“Seek His Kingdom”


Luke 12:22-37 (click to display NIV text)
July 28, 2013
Pastor Dwight A. Nelson

“For the pagan world runs after all these things (what you will eat and drink) and your father knows that you need them. But seek his Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

Jesus has been talking in this section of Luke about the goodness of God. He wants people to know about God’s love and his provision for them. He tells his disciples not to worry or be anxious, and not to live with a self-exalting sense of what to eat and what to wear. Joel Green points out that “Jesus can locate evidences of God’s generosity and care in the world all around him and so teaches an alternative approach to life.” This is where we might wonder about Jesus, or even disagree with him. Many people live with circumstances where they do not feel the provision of God. Darrell Bock writes, “Anxiety is a natural response to sensing events that are beyond our control. Worry casts doubt on God’s care.”

Again, Green writes, “What is so obvious to Jesus is obscure to many others, apart from faith in God and faith in God’s redemptive activity in Christ.” So today we come to the second part of the message on God’s goodness and provision: “Seek God’s Kingdom, and these things will be added to you as well.”

Kingdom seeking is an alternative way of life. Read more

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“Rich Towards God”


Luke 12:13-21 (click to display NIV text)
July 21, 2013
Pastor Dwight A. Nelson

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.”

A man interrupts Jesus with a request or a demand. He wants Jesus to be a judge between him and his brother so he can get his share of the inheritance. In the Gospels, demanding an inheritance never turns out very well. The Prodigal Son demands his inheritance too, and ends up in the far country starving and feeding pigs. Jesus has been talking about the goodness of God and about relying on God, the God who knows every sparrow. This man either just arrived, or else he was so consumed with his own thoughts that he simply had not been listening to Jesus.

Jesus does not become a judge in this family dispute. Instead, he discerns a deeper issue in the man’s life: greed and the confusion of possessions and salvation. Read more

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The Price of Sparrows


Luke 12:1-12 (click to display NIV text)
July 14, 2013
Pastor Dwight A. Nelson

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Indeed, not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Jesus said that in his day you could buy five sparrows for two cents. I wonder what they cost today. I do not get into the grocery store very often. What are sparrows selling for at Mariano’s today?

When we read this passage, we need to be reminded that yes, in Jesus’ day, poor people did eat sparrows, because it was an affordable way to get a little meat into the diet. If you were invited to someone’s house for wings back then, you had to keep that in mind. This illustration that Jesus uses to speak of the care of God presumes an audience of the poor, people who were easily overlooked or forgotten. Jesus says to them that God even knows about the little sparrows they eat. So he must also know about them, he must watch them and value them. The humble are not forgotten by God. Jesus is teaching his disciples about the goodness of God. Read more

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The Price of Sparrows


Luke 12:1-12 (click to display NIV text)
July 14, 2013
Pastor Dwight A. Nelson

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Indeed, not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Jesus said that in his day you could buy five sparrows for two cents. I wonder what they cost today. I do not get into the grocery store very often. What are sparrows selling for at Mariano’s today?

When we read this passage, we need to be reminded that yes, in Jesus’ day, poor people did eat sparrows, because it was an affordable way to get a little meat into the diet. If you were invited to someone’s house for wings back then, you had to keep that in mind. This illustration that Jesus uses to speak of the care of God presumes an audience of the poor, people who were easily overlooked or forgotten. Jesus says to them that God even knows about the little sparrows they eat. So he must also know about them, he must watch them and value them. The humble are not forgotten by God. Jesus is teaching his disciples about the goodness of God. Read more

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Light for a New Generation


Luke 11:29-36 (click to display NIV text)
July 7, 2013
Pastor Dwight A. Nelson

“For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.”

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

We have seen in Luke that Jesus proclaimed the goodness of God, and encouraged people to ask, seek and knock, for God is able to give good gifts. Life is very different when we open our lives to the goodness of God. In our text for today, Jesus speaks to the attitudes and behaviors that characterized people in his generation: a lack of repentance for sin, an inability to see what God is doing, a refusal to trust God. The goodness and kindness of God leads people to repentance, but many in the crowds around Jesus were not willing to repent.

Those who did not accept Jesus and his authority accused him of being a magician, of using the power of one spirit or demon to destroy the power of another demon. They tested Jesus by demanding a sign, a great miracle or perhaps something in the heavens. Jesus answered that their sign would be “the sign of Jonah.” What was that? Read more

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