Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Jesus

  • Some Shall Stumble Before the Finish

    The Race of our Days

    1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

    So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

    2016 Olympic Gold Medal
    2016 Olympic Gold Medal

    ‘A gold medal for the winner’ we think as we watch the Olympics. One winner, two receive more also receive a medal from only a few qualify for the final race.

    Many more have come to the great race with hopes of victory, yet most will return home in obscurity with only a brief memory of coming up short of the prize, the gold medal of victory.

    From Rome Apostle Paul wrote back to believers in Corinth, a city just 131 miles [211 km] from Olympia. The Greeks, or Hellenists as they were called for centuries after defeat and domination under Rome, understood the imagery of the race – the race of life, even the race of eternity with distance we cannot see and a finish line known only to God.

    olympia457A thousand years before Paul the powerful King Solomon of the empire of the the United Kingdom of Israel had written:

    Ecclesiastes 9:

    11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time.

    “..time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. – Ecc. 9:11b-12

    Perhaps you believe your life will be a marathon, even a marathon of drudgery or pain or defeat. Maybe you think your finish line is far distant. Perhaps. Yet think once more of what you know.

    Do you know one who raced in life’s briefest of sprints? Were you startled at their sudden finish when they were no more?

    The Race Toward Heaven

    If you believe in the Lord God Almighty; if you believe that you were created for a purpose; then you seek the Kingdom of Heaven – the finish of life which ends in eternal reward.

    Jesus was asked about about Heaven, about the course of our race of  this life. What glimpse of the finish has our Lord given us? What course has God laid before us until we breathe our last with some hope of gold?

    If you could ask the Messiah of God, Christ Jesus a question about who God is going to save for eternal life wouldn’t it probably be something like this?

    “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”

    I’m not sure about you, but that’s what I think. I believe I am pretty special. (Maybe you do too.) Of course not everyone will be saved – most don’t want to be anywhere near God; but I do. You probably do too, as one of the few I believe Jesus will save.

    So the man asks about the finals thinking, ‘How do we get to heaven?’ Jesus gives us a glance at the eternal finish.

    Parable of the Narrow Door

    Luke 13:

    And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

    I would wonder: Lord, do you mean it’s a door at the end of life – a finish where I cannot see what is on the other side?

    25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

    Shocking! I ‘go to church’ and work for charities. We give money to causes. Good people like us hope Jesus will save us… And Jesus answers, ‘I do not know you?’

    26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

    27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from.

    Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’,

    I thought all the good I was doing would get me the Gold medal… Hell! Not Heaven, Hell – I have had enough of that in this life and Jesus calls me a worker of evil. How does a sinner like me escape Hell and be welcomed in Heaven?

    I have run the race…

    Did I mention that Paul, the former Saul of Tarsus was a great sinner?

    All of the Apostles including Paul preached repentance, true repentance and turning from what we were toward the sinless soul God wants us to be.

    The grace of God’s mercy overflows in forgiveness found only in Christ Jesus.

    You must be born again, sinless, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Have you had a false start in this life? Do you truly desire another chance though our Lord Christ, Living and resurrected Son of God our Father? Here the encouragement of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews:

    Hebrews 12:

    … let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.- Heb 12:1b-2

    6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

    7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

    For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. – Heb 12:11

    So the great sinner who once persecuted and murdered follower of Jesus repented. Paul sought to live his new life in Christ Jesus in purity and sinlessness to his highest ability; yet humbly acknowledged the sinful nature of his own – the sinful nature of you as well… even the most sinful tendencies from which my own flesh must turn daily.

    Paul states near the end of his life in a second letter to his successor Timothy, before being executed for his witness for Jesus Christ:

    2 Timothy 4:

    5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

    “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – 2 Tim 4:7

    8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

    The Gold Medal of Faith

    Paul is telling Timothy about the gold medal, the crown given only to one who wins the race.

    Do you stumble in the race of eternity?

    Lay all of your earthly crowns at the feet of Jesus. He IS Lord; Who IS and was and will be the keeper of the door beyond the narrow gate?

    Christ Jesus came into this world to crown sinners with grace – eternal life, His rich reward of God’s eternal love.

    Beloved of Jesus, do not stumble; for He stands at the door with His crown of righteousness.

