Jason Locke's Blog

This week, our church in Fresno begins a three-month, congregational study on 1 & 2 Kings. The title of the study is "The Peril of Power & the Power of Prophetic Resistance." This material covers 400 years of Israelite history, from the ascension of Solomon in 961 BC to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Most of the prophetic books overlap with this time period. The books of 1 & 2 Chronicles mostly duplicate these stories. In other words, there's no shortage of biblical material spanning these four centuries. Covering all this in 13 weeks will be no easy task. As we'll see throughout our study, these books aren't purely history. While they certainly deal with the history of Israel and Judah, the books of 1 & 2 Kings provide theological reflection upon history. They give us a divine critique of Israel & Judah's failed experiment with monarchies. These stories show us in living color what happened when the people of God failed to...

This week's text (Luke 19:28-40) tells the story of Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem. But just what does this mean to us as informed readers of Luke's gospel? While Jesus claims the messianic mantle, he also redefines it. Luke is clearly working an angle here. He’s got a tale to tell, a sermon to preach, a message to get across. Do we have ears to hear it? Can we come to know Jesus through this text? Throughout Luke's two-volume set (Luke-Acts), we detect some important patterns. Geography is one important thread: toward Jerusalem in Luke and away from Jerusalem in Acts. Luke's writing also appears to address the politics of the day. By politics, I mean Luke takes care to demonstrate that the way of Jesus & his followers is not a direct threat to Roman rule. The Ephesian town clerk's speech in Acts 19 is one strong example of this. Jesus is certainly a king, Luke asserts, but not in the same way that Caesar is a king. They don...

Where is the kingdom of God? How can you spot it? And how can you get ready for it? As Jesus nears Jerusalem, some Pharisees ask him if the kingdom of God is coming soon. We can only guess their motives. Are they egging him on? Are they genuinely curious? It's common to assume, perhaps rightly, that they think Jesus will try to liberate Jerusalem. Some Jews no doubt hope for a strong leader who can make them great again. Others are spectators, hoping to see another failed conspirator crash and burn against the might of Rome. Perhaps there are a few genuinely drawn to the kingdom of God as described by Jesus—an upside-down kingdom in which the humble are great and the proud are humbled. But even these suffer from some confusion about Jesus' kingdom. The Pharisees are not typically among the genuine seekers. Luke makes this plain. "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, ridiculed him" (Luke 16:14). And elsewhere: "The Pharisees and the scribes were ...

It's not easy to follow Jesus in a Kesha and Kanye world. Fame is the desired destination for many people, and self-promotion is the clear path to get there. How can you find the path of Jesus in a world filled with so many other roads? Christians are supposed to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. But too many people—even many so-called Christians—sadly know little to nothing about Jesus. They may like their own caricatures of Jesus: homie Jesus, homeboy Jesus, gangster Jesus, hipster Jesus or buddy Jesus on a dashboard bobble-head.  For these folks, following Jesus amounts to little more than believing in a fairy godmother or guardian angel who wants them to be happy. And therein lies the crux of the problem. Too many folks think Jesus is all about their personal happiness. Their fascination with Jesus is not actually about Jesus. It’s in fact a sign of self-absorption or of a desire for personal fame, glory and importance. Clearly, these folks have not paid caref...

How well do you know Jesus? It's an ongoing quest to understand who Jesus really was. Throughout the centuries, Christians have grappled with the person of Jesus. How do we come to know him? Do we look inside our hearts? Do we search the pages of scripture? Do we look for him in the words & actions of others? Who was the real Jesus and how do we know him? Some have wondered aloud if the Jesus of faith and the Jesus of the Bible are one and the same. Perhaps the Bible, they say, has irreparably distorted the true picture of Jesus. Marcus Borg was a brilliant scholar. Before his premature death, he wrote prolifically for a large audience of scholars and Christians. Borg "re-imagined" Jesus for his readers. He in essence claimed that the Bible is a poor place to know Jesus without guidance from folks like him. The true Jesus, he said, is hidden behind the ancient texts which are warped and must be carefully sifted through. In his book Preaching from Memo...

The final installment in this Spiritual Arsenal series deals with scripture. Listening to God's word as spoken in the ancient biblical texts is a key weapon in your spiritual fight. Jesus defended himself from the devil with it, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."  By quoting scripture in his resistance, Jesus was modeling precisely how you can live on God's word. Just how exactly does God's word function in your spiritual battle against evil? Some folks will of course immediately protest that they can hear the Word of God through avenues other than the Bible. There's no doubt about this fact. God can speak through a sunset, in a piece of music, via the touch of another human being, or even through a donkey if needed. There's no serious argument about this. One could also point out that Jesus is the living Word of God. That's what John says in John 1:1. It's the message of the Hebrews write...

Why do we pray? Does praying actually change anything? Is prayer merely a psycho-therapeutic aid to calm our anxious spirits? The fact that I’m including prayer in this series hopefully conveys my belief that prayer is a vital part of our spiritual warfare. When Paul depicts the "whole armor of God" in Eph 6:13-17, he wraps it up with this: " Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me. " What does it mean to pray? For starters, prayer requires you to inquire what God’s true priorities are. You probably understand what it's like to request something from a powerful person, perhaps a boss, principal or community leader. You can't just get whatever you want simply because you request it. If your request doesn't align with the priorities of that powerful person, then your odds of success are slim to none. Now imagine coming i...