The lesson of this scripture: press on… stay focused on the prize of following Jesus Christ no matter what, to stay true to the calling of following the Lord. 

​Enemies may distract you from following Christ, but so can well meaning friends.  To follow Christ means to press on in the strength of your God-given conviction of the high calling the Lord has given you in Christ Jesus.   Your calling in Christ is to serve him according to the opportunities he has placed on your heart, to love him, to be a witness for Him, to grow in faith.  As long as we are alive on this sinful world, risk will always be a part of our calling and temptation will be a common theme. 

The scripture today is centered around a natural question, a curiosity question: How many are going to be saved by Jesus Christ?   READ Luke 13:22-23. It is an implicit question followers of Christ and curious people are still asking.  
​
We cannot put a percentage on how many will be saved, but the Bible is clear: some will be saved and receive eternal life and others will perish.  It is a sobering truth that does not sit well with those that want to believe a loving God surely must save everyone.  For those who deny God altogether it is ridiculous to believe there is life for anyone beyond this world.  The truth of the Bible: Some will live forever with the Lord and others won’t.  As we work through this scripture, I am not going to put a percentage on it.  I am hoping to flesh out words of encouragement and guidance for how Jesus teaches us to approach the question.  We will discover only God knows the ultimate answer.  We are called to take stock of our own relationship with Jesus Christ.  We are to live with hope, and expectation and share the most amazing message with the world that in Jesus Christ there is life.  Ultimate hope is found in Christ Jesus.  Amen!

I want to start this morning with a bit of review. A while back we talked about the Kingdom of God. This term is found throughout the New Testament. Luke uses it quite a bit as does Mark.Matthew uses the term Kingdom of Heaven, but most scholars believe he did that because as a good Jewish person he tried to avoid using the word God. The term itself is rather ambiguous. It is a bible term. By that I mean its not something you would ever talk about unless you had heard it in church.  Kingdoms are simply not something we think about. No one would ever say the Kingdom of Trump or the Kingdom of Obama. In fact if we did it would be because we are using it as a put down… A pejorative. We can’t really conceive of a good kingdom of any kind. This was not the case with the Jewish people. The people Jesus was talking to had an intimate knowledge of kingdoms.

Currently they lived in a kingdom. It was a kingdom ruled by the Romans through the use of governors. Pilot ruled over Judea and one of Herod’s sons ruled over Galilee, the region where this story took place.

“Walk with God” is one of the earliest phrases used to describe a person who is committed to God.  A list of descendents of Adam is given early in Genesis.  Gen. 5:24: “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him.”  Four generations later, another an is said to Walk with God, Noah.  Gen. 6:9: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”   Today, it is not rare to find people who Walk with God. Join the army of people who have committed their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus came to make disciples. 
 
This week I prayed with a woman who has walked with God for a lifetime: Bev Teshera, Annie’s mother.  She is in the Lynden Christian Health Care Center.  She always knows me even though she has dementia.   As I left I offered to pray for her.  “Of course” she said, and she moved to the edge of the bed and took my hands.  I prayed.  Then as I ended she prayed.  I will never forget her words: “Thank you Lord for this fine boy….”  She went on to pray a beautiful prayer for me, my family, ministry wherever it takes me.  I thought I was going to bless her, but she blessed me.  As I left the room I thought about Bev’s years of service with George, New England, Santa Cruz, the Philippines, Lynnwood, Bellingham… I knew of her high standards of faith as a young woman… her mind may be slipping, but her faith is as strong as ever.  Bev has spent a lifetime walking with God.  If you see her, ask her to pray for you, and see what happens!  

Do not cut yourself short!  God hasn’t given up on you, so why do you?  One of the most destructive attitudes you can have is to think that you can’t change!  TRUTH: You can become a different person.  The way you think can change.  The way you act.  The things you do.  The way you see life.  Depression can turn to optimism.  Living for yourself can transform into sacrificial giving for others.  Anger and fighting can give way to reconciliation on the horizon.  A life of worry can become acceptance to appreciate whatever the good Lord puts on your plate. 
​
You can be a changed person.  That is the message of gospel.  2 Cor. 5:17 proclaims: “…those who become Christians become new persons.  They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone.  A new life has begun!”  (NLT).  The promise of God is that the way you think, your values, your behavior, the way you respond to drama, can be transformed.  God does not give up on you, don’t you give up on yourself, don’t you accept bad behavior, sinful thoughts, destructive patterns.  Don’t you dare say, “this is just the way I am and I can’t change.”  You can, because the Lord Jesus Christ promises to be with you.  The Lord Jesus Christ came to redeem you.  Redemption is not only a future glory of eternal life with God, but it is a present transformation so that you become a different person.  

200 years before the birth of Christ. A Syrian King by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes ruled over Palestine. Antiochus was Greek by ethnicity and led a campaign to convert the Jewish people to Greek culture and religion. Those converted were called Hellenized Jews. Those who wouldn’t convert, rebelled against Antiochus.

Angry, Antiochus invaded Palestine and attacked Jerusalem, He tore down its walls and took over the temple. Previously he had allowed Jews to freely practice their religion. No more. He entered the temple and placed a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the holy of holies. He then stood before the alter and slaughtered a pig, took the blood from the pig, and rubbed it over everything in the Temple. Defiling it.
​
The Temple was taken over by him. Inside it, all forms of debauchery took place. Outside of it He banned all Jewish religious practices.