     

     

  • Parable of the Talents and Barns – 2

    Parable of the Talents and Barns

    Parable of the Talents (conclusion)

    Gunny sack24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

    Now consider the three servants. One shrewd servant managed his master’s 5 talents well, in fact not only doubling his investment over time but receiving an extra talent of the not-s0-shrewd servant who hid it away in a miserly manner. The servant who received three talents was also twice blessed. The foolish servant ends up with nothing. Furthermore, he ends up in hell.

    Think about your money. Is it your money? Or is it money God has provided for you?

    The parable of the talents seems to beg the question: Are you investing God’s resources wisely?

    Parable of the Barns

    In the parable of the barns we have a man who has invested well; in fact so well that he has need of more barns for his crops. He is rich, yet the man is as miserly with his crops as the man who buried the single talent of his master, that is just one bag of silver coins, in the ground. The rich man is ready to retire with all the holdings he has earned over his days of hard work.

    Luke 12:

    16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’

    Did you know that the word ‘soul’ in Greek ψυχή the transliteration means psychē?

    What lesson does Jesus bring to the conclusion of this parable?

    Parable of the Barns (conclusion)

    And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ – Luke 12:19b

    20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

    Shocking! This man had it all. And then he dies suddenly.

    Could it happen? Could it happen to you?

    Could you die suddenly before enjoying your earthly reward, the harvest of your many days of hard work?

    Parable of the Talents and Barns (conclusion)

    Perhaps you have missed a connection between these two parables of Jesus. Jesus does not connect these two parables, yet you may have missed a common thread. This thread has more than a shekel of value in both parables. It is more of an umbilical cord with the complexity of a talent.

    baby in womb
    280 days of life before light

    Man has about 280 days in the womb even before birth. Add about 18oo days to reach school age and maybe 4000 more until this man or woman is ready to save enough shekels to start farming or working for a master in your workplace.

    An eighteen year old will probably not note these shekels of days; but many years later the same man will think that he has earned something. He has accomplished something. She has become her own woman.

    They have invested their days to gain and built their barns with little consideration of those dependant days when God ruled over their universe.

    Many have forgotten when our very life and existence was inextricably tied to our mother. We have not honored our father, who gave his own talents and crops that we might thrive in our mother’s care and under his watchful eye.

    10 Talents

    1 talent = about 3000 shekels (75 lbs)

    A loving father raised you in his home for a shekel of days. When you were ready to grow on your own he gave you everything you needed for your household during the days until his return.

    Your loving father gave you twice the talents of some, perhap ten for your shrewdness and even eleven.

    The day of His return you do not know.

    The average life of a man is about 80 years, perhaps about 30,000 days. By the accounting of your days as shekels your lifespan may be, God willing, about 10 talents.

    Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

    “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. – Mark 13:31-32

    Man is like a breath;
    his days are like a passing shadow. – Psalm 144:4

    Will you build a barn or will you invest each shekel of your days from the Lord wisely?

    Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. 

    – Ecclesiastes 12:7 KJV

     

  • Parable of the Talents and Barns

    Parables

    The word “parable” comes from the Greek word παραβολη parabolee. In the Greek para means beside, and ballo means to cast or throw. So parable, in a very basic sense,means to cast beside. The word “parable”, in its more developed sense, still retains that underlying meaning. [source]

    We know parables as stories Jesus would use to illustrate a point – a plausible story that could involve us as a character or participant. Typically we know a point of the story will involve some conclusion leading to a change in our thinking, a sort of paradigm shift (to borrow a 20th c. perspective of such an illustrative story).

    Talents

    One story of some familiarity may be Jesus’ parable of the talents. Before we hear it once more I ask you if you could define a talent. (No, it’s nothing like the show, ‘Britain’s Got Talent.’) If you guessed money, you get half-credit. (That was all I knew.) Let’s talk shekels first.

    30 pieces AA shekel is a Hebrew coin. It’s used as a measure of weight and money; coin-sized weighing 11.4 grams (.4 oz. US). A handful of shekels might be 30 pieces of silver (but Roman coins as pictured were likely worth more, like a US dollar in another country with unstable currency).

    Gunny sackA talent is much more than a handful of shekels: The shekel, in turn, was a 50th part of the maneh, and the maneh was a 60th part of the talent. The talent was, of course, equal to 3,000 shekels. [source] A talent in not the precise weight of commerce, but rather the larger calculation of accounting income over time.

    By weight 3000 shekels [one talent] would equal about 75 pounds [20-40kg averaging 33kg].

    Parable of Talents

    Matthew 25: 

    14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

    To be continued…