The book of Revelation has long fascinated people. The best way to understand this book is to pay careful attention to the introduction. Brian Watson begins this sermon series by preaching on Revelation 1:1-8. This sermon was preached on January 3, 2021.
New Testament
Why Are You Troubled?
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on Resurrection Sunday, April 12, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
I want to begin by asking you three questions. One, how are you feeling today? How are you doing? Some of us might feel great: Weâre three weeks into spring, warmer weather is coming, and the Red Sox havenât lost a game yet this season. Others might not feel so great, especially in this time of the coronavirus pandemic. Some of us may feel anxious, or trapped in our own homes, going stir crazy. Some of us may be worried about finances. Others may be worried about our loved ones. And some of us might not feel well in general. Weâre battling health problems, weâre lonely and depressed, and we donât feel very hopeful right now.
That leads me to my second question: What are you putting your hope in? Many of us are looking forward to getting back to what we usually do, such as spending time with people we love, working outside of the home, going out to eat, going to the gym. We may put our hope in little things, like eating a nice meal, reading a book, or watching a new movie. We may hope for bigger things: Some of us are hoping that our health will improve, or that weâll get a promotion. Some of us are looking forward to graduating, or moving, or getting a new job. Some of us may not see hopeful things on the immediate horizon, so weâre putting our hope in ultimate things, that one day God will make all things right. Some of us may have little hope at all right now. Though itâs the beginning of spring, some of us are stuck in fall, where everything is decaying. Some of us are stuck in winter, where everything is dead and barren.
That leads me to my third question: What is troubling you today? What has disappointed you? What has you feeling down? Sometimes we feel troubled simply because we live in a world where things go wrong. We live in a world where our bodies break down and we die. We live in a world where people treat each other poorly. We may also feel down because we had our hopes set on something, and then that hope was crushed. Often, itâs that gap between our expectations and reality that troubles us. We hoped for a relationship that ended. We had hopes for a job that we didnât get. We had hopes that seeing a new doctor, or even having surgery, would fix our bodies, and yet weâre not healed.
Today, itâs Easter. We remember the resurrection of Jesus. And as we remember that, weâre going to look at a passage that speaks to our troubles and our dashed dreams, but also speaks to a great hope that we have.
Today, weâre going to look at Lukeâs Gospel, one of the four biographies of Jesus that we find in the Bible. If youâre not used to reading carefully through the Bible, this may be new to you. Christians believe that the Bible is ultimately from God. The Bible is the way that God reveals himself most clearly. So, we consider it carefully. Otherwise, we would simply be making things up about God. And thatâs one of humanityâs biggest problems. We try to make God in our image, after our likeness. But God has said that he has made us in his image. Weâre supposed to conform to him, and not the other way around.
Today, weâre going to read Luke 24. Weâll start by reading the first twelve verses:
1Â But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2Â And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3Â but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4Â While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5Â And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, âWhy do you seek the living among the dead? 6Â He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7Â that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.â 8Â And they remembered his words, 9Â and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Â Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11Â but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12Â But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.[1]
The setting is a Sunday, just outside of Jerusalem. Jesus had been crucified on a Friday. Though he had done nothing wrongâas Luke makes clear (23:4, 14, 22, 47)âhe was treated as a criminal. The Jewish religious leaders didnât believe that he was the Messiah, the promised King of Israel. They didnât believe he was the Son of God. They thought he was blaspheming. They also were jealous of him. So, they wanted to kill him. To do that, they brought him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Empireâs governor over Judea. Pilate didnât think Jesus was guilty or a threat to Rome, but he wanted to make sure that the crowds in Jerusalem didnât break out into a riot. So, he had Jesus killed. After Jesus died, he was buried in a rich manâs tomb. Weâre told that a number of women who had followed him saw where he was buried.
Now, we see that the women come back to the tomb on Sunday morning. They were going to anoint Jesusâ body with spices, which was a practice that people did at the time, in part to keep the decomposing body from smelling.[2] You can imagine their surprise when they return to the tomb and find it open and empty. They see a couple of angels. They remind the women that Jesus had predicted his own death and resurrection (Luke 9:21â22; 18:31â34). So, the women go and tell Jesusâ eleven apostles what had happened.
How do the apostles respond? Do they say, âOf course! We have absolutely no problem believing that dead bodies come back to life!â No, they donât respond like that. Weâre told, âthese words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe themâ (verse 11). Why wouldnât Jesusâ own apostles believe? After all, Jesus had told them at least twice that he would be raised from the dead. I suppose there are three reasons why they didnât believe. One, people knew then, just as people know now, that dead people simply donât come back to life. Anybody would find this news hard to believe. Two, people in Jesusâ day werenât expecting that one person would come back to life in the middle of history. British theologian N. T. Wright has talked about this quite a bit. He says that Gentiles werenât expecting this sort of thing.[3] He says that Jewish people ânever imagined that âresurrectionâ would happen to one person in the middle of time; they believed it would happen to all people at the end of time [Dan. 12:2; John 11:23â24]. The Easter stories are very strange, but they are not projections of what people âalways hoped would happen.ââ[4] So, the apostles werenât expecting that a man would come back from the grave in an indestructible body in the middle of history. Hereâs the third reason they didnât believe: In that day, women were not regarded as trustworthy witnesses. In the first century in Palestine, a womanâs testimony was almost useless. In that male-dominated society, a womanâs testimony would be heard in court only in rare cases.[5] Now, to be clear, the Bible has a very high view of women. The Bible doesnât teach that women canât be believed. But at this time and in this place, a womanâs testimony wasnât credible. In fact, thatâs one of the more significant bits of evidence that shows that this story is true. If someone were making up this story, they wouldnât have chosen women to be witnesses.
Whatâs interesting is that most of the objections that people have to the resurrection of Jesus are brought up in the Gospels: âWe canât believe it. Those people who saw the empty tomb or the resurrection must have seen a vision. They were really hallucinating. Someone must have stolen the body. This is simply too good to be true.â But it is true, and there are many good reasons to believe itâs true. If you want to learn more, go to wbcommunity.org/resurrection.
Luke leaves that scene with Peter, one of the apostles, confused. Then he shifts to another scene. Later that day, two other disciples were heading to Emmaus, and on the way there, they were met by a stranger. We read about that in verses 13â24.
13Â That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14Â and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15Â While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16Â But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17Â And he said to them, âWhat is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?â And they stood still, looking sad. 18Â Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, âAre you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?â 19Â And he said to them, âWhat things?â And they said to him, âConcerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20Â and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21Â But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22Â Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23Â and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24Â Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.â
Here, we find two disciples, one of whom is named Cleopas. They are returning from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. At first, they donât recognize Jesus. And theyâre sad. When Jesus asks them what happened, Cleopas starts to say that Jesus was a prophet who worked miracles and spoke amazing things. He says, âwe had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.â Even though they had heard the report from the women, and even though they knew the apostles had found the tomb empty, it seems like theyâre crushed. They donât know what to believe. They certainly donât seem hopeful. The reason they were so crushed is because they thought that the Messiah would come and deliver Israel out of captivity to the Roman Empire. They were hoping for a political savior, and Jesus obviously didnât defeat the Roman Empire. They donât understand why Jesus died, and they canât believe he was raised from the dead. You can tell they really didnât believe the womenâs report, because Cleopas says they had a âvisionâ of angels. He doesnât say they actually saw angels. And though the disciples found the empty tomb, no one seems to have seen Jesus alive.
Now, before we move on, try to put yourself in their shoes. Imagine you had your hopes set on something. Your dreams seemed to be coming true. And then, suddenly, those dreams are dashed. Now, today you may very well be hoping for a political savior. You may have your hopes wrapped up in who wins the next election. You may hope that your health will improve, or that youâll get a better job. Some of you may hope that a relationship will improve, or that youâll find the man or woman of your dreams. But what happens when the thing you hoped for doesnât come true? What happens when you get the thing you hoped for, but that thingâor that personâturns out to be a disappointment? What happens then?
And letâs push this further. What happens if you get a great job, and make a lot of money? What then? Are you happy? What happens if you have a great family? Will you be completely satisfied? These things donât last forever. The fact is that we live in a world where we lose things. We lose money and jobs and good looks and good health. And, eventually, we will lose loved ones and our own lives to the grave. In a world where even the best things can disappoint us, and when the best things have an expiration date, where you put your hope? Do you have an answer? Or do you just refuse to think about it? Itâs something worth thinking about. In a world of death, where do we find hope?
Thereâs an interesting book by a French philosopher, who happens to be an atheist, named Luc Ferry. The book is called A Brief History of Thought. He begins by saying that the great problem for humanity is death. He says weâre different from animals because âa human being is the only creature who is aware of his limits. He knows that he will die, and that his near ones, those he loves, will also die. Consequently he cannot prevent himself from thinking about this state of affairs, which is disturbing and absurd, and almost unimaginable.â[6] He asks, âwhat do we desire above all else? To be understood, to be loved, not to be alone, not to be separated from our loved onesâin short, not to die and not to have them die on us.â[7] He says that the fear of death keeps us from really living, because weâre anxious about the future. What is the answer to this problem? Is there an answer? We can either hope that there is answer or we can give up hope and assume there is none. What is the answer for you?
Iâll come back to that idea, but first letâs come back to Lukeâs words to see what happened next. Iâll read verses 25â35:
25Â And he said to them, âO foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Â Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?â 27Â And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
28Â So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29Â but they urged him strongly, saying, âStay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.â So he went in to stay with them. 30Â When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31Â And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32Â They said to each other, âDid not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?â 33Â And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34Â saying, âThe Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!â 35Â Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
When Jesus first encounters these two disciples, they donât recognize him. They donât see him. And they didnât understand what Jesus had done in dying. They didnât believe he had really risen from the dead. But now, they finally see who has been walking with them. But they donât see Jesus until they do two things. First, Jesus tells them that they were slow to believe all that the prophets had spoken. He asks, rhetorically, âWas it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?â The Christ is another way of saying, âThe Messiah.â What Jesus means is that these two Jewish men should have known the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, well enough to know that the Messiah would suffer and die. Jesus was probably referring to the famous passage in Isaiah 53 about a suffering servant who would die for the sins of this people and make them righteous. He could also have referred to a number of Psalms that speak of one who suffered (such as Psalm 22). And then weâre told that Jesus has a Bible study with these men: He interpreted all that the Old Testament said about him, from the first five books of the Bible (âMosesâ) through the Prophets and beyond.
Now, you wonât find the name âJesusâ in the Old Testament of your English Bibles, though the equivalent in Hebrew is âJoshua.â But what Jesus means is that, one way or another, all the Old Testament is about him. The Old Testament certainly shows the need for Jesus. The Old Testament reveals our condition, that we were made to have a relationship with God, but weâve turned away from him. Therefore, we are separated from God and separated from each other. We fight, we experience pain, and we die. There are things like natural disasters and viruses in the world. But the Old Testament also promises that one day God would make things right. He would do this through a descendant of Abraham, the patriarch who lived two thousand years before Jesus (Gen. 12:1â3; 22:18; Gal 3:16). He would do this through a prophet like Moses, who would reveal Godâs word (Deut. 18:15â19.) He would do this through a descendant of King David, a perfect king who would rule forever (2 Sam. 7:12â13; Isa. 9:1â7; 11:1â9). And he would do this through that suffering servant, who, though he was righteous, would die for his peopleâs sins, so that they could live (Isa. 52:13â53:12). Also, all the many kings, prophets, priests, sacrifices, the tabernacle and the templeâall these things point to Jesus.[8]
Hereâs the second thing that happens before these disciples can see Jesus. They eat with him. The words that are usedââhe took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to themâ (v. 30)âare very similar to the words used in Jesusâ Last Supper with his disciples (Luke 22:19). What does this mean? Well, eating with someone means fellowship. It means sharing with someone. In a very real sense, these disciples are sharing something life-giving with Jesus. And Jesus is the one who is serving them the thing that gives life. In Johnâs Gospel, Jesus says that he is âthe bread of life.â He says, âI am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirstâ (John 6:35). Of course, Jesus is speaking metaphorically here. He means that he gives life. He gives spiritual life. He satisfies the hunger of our hearts. He quenches our spiritual thirst. And, as God, Jesus literally sustains life and can cause us to live forever. Just a few verses later in John 6, Jesus says, âTruly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drinkâ (John 6:53-55). Now, Jesus isnât advocating for cannibalism. Heâs speaking metaphorically. Heâs saying, if you want to liveâtruly liveâI need to be your spiritual food. If you want to live forever, I need to be your spiritual drink. In other words, we need a steady diet of Jesus in order to have real life.
Now, why do I bring these things up? Hereâs the point: In order to see who Jesus really is, we need to see him in the Bible. We need to spend time with Godâs word. We need to read good chunks of it, not just little crumbs here and there. We need to feast on the Bible in order to know who Jesus really is. Otherwise, weâll never really see Jesus. And we need to âfeedâ on Jesus, in the sense that we need to spend time with him. How do we do that? Coming to church is a great start. So is reading the Bible. So is praying. But the fact is people will never really know Jesus unless theyâre willing to âtaste and see that the Lord is goodâ (Ps. 34:8; Heb. 6:5; 1 Pet. 2:3). If youâre not willing to read the Bible a bit and spend some time in a church that actually teaches the Bible, youâll never really know Jesus. You wonât know what heâs like. And, according to Jesus, you wonât have the hope of eternal life. But if youâre willing to pursue Jesus, he may open up your eyes so you can see him as he truly is.
After Jesus opens the eyes of these disciples, he disappears. And the disciples go back to Jerusalem so they can tell the apostles what happened. And just as they do that, who shows up? Letâs see in verses 36â43:
36Â As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, âPeace to you!â 37Â But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38Â And he said to them, âWhy are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Â See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.â 40Â And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41Â And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, âHave you anything here to eat?â 42Â They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43Â and he took it and ate before them.
Of course, Jesus shows up. Again, the apostles canât believe it. They arenât expecting to see Jesus, even after they hear reports from the women and from these disciples. At first, they think Jesus is a ghost. But Jesus says, âLook at me. Canât you see itâs me in the flesh? Touch me, canât you see this is a real body?â Ghosts donât have real bodies. And they donât eat. But Jesus does. Some people have claimed that the apostles actually hallucinated, or that they had some kind of spiritual vision of Jesus. But that couldnât have happened. Groups of people donât have hallucinations. And the New Testament makes it clear that Jesus actually rose from the dead, in a physical body (see 1 John 1:1â3). He rose in a body that cannot die again (Rom. 6:9).
And how do the disciples respond? They marvel. They were incredulous. Itâs not that they didnât believe in Jesus. Itâs that they couldnât get over the fact that a dead man was now alive again. They thought it was too good to be true. So, they âdisbelieved for joy.â In the midst of their amazement, they experienced great joy. Their hope was still alive.
Then Jesus does what he did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He tells the apostles that his death and his resurrection were in accordance with all of the Old Testament. He helps them understand the Old Testament. We see this in verses 44â47.
44Â Then he said to them, âThese are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.â 45Â Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46Â and said to them, âThus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47Â and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
When he says, âthe Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,â heâs referring to the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible. This is the same content that we find in the Old Testament, but in a slightly different order. The point is that the whole of the Old Testament is about Jesus, and he came to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). Jesusâ death and resurrection were all part of Godâs plan. Why did God have this plan? God sent his Son so that people from all nations would repent and find forgiveness in Jesus. Repentance is turning away from your present course and turning to God. Itâs changing your mind about what is true and right and ultimate. But itâs more than changing your mind. Itâs changing your heart and your actions. The Bible promises that everyone who turns from their old ways and turns toward Jesus will be forgiven. They will be forgiven for rejecting God, and disobeying him, and simply ignoring him. Those who turn to Jesus will have eternal life. Though they die in this life, thatâs not the end of the story. One day, Jesus will return to fix everything. When he comes, everyone will be raised from the dead. And all who are united to Jesusâeveryone who has repented of sin and trusted in Jesusâwill live in a perfect world, where there is no more pain, and decay, and death.
So, what does it look like to repent and have faith in Jesus? The quickest way I can say it is this: Agree with God.
Agree that he made us in his image, and not the other way around (Gen. 1:26â28). He is the ultimate truth, not us. Weâre not the center of the universe, but he is (see Rom. 11:36).
Agree that though he made us to have a right relationship with him, one that involves love and worship and obedience, we have not loved him and worshiped him and obeyed him as we should. At best, we ignore God. We donât think of him. We donât thank him. We donât bother to learn what heâs like. We donât spend time with him. We donât try to please him. At worst, we know thereâs a God, we know what he wants us to do, and we donât do it (see Rom. 3:23).
Agree that because we donât live as we should, God has every right to remove us from his good creation forever. And when we are removed from the source of all that is good, the source of life, we find death. Thatâs what we deserve (Rom. 6:23).
Agree that though we deserve that God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world (John 3:16)
Agree that Jesus is God and man (John 1:1, 14; Rom. 1:3â4).
Agree that he lived a perfect life (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:22). He never failed to love, worship, honor, represent, and obey the Father. He is the only one who has done this.
Agree that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin (Col. 2:13â14).
Agree that he rose from the grave, showing that his death was acceptable to God, that he is the only way to eternal life, and that all his people will one day be fully restored (Rom. 4:25).
Agree that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God, and that turning to him is the only way to be accepted by God (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
Agree that Jesus is your King and start living for him (Rom. 14:7â8; 2 Cor. 5:14â15).
I could go on and on, but thatâs basically what it looks like to put your trust in Jesus.
The end of Lukeâs Gospel brings us to where the book of Acts begins. I preached through that book four years ago, and you can find all those messages on our website.[9] At the end of Lukeâs Gospel, he tells his followers that they are witnesses to what he has done. He tells them that he will send the Holy Spirit to them. Then he blesses them and ascends to heaven.
48Â You are witnesses of these things. 49Â And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.â
50Â Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51Â While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52Â And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53Â and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Earlier in the sermon, I asked how youâre feeling. I asked what was troubling you. Are you troubled by the past? Perhaps you have regrets about the wrong things that youâve done. Look back further into the past, to the cross where Jesus died to pay for failures. If you turn to Jesus, he has already taken care of everything youâve ever done wrong. Perhaps others have harmed you in the past. If you turn to Jesus, you can trust that Jesus will take care of all wrongdoing. He will judge everyone who has ever lived, and he will vindicate you.
Perhaps youâre troubled about the future. If you turn to Jesus, no matter what happens, in the end everything will work out for your good. You will be raised from the dead in a glorious body that can never die, and you will live in Paradise with him.
No other religion or philosophy offers what Christianity does. The good news, the gospel, addresses the problems of our past and the worries of our future. No other system of thought offers the hope that Christianity does. Earlier, I mentioned an atheistic philosopher named Luc Ferry. Even he acknowledges, âI grant you that amongst the available doctrines of salvation, nothing can compete with Christianity.â Yet he then states that while he finds the faith appealing, he doesnât believe it.[10] Whatâs interesting is that earlier in his book, he acknowledges that when he studied as a university student, he knew nothing of Christianity.[11] In his own words, âfor years I knew more or less nothing about the intellectual history of Christianity.â[12]
I find that is often true: Christianity is often poorly understood. It has not been weighed and found wanting. No, itâs simply not been weighed by many. Itâs often misrepresented or marginalized and ignored. Whenever itâs portrayed in mainstream media, itâs almost guaranteed to be misrepresented. Often, even people who claim to be Christians misrepresent Christ. Iâm doing my best to present it truly and thoughtfully here. All I ask is that you would take the time to learn about Jesus. You can read about the evidence for the resurrection on our website.[13] You can learn about Jesus by making use of our website. You can explore a sermon series called âWho Is Jesus?â[14] Most importantly, you can do that by reading the Bible. To know Jesus, you must search Jesusâ Scriptures and spend time with him. And if you taste and see, you will see that he is good.
Notes
- Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- âThe Jews did not embalm, so the spices and perfumes help to calm deathâs stench and slow decomposition.â Darrell L. Bock, Luke: 9:51â24:53, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1996), 1877. â
- âNobody in the pagan world of Jesusâ day and thereafter actually claimed that somebody had been truly dead and had then come to be truly, and bodily, alive once more.â N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2003), 76. â
- N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 192. â
- Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian, writes in his Antiquities 4.8.15, âBut let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.â â
- Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living, trans. Theo Cuffe (New York: Harper, 2011), 2â3. â
- Ibid., 4. â
- Jesus also says the Old Testament is about him in Luke 24:44; John 5:39. â
- To listen or read sermons in this series, visit https://wbcommunity.org/acts. â
- Ferry, A Brief History of Thought, 261, 263. â
- According to Ferry, when he was a student in the last 1960s, âIt was possible to pass our exams and even become a philosophy professor by knowing next to nothing about Judaism, Islam or Christianityâ (ibid., 55). â
- Ibid. â
- https://wbcommunity.org/evidence-resurrection-jesus-christ, or https://wbcommunity.org/resurrection. â
- https://wbcommunity.org/jesus. â
Why Are You Troubled?`
What is troubling us? Usually, we’re troubled because we expected something or hoped for something and didn’t get it. But if we understand who Jesus truly is and what he came to do, and if we put our hope in him, we will not be disappointed. Listen to this message from Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020.
(The sound quality isn’t great. That is true for the last three or four weeks. We’ll work to improve sound quality going forward.)
Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit
This sermon was preached on April 5, 2020 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
Itâs interesting to see how people react to this pandemic we find ourselves in. Some people donât take it very seriously. There were stories of college students on spring break who werenât going to let a virus stop them from their vacations. