Luke 16 Part II - Notes from Wednesday evening Bible Study meeting

     Before we begin to address the remainder of chapter 16 I received a short letter from a woman , whose first name is Carol. She is from the states and this It is her testimony from Luke 7.. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to share these things but the folks do it make us all understand that we are not alone in our doubts, fears and struggles as we go forth doing our best each day..

Luke 7.36 – 50.. I’ll just quickly read it to you for context…..

36 And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. 37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38 and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. 40 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? 43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 48 And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49 And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

Dearest Pastor Gil,

Wanted to share this thought from Mtg. notes that I jotted down while my thoughts and feelings were still fresh: Hope....Luke 7:

When the woman, considered a sinner, came to Jesus with a broken spirit, she came with a repentant spirit accompanied by "hope". She felt like a sinner, was a sinner; yet, she, by reason of hope in Jesus power and His care for her, dared to give all she had to be set free from her burden. This "hope" I read is the "confident expectation of God's promises." "The strength of our hope lies in God's faithfulness." It really touched me deeply, to think that we can approach Him, even in all our shame or guilt or need, with confidence because of His promises....to forgive, etc. I think when I approach God, I sometimes wonder if He will help me in my need, and question whether He even wants to help me. Not much confidence there. Afraid to have confidence. because I can't imagine having that right, the right to hope. Then, sometimes, I set about to help myself as much as I can....lots of doubt here. So, I am so glad to consider that when I approach God, I can have hope because He is faithful. Just some thoughts for today.

Yours in Christ , Sister Carol

Thank you Sister Carol for this heartfelt sharing today…

You know there are certain principals that can be applied as we study and ponder the scriptures.. We usually apply some of these as we press onward through our study; but here are five that I can share this evening in an organized way… I will list them for you and I’m hoping that they might contribute to your reasoning process as we press forward and open our minds and heart to the messages that have been left for us…

Each principle deserves explanations and examples in and of themselves but in the interest of time I’ll just list them tonight and possibly go into more detail on the webpage or in a video…

So there are five basic rules for studying the scripture, when you’re looking at any text of Scripture.Simplified…

Number one,

Every text must be interpreted in the light of its context, what's around it.

Ask yourself “What's the context here ”?

What's the purpose of it?

Number two,

Every text must be interpreted according to the words that are used in the sentence.

So you look at words and word meaning and verbs especially.

Number three,

Every text must be interpreted in the light of its grammar.

So you look at syntax and how words are connected and related to other words---all the stuff

you and I hated in English, grammar right? .

Fourth,

Every text of Scripture must be interpreted in the light of its historical background.

So you want to dig a little bit and find out what customs were and the kind of agrarian culture and ways of doing things.

And number five,

The fifth (hermeneutical) principle is that every text must be interpreted in the light of the unity of Scripture.

So you don't take any text out of context, and just say that's it, apart from other texts that bear on the truth that that text is mentioning.

So any text out of context becomes a pretext.

IT WAS THE INTENTION OF Christ to fulfil the scriptures so as we consider all aspects we need to understand how it fits into the bigger picture and is consistent with the purpose and mission of Christ..

Possibly these 5 guiding principles will be helpful…..

As for our current chapter..

What can we take from the first parable that Jesus told to the disciples ?…. To distil it and recap a bit , We cannot serve 2 masters.. Number 1 spot in your life must be either the world and all it has to offer or the Lord and what he has promised us; not just in this world but eternal life with him…

We also understand the way Jesus uses the word “shrewd”… And that is important because the concept had enough value to impart to the disciples on that day… The temptations of this world are great and the Devil is very shrewd because 2nd only to God he knows human nature the best and he is the great deceiver… But through the tests , trials and tribulations we prove ourselves in this life and as we do, we do not earn a place in heaven, because that is given us by God through his mercy and grace, but we lay up treasures or blessings in heaven… We survive the trials, tests and tribulations with God’s help. Through him all things are possible for us…. Through his love we can hope for the future and lay up treasures, not primarily of this world but for the next…

When the scribes and Pharisees heard this message to the disciples they began to mock him.. Luke continues in verse 14 and writes….

14 “And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. 15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

So now he's going to go right back to the Pharisees. I have said this before, but we should never think that Jesus was timid in the face of adversity… He was brave, forthright and direct in his messages to Jews and Gentiles alike.. But he expressed time and again particular distain for the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who created Jewish law and enforced it in the most brutal ways… Also keep in mind that there was, and is, 613 commandments in the Torah ..Only 10 commandments are God’s laws, are the 10 we live by as Christians.. The remainder, the 603 were compiled by the Scribes and Pharisees to largely control the behaviour of the people on the Sabbath… and of course Jesus knew full well that, as judgemental and self righteous, as were, the Scribes and Pharisees, they themselves were not able to keep their own laws… Jesus knew they were hypocrites and he told them so many times…

"He says to them, 'You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." That's one of those verses that I have always remembered, because when I first read it and digested it, It was such a slam to the values system held by the scribes… Keeping in mind that Jesus was speaking very publicly and was embarrassing the Scribes and Pharisees in front of their own people…So he turns their mockery back on them, publicly…. "What is highly esteemed among men, an abomination to God." And incidentally, the reverse would also be true… He continues….

16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. Every man is accountable , not to the Law of Moses, But to God’s law .. He says now the kingdom of God is preached…. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

It is worth noting the way Jesus referenced the Old Testament in the common manner, "the law and the prophets." "The law" is the law of Moses. Sometimes the word "Law" refers to just the Ten Commandments; other times the word "Law" refers to the first five books of Moses, the Torah or the Pentateuch. And other times "the law" refers to the whole of the Old Testament. But here "the law and the prophets" does refer to the Old Testament, the prophets or the writings and the preachings of the prophets.

Now Jesus points to a new way of God dealing with man based on grace through faith. So, "The law and the prophets were until John.

These Pharisees thought they were better than anybody else. They justified themselves before men.

And then Jesus gives just one example, one area of their lives where they did this, and that was in the area of their personal relationships: marriage and divorce. It was a glaring way of their disobeying the law. Look at verse 18. "Whoever divorces his wife and marries commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

I just want to be brief on this point.

There's one Old Testament passage that speaks of the divorce proceedings; and that is, Deuteronomy, chapter 24. If a husband finds some uncleanness in his wife and writes her a certificate of divorce---It talks about how that's done, what the parameters are---As it happens there were two schools of Thought on this within the Jewish community..

There was the conservative school of thought, and there was the liberal school of thought.

The conservative school of thought by---headed up by one rabbi named Rabbi Shammai, said, Uncleanness refers to adultery. If a wife commits adultery, that's what Moses was referring to in Deuteronomy 24."

However, there was another rabbi named Hillel who was more liberal, and he widened out the term "uncleanness" to almost every possible thing.

For example, if a wife spoiled her husband's dinner, this is written in the oral law, that is an uncleanness suitable for divorce….

If the wife goes out in public with her head uncovered, that's uncleanness.

If she is a brawling woman---that's a very broad description---that is an uncleanness.

If she derides her husband's parents or her in-laws, grounds for divorce.

Most Jewish men embraced the more liberal interpretation of this law….

There was another Rabbi who said who said uncleanness could even mean if that man finds a woman more beautiful than his wife in was a form of uncleanness and therefore grounds for divorce.

See, so in other words, by their interpretation of the law, their reinterpretation of the

law, they were divorcing their wives regularly and it was justified by one man made law or another….

For the Jews, at that time, There were no-fault divorce. And they didn’t even need a lawyer…

So Jesus strikes directly at the heart of their hypocrisy ..

Jesus says in effect that "You are doing nothing less than proliferating adultery all over the land."

I don’t think that I would want to be a Pharisee in that crowd that day.

Now, if this verse were the only verse on divorce for the Christian, this would be a

problem, but it is not. So Jesus gives this statement, but there are other statements that he gives.

And one of them is Matthew 19 where there's a discussion with the Pharisees about marriage and divorce. And they come to him, actually, and they ask him a question. "So, hey Master---or Rabbi, um, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?" So now that you know what the background is. They're thinking about what Rabbi Hillel said about that text, "any reason." So they're wondering, they're sort of grappling with, "Which interpretation should I follow?"

"So is it---is it lawful to just dump my wife because I find a prettier woman, or she puts

too much salt on my food? Is that good enough?"

And Jesus talks about not divorcing your wife for any reason except for---except for sexual immorality. Refer to Matthew 5.32

"Whoever divorces his wife for any reason, except for sexual immorality, it's wrong. He will commit adultery." Then they say, "Well, why then did Moses command us"---"Command us"? They turned a permission slip into a command---"to divorce our wives?" and they're referring back to Deuteronomy 24. He said, "He didn't give you a commandment. Because of the hardness of your heart he permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." And he quoted Genesis, " 'God made them male and female,' and 'for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, join unto his wife. The two shall become one flesh.' Therefore, they are no longer two but one.

And what God has joined together, let not man separate." Mark 10.9

So there is an acceptance clause for a believer, for a committed Christian, for somebody who is connected to Christ. The only reason that a person is permitted to leave a marriage situation is if the other person has been unfaithful and committed adultery.

So he is telling them , in front of their own people that they are just perpetuating adultery, because it's unlawful divorce, therefore unlawful remarriage. So, any other grounds leads to that kind of perpetuating sin. Hypocrites !

What Jesus is telling them is much more then they were requiring of themselves but not more than Moses himself required… So Jesus is illustrating the audacity of the scribes and Pharisees to deride him when it is evident that they do not even follow the law of Moses which the profess to subscribe to… Divorce is but one glaring example of this…

As we study and seek clarity of the Word of God we must seek all through prayer and meditation… Because the message of Jesus is a simple one; it confounded the scribes and Pharisees but provided for all people across the world hope for a better tomorrow and hope for eternal life…

You know that they also had a convenient theology that allowed them to see that God blesses those who are rich, but those who are poor must be under God's curse. Some believers are under that impression also, even today…Maybe you know someone who in their heart believes this? Jesus says ..this is verse 19….31 I will just read it to you….But I will read to you next time as we are out of time this evening. Next Wednesday we will conclude this chapter beginning with verse 19 .. the story of the rich man…

In closing lets pray,

Lord we are thankful for this gathering of souls here and the fellowship that it brings to us each week.. We ever seek your guidance to decipher your legacy to us, the scriptures. Help us to not only understand but allow us to so internalize these things so that they may shine through in our daily lives. Remember all those who are in need tonight spiritually and physically.. May we be healed by your mercy… We are thankful for prayers answered, for your unwavering love and patience..

We ask these things and express our gratitude in Jesus’s name..

Amen