Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NASB
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But First, John Writes After this post initially came together, Dana and I talked about it and we’ve decided to do a little editing. We’re going to reverse the Biblical order—i.e., instead of starting with the Old Testament with Job and Habakkuk, we’re going to begin with some ideas of Jesus’. Dana thought the first section deals more with the Kingdom of God. (While I feel it is more of the cares of the world. Or perhaps the two are related?) While we think this is a page turner, that view might not be shared by everyone. So once again, rather than a really long post and valuable read, we’re going to make this a two-parter.
Jesus talked about the cares of this world several times. There is Mark 4:19, and the sowing of the seeds. Or what about the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-27. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+10%3A17-22&version=NIV And of course there was the rich man who Jesus warned about building more barns, and losing his soul Luke 12:16-21 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2012%3A16-21
One final thought before we begin. Carol, my wife, and I
were discussing this morning what might happen to us and to America, depending
on who gets elected in the imminent presidential election. I’m trying to change, but usually, I’m a glass
half empty kind of guy. One of my thoughts was that the cares of this life may
not matter too much after the election, because America as we’ve known it, may
be gone. IF that were to happen, our grasp on the things and
cares of this life should be quickly abandoned and we should turn to the
Kingdom of God.
So let’s look back several years to when this first began
after I telephoned Dana with, guess what, another problem.
+++++++++++++++++++++Dana responded to my telephone call to him:
It was good talking with you yesterday, even if the subject matter wasn't the most lighthearted. Still God is able, and He will provide your needs. I have been praying for you since then: 1) That God would provide you a job, 2) That God would send His peace to you and Carol, and, 3) That God would reveal His will for your live (lives) should it be different from what we are praying.
For most of my Christian life I have devoted a large block of my
devotional and study time to that concerning the end times, and the coming of
our Lord. Of late, I have found myself in Luke's depiction of the Olivet
Discourse in Luke 21. It is a passage that parallels Matthew 24 and Mark
13. It is a passage that can always start a "discussion"
even among committed students of the Word. It contains terms with
which theologians and pastors and Bible students have wrestled and debated
and disagreed for a long, long time.
The passage "telescopes" (as Alistair Begg puts it,) "...the camera zooms in and out) back and
forth between the near future (in that day) and the end of the world.” Because
Jesus moves between the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, and His final
coming, and doesn't give near as many details as to how those events are
going to play out, it unfortunately has given false license to many modern
Evangelicals to dream up or calculate out their own extra-Biblical
interpretations, and argue and argue and argue about them until they are
blue in the face. More sadly still, they
argue about them to point of division and hard feelings between brothers and
sisters in the faith. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t God’s purpose for
giving us Prophetic Scriptures.
The passage is much less about "...the times of the Gentiles," and
other such cryptic matters than it is about staying alert. In Luke
21:34-36 Jesus states:
34 “But take heed
to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness,
and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For
it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch
therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these
things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Now most Christians' hearts are not weighed down with carousing and drunkenness (hopefully), although Jesus did specifically warn of these things to the 12 who were closest to Him. But the third element of the exhortation is that of the "heart [being] weighed down with the cares of this life." That would lead to the point of Christians being unprepared for His unexpected coming. Interesting too that Jesus equates being "...weighed down [with] the cares of this life," "...with carousing and drunkenness."
Knowing that we have to take things
into context, I do find it quite curious "...carousing, drunkenness, and
cares of this life," are mentioned in the same breath. It's not "...carousing,
drunkenness, and..." adultery, or cursing, or looking at dirty pictures,
or brawling, or smoking opium, or stealing...” any of which most
Christians would naturally insert after "...carousing, drunkenness,
and...", but instead it's “worrying.”
Is being weighed down to the point of ineffectiveness and spiritual drowsiness
by worrying about the cares of this life equally as bad drunkenness in the
Savior's thinking? In Christendom we like little ditties like,
"Don't drink, don't chew [tobacco, I'm assuming] and don't be seen with
girls who do." We don't have so many ditties about being "...weighed
down with the cares of this life."
Jesus warned as much in His parable of the
sower and the seed, in Matthew 13, where He explains to His disciples the
meaning of said parable:
.
22 Now he who received
seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and
the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."
There is a thread there, don't you think? I am extremely aware of and
touched by your situation, and could I wave a magic wand and make it all right,
I would. I pray and beseech God on your (and Carol's) behalf, but I
cannot help but wonder if this situation might be a test--the word "might"
being the operative word here.
Yes the times are tough, and the situation
is tense and immediate, but could the "cares of this life" be causing
you to lose sight of the "...the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness?" Because in "Seek[ing] first the
Kingdom..." truly lies the answer to your dilemma.
Kingdom theology is largely ignored or reinterpreted to mean something else in
pop-Christian culture. The term "kingdom" is often relegated to
"Heaven," in the minds of many Christians especially because Matthew
uses the term "Kingdom of Heaven," whereas the other Gospel writers
say "Kingdom of God."
Two things:
First, Matthew was a Hebrew Jew writing to other Hebrew Jews. To use the
name "God" in that sense would be akin to writing a letter to
the NAACP and referring to Martin Luther King in the most disparaging way.
Matthew's audience would have immediately turned him off, if not instantly
sanctifying him with handfuls of great big rocks. Hence the
discrepancy.
Second, many see the term "kingdom" as referring to a
geographical location (i.e. God's Kingdom—stands for Heaven, the 'place' where
He rules), when in reality it is a term actually referring to time. Many
years ago I heard a lecture on The Kingdom of God by Dr. Gordon Fee, then of
Fuller Theological Seminary. He taught
that when one says the kingdom of Henry the VIII, it is not referring to
England, inasmuch as it is referring to the time in history when Henry the VIII
ruled England. Hence the Kingdom of God refers to the "time"
when God rules, not the place.
It's not that God has not always overseen
His creation, but as Mark, in his Gospel points out, Jesus entered His ministry
proclaiming that "...the Kingdom of
God is at hand (or near)." Also if one would care to do the
study, one would find that the subject about which, Jesus taught the
most was on the Kingdom of God. Hands down. That’s a great trivia
question at Christian get-togethers. Nobody gets it
right. They guess everything but the
Kingdom of God. But I digress….
The seeking first of Jesus' reign in and over
your life is the most important thing you can do in this life. And the
earnest doing of that will see all things added to you—that you need, not
necessarily what you want. Your real need is a bigger vision of Christ.
(This is continued. See Part 2 next week)
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