Episode 485

TODAY’S READING

37 Each day, Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

Luke 21:37-38

 

As I’m reading these verses in these different gospels, I clearly noted that if he came into Jerusalem, we learned about Psalm The yesterday, and if you continue reading, there are many parables that he teaches from that moment to when the Last Supper takes place and to when Judas betrays him, and he is arrested and so all of those parables he was teaching these sermons that he was essentially having at the temple, and I wanted to put myself in the shoes of the people attending. Could you imagine waking up and running to church to see Jesus preach to see him teach? That is something that we won’t have the honor of, in person or in our flesh, to do so. We go to church, and we listen to our pastors as they are inspired by Christ through their studies, and they get to share with us, or he speaks through them. I know that this podcast is very similar in the sense that I read and study, and I keep myself accountable for prayer. And so, along the way, you guys have joined me on this journey, and you have been accountable in your prayer. And so I know that we listen to God all the time. We have different resources to help us connect to him. But imagine the teacher in the temple at that time. Imagine being able to hear the parables coming straight out of his mouth. Imagine those sermons and what they look like, how much and how many people attended. Do you think that they had standing room only?

 

I could never really fathom what that would look like. But what I can do is read Scripture and learn the same material that these people learned and see that we don’t get that interaction, although we don’t get to wake up and run into the temple. And listen to him. We can open our Bibles and similarly read what he said, digest those parables, learn his Word, and apply it to our life. Two days ago, we talked about how blessing follows application. And so not only can we read these things, not only can we do we have the faith that God has for us, we have to apply what we learn, to feel the blessing come into our lives. We need to apply not only the Word, but we need to essentially change who we are every day, and we need to take up our cross as he has instructed us. We need to be people who want to study the Word, and so I know this podcast was started for people who are busy. That’s the slogan, you know, for the busy Christian, and I know that we all are, but I encourage us to take some time this weekend. 

 

It is a Friday, so maybe you find time this evening or tomorrow, or even on Sunday, and you get the opportunity to read a couple of the parables that follow this chapter. Go into the different gospels. And read what he was teaching because it’s almost like going back onto YouTube and watching an old sermon. We can open the Bible and read an old sermon. And the sermons come directly from the teacher himself. And so there’s so much to learn there, and I wish I had more than five minutes to dive deeper with you, but I encourage you to find the time to do so today. He is the best teacher that we have. He is someone that will literally change our lives if we apply what he says, and so I encourage us all to take some time to do so this weekend.

 

Prayer

Father God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank you that in this time leaving notes here death, you knew what was going to happen, and you still took the time to teach us. You did not resent the people. You did not run away from the people you faced what you had to do; you knew exactly what you were walking into. And you still got up, went to the temple, and taught; you still preached. And your disciples still recorded that for us to learn from today. And so we’re going to replay it this weekend. We’re going to take some time, and we’re going to read those parables, and we’re going to learn all the Utah because you are the ultimate teacher of our life. We know that when we apply what you teach, blessing follows, so we thank you for that. We thank You for Your Word. We thank you that it is alive today. We ask that you bless this Friday you bless this weekend. It is in your son’s holy name that we pray. Amen.