20190324 – Sunday- Paul and Di Duke

20190324. – Sunday – Paul and Di Duke

Sunday morning I was picked up by Fay B again and taken to South for the morning meeting.

I so am enjoying these trips back and forth to the meeting with Fay.

We have lots of scriptural discussions because Fay loves to study the Bible, and so we have lots to talk about.

Paul and Di D were at South this morning because Paul was giving the exhortation.

I used to spend quite a lot of time visiting with Paul and Di at at their home some years back when I was a member of Hyde Park ecclesia.

They have a beautiful home in Hyde Park set in a beautiful garden.

It is only a street away from what was once considered the most famous street in Adelaide, Victoria Avenue, Unley Park.

I “found” this street when I was a young girl when I was riding on my  bike and accidentally came across it.

It is a wide street lined with the most beautiful mansions and shaded by an avenue of beautiful plane trees that form a cathedral like tunnel overhead.

I was fascinated by this street, but when I left it I forgot to take note of its location and next time I went looking for it, I could not find it. 

I searched for that street for some years before I found it again. 

And now whenever I drive along this shady avenue  I drive slowly looking from side to side admiring the beautiful homes there.

It speaks of an Adelaide that doesn’t exist any more, a time of the gracious past.

Paul gave his exhortation based on Luke 16 which is one of the readings for the day from our daily reading chart.

He reminded us that many brothers and sisters will be reading this same chapter around the world today, because of the existence of this reading chart.

Paul told us that the parables contained in Luke 13v10 up to and including luke 18v10 were parables not contained elsewhere in the Bible.

He said that they were more allegories than parables, and that the whole Christian message is contained in each parable. 

Yet the first parable that comes to mind when we think about parables is  the parable of the prodigal son, in Luke 15, which tells us nothing about judgment.

Then in another parable Jesus told his disciples about a rich man who had put his affairs in the hands of a manager who mismanaged his affairs, Luke 16 v 1 and so he sacked him.

This manager found a way to be accepted into the “houses” of his masters debtors by reducing their debts.

You will note that some of the debtors were bought off more easily than others.

In the parable the rich man can be personified as God and Israel can be personified as the debtors to God.

Israel had squandered God’s blessings by their pride and self-interest.

Yet how are we to understand the master’s commendation to the steward for his shrewdness when he “made friends for himself of the “mammon” of unrighteousness.

The Pharisees loved money and they were trying to serve 2 masters v 13.

They had chosen mammon and not God, because they loved “the mammon of unrighteousness.”

Their sin was the perversion of the Law of Moses.

Luke 20 v 19 And the pharisees knew that Jesus spoke the parable against them.

We know that this parable was directed to the Pharisees and to us because God knows our hearts and nothing is hid from him.

What is valued by man is detestable to God.

What man values is Power, charisma and a high position in the world.

These things are all detestable in God’s sight and are described in Rev 17 v 4 as a cup “full of the abominations of the earth.”

These are the idols we can hold in our hearts.

We need to realise how transient these things are.

One’s financial situation can change overnight.

We can lose our position at work. It could be by the boss or our own poor performance.

Government lessers hang onto power. 

All these things are the “mammon” that God hates.

God spoke the parable of Lazarus and the rich man directly to the Pharisees in v 19.

Edward Gibbon, in the decline and fall of Roman Empire in page 176 spoke of how the Pharisees believed in the immortality of the soul.

Jospehus in page 63 tells how they believed that at death they descended into hades, where the good go to the right and the bad to Abraham’s bosom. 

Jesus used these beliefs to build his parable around, using language that the commons man of his day would understand. 

He brought out a spiritual lesson to the Pharisees that Lazarus’s had laid covered in sores whilst they enjoyed their ills-gotten gains.

The 5 brothers that the rich man spoke of in the parable could have been representative of the 5 sons of Ananias the high priest. 

The Pharisees had not listened to Moses and were unlikely to be convinced by the resurrection of Jesus Christ v31.

The Pharisees in this parable were confronted by 2 people risen from the dead, Lazarus and Jesus, and they would not believe, and so we must be different to them.

We should read Moses  and prophets and be convinced that Jesus is now our mediator and celebrate his death and resurrection.

Yet we can come here each week,but if our hearts are not in it we are no better than the Pharisees and we will be hypocrites.

We must live differently because of our beliefs and renew our vows each Sunday in our memorial meeting.

We believe that God has a purpose with the heavens and the earth and that we are followers of lord Jesus Christ.

But why should we believe that the Bible is a true record of our God?

Because it shows us the way of salvation, and makes predictions and prophecies of things which must shortly come to pass.

About Israel, both fulfilled and fulfilling prophecies.

Isa 43v10. Isa 43v10. Tell us that the Jews are God’s witnesses, v12, witnesses to the fact that “he is God.”

The very existence of Israel as a nation is a reminder that God is the creator and sustainer of heavens and earth.

He promised Israel that he would never destroy her as a nation.

Salvation by works is not effective, because we are only servants doing our duty, Luke 17 v10 and we are saved only by grace.

Heb 10 once and for all sacrifice of Christ.

We are advised not to stope meeting together v 25, because everything is not just about us, we are to encourage one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching.

V31 Tells us that it is a dreadful thing to fall in to hands of God. 

The emphasis is usually made of the fearfulness of falling into the hands of God, but I would like to suggest another application.

It could mean that we should in this life let ourselves be in “the hands of God,” surrendering our lives to him, letting  God take over our future.

By taken his cross and following him we can then approach the throne of grace with confidence that he will help us in times of need.

Could this be the “fearful thing,” of falling in to the hands of the living God, a blessing and not a curse.

After the meeting a group of us went across the Anzac Highway to Cibo’s for lunch and some very inspirational conversation around the exhortation.