their accomplishments.\u00a0\u00a0At the same time it\u2019s Jesus encouraging them to keep placing their hope on the fact that they are children of God whose names are written in heaven (v20).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the lesson here?\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t base your hope, happiness or identity on your \u201cministry success\u201d but on God\u2019s love and mercy which made you His child.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another lesson we can learn from verses 17-20 is that\u00a0Jesus has given his followers authority to overcome evil spirits<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says in verse 19, \u201cI have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you\u201d.\u00a0 As a child of God, you have been given authority in Jesus Christ to overcome the enemy, including evil spirits.\u00a0\u00a0I talk about this in more detail in a message this past Sunday at THRIVE called\u00a0\u201cFree\u2026Finally\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Luke 10:21 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 21:\u00a0\u00a0The beautiful thing about God\u2019s kingdom is that God makes His kingdom available not to those who think they are so \u201cwise and learned\u201d, but to those who are humble enough to come to Jesus like unassuming \u201clittle children\u201d (v21).\u00a0\u00a0That is why the kingdom of God is not just for the rich alone or the poor alone, not just for the young alone or the old alone, not just for the educated alone or the uneducated alone.\u00a0\u00a0The kingdom of God is for everyone who is willing to humble themselves and recognize their need for a Saviour, no matter what background they come from.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the condition of your heart and in particular your humility toward Jesus that ultimately determines how much of God\u2019s kingdom you \u201cget\u201d.<\/p>\n

Luke 10:22 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 22:\u00a0\u00a0This verse shows us the close trusting relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son.\u00a0\u00a0If you want to get to know God, it\u2019s about getting to know Jesus, for it is Jesus who reveals who God the Father is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke 10:23-24 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 23-24:\u00a0\u00a0Jesus reminds his disciples just how blessed they are, for they are enjoying the presence, witnessing the power and hearing the words of the very one whom prophets and kings in the Old Testament had been waiting upon and writing about for centuries.\u00a0\u00a0May we never take for granted how blessed we are that today we get to enjoy God\u2019s presence, witness His power and hear His words through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Luke 10:25-26 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 25-26:\u00a0\u00a0A religious teacher of the law tries to test Jesus by asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.\u00a0\u00a0In reply Jesus asks him a question:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhat is written in the Law?\u00a0\u00a0How do you read it?\u201d (v26)\u00a0\u00a0From this we can learn an important lesson:\u00a0\u00a0whenever you have a question for God or about God, ask yourself, \u201cWhat does God\u2019s Word (the Bible) say about it?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Make it your habit, whenever you have a question about God or life, to search the Bible for the answer.\u00a0 You may just find that the answer you were looking for was already \u201cwritten in the law\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke 10:27-29 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”<\/em>
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 27-29:\u00a0\u00a0In response to Jesus\u2019 question in verse 26, amazingly this teacher of the law sums up the Jewish law by citing the very two commands that Jesus would use to sum of God\u2019s law (Matthew 22:34-38): love God with everything you have and love your neighbour as yourself.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps this teacher had heard Jesus give the same answer before and was repeating it back to him.\u00a0\u00a0But despite having the correct answer in his head (as Jesus would affirm in verse 28), this teacher of the law had the wrong purpose in his heart.\u00a0First, his entire motive in talking to Jesus was to \u201ctest\u201d Jesus (v25), that is, to stump Jesus and to possibly find a basis for accusing him.\u00a0\u00a0Second, this teacher of the law \u201cwanted to justify himself\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In other words, he was looking for grounds to support his opinion that he was already saved and had already \u201cinherited\u201d (i.e. earned) eternal life.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is very possible to know the right answers but still have the wrong heart.\u00a0\u00a0It is interesting (and most likely on purpose) that Luke places this incident right after quoting Jesus as saying that God has revealed His kingdom not to the wise and learned who are proud of their knowledge but to little children who come to God humbly (Luke 10:21).\u00a0\u00a0We want to come to God not just with the right head knowledge, but even more with a soft, humble and hungry heart, knowing that we don\u2019t have all the answers, but that Jesus is the one we need.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In order for anyone to \u201cinherit\u201d (i.e. earn) eternal life, it requires that he or she must perfectly obey the law of God, which is summed up with the two commands \u201cLove God with all your heart\u201d and \u201cLove your neighbour as yourself\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The problem is that none of us has perfectly obeyed those commands.\u00a0\u00a0All of us have fallen short of it and thus none of us is deserving of eternal life.\u00a0\u00a0Only Jesus obeyed God\u2019s commands perfectly and it is only through trusting in Jesus\u2019 perfect performance as well as his death on the cross that we can be saved.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, may my hope always be not in what I do but in what You have done for me.\u00a0\u00a0May my identity not be in my accomplishments, but in the gracious fact that my name is written in heaven and all because of Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Since it\u2019s not the proud \u201cwise and learned\u201d who get your kingdom but little children, I pray that every day I would come to You with a humble, hungry heart, always thanking You for the grace You have shown me and never taking it for granted.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Luke 10:17-29.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)\u00a0
\n17\u00a0\u00a0The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”\u00a0
\n18\u00a0\u00a0He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.\u00a0
\n19\u00a0\u00a0I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy ; nothing will harm you.\u00a0
\n20\u00a0\u00a0However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”<\/p>\n

On verses 17-20:\u00a0\u00a0The 72 that Jesus sent out return from their mission trips and report of how demons submitted to them in Jesus\u2019 name (v17).\u00a0\u00a0In response Jesus says, \u201cI saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven\u201d (v18).\u00a0\u00a0What does Jesus mean?\u00a0\u00a0I think there are at least two possible meanings here.\u00a0\u00a0One possible meaning is that Jesus is rejoicing with his 72 students over how the kingdom of God was triumphing over the kingdom of Satan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11562,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions\/11562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}