Heaven Comes to Earth, pt1
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 114
Heaven Comes to Earth: What do the Parables Really Mean?
[The Parable of the Good Samaritan]
Luke 10:25-27
And behold, a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
A QUESTION WAS ASKED
If you ask a good question, you have a good chance at getting a good answer. I like people who ask good questions. This is almost a good question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” A better question would be: “What do I do to live out my eternal life?” It’s not going that I’m to get eternal life. When we receive Christ, we receive eternal life now, and we live in light of that eternal life.
Jesus wants it to be about the here and now. He pointed him back to the law. Jesus’ authority was from the law. He didn’t come to bring new law or a new way of living. Jesus came to empower our life in a new way. He wasn’t changing the rules, but bringing a completion and empowerment to them.
Luke 10:28
And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
AN ANSWER WAS GIVEN
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind…” Those are four distinct things that he referenced as he quoted Deuteronomy.
1. HEART: The innermost being. The place of our deepest thoughts. Our private, intimated, covered self.
2. SOUL: The spirit. The wind part of this. The life-giving part of us.
3. STRENGTH: Our effort. Even in grace, there is an effort that takes place.
4. MIND: How we process things.
Luke 10:29
But wanting to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
There is a place in the Kingdom where you focus on what you do know and don’t allow what you don’t know to stop you. What Jesus is looking for is action. If you allow what you don’t know to paralyze you, there will never be forward movement because there will always be something you don’t know. We can fall into a bad habit: “If I only knew this, then I would do something.”
What do you know? What do you know about a situation in your life that you know needs action, but you don’t know everything? Just take that next step of faith. Do what you do know. You will be held accountable for what you do know.
Sometimes we pray about something and we get stuck there. We just keep praying and not moving forward in action. Prayer is not an excuse; it’s a vehicle. There have been times in my life that after praying and praying I didn’t know what to do, and I had to make the next logical step. It wasn’t that God wasn’t speaking; it was that Keith wasn’t hearing.
We are warming up to the parable of the Good Samaritan. I wanted to set the stage and have you think about the kind of questions you ask God. I wanted you to think about the kind of questions you ask other people.
Are we asking questions to relieve ourselves of responsibility? Or are we asking questions that will cause us to press into God and bear the responsibility that He wants us to have? Are we asking questions to excuse ourselves? Or are we asking questions that will make us more vulnerable and put us out there and make us use our faith?
This guy thought he was being smart and that he would negotiate around Jesus. It didn’t work. Even though he could quote Scripture, he couldn’t apply the Scripture. Jesus is about to tell him another story, but we will cover that next week.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
