Be generous in the pursuit of God.
Luke 11 v 52-54 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.”
Be generous in the pursuit of God.
The Pharisees knew their Scriptures. Well, they had memorised huge chunks of the Old Testament, if not all of it. Yet in this 6th and final woe Jesus says they lacked knowledge. He says to the so-called experts in the Law of Moses that what they have memorised they have failed to understand. Worse than that, with all their man-made rules surrounding the Law, they have prevented others pursuing that understanding.
Many years ago I attended a meeting that was only for a few certain Pastors that had been invited by another Pastor. There were around 7 Pastors sat with this Pastor listening as he described a new model of Church that he had discovered and had entered into the revelation of. (The sooner we realise there isn’t anything new under the sun the better!).
As we sat around the table, the said Pastor described a little of this model/revelation of Church, but he said that we were not ready to understand the full revelation of it. I said, ‘Give us everything, get it all on the table, because this doesn’t sound all that special, what’s the missing treasure?’ He became offended that I had asked such a question and this served to show him that what he had learned which was that the mainstream church would never accept what he had now become a follower of. His response was, “I have it all. It is right here in my briefcase. But I won’t show you. Because you are not ready yet. Your heart isn’t right.” We did plague him a bit for having something in his briefcase. It sounded rather spooky to the rest of us.
He wasn’t very generous in the pursuit of God.
Being generous means this. I am on the way to finding God and understanding what this life on earth is about. I haven’t got there yet. As I get older I seem to know less and want Him more. Join me. Together is better.
The experts still exist. They outwardly proclaim special revelation and look down on those who don’t see things the way they do or they wrap it up in complexities that no one would ever truly understand.
That day we left the table and went home. We never got to see what was in his briefcase.
Luke describes how Jesus left the table and went outside. He leaves the meal.
Hostility will always rise when Jesus leaves the table. If we lose His presence we have lost it all.
Missions Paul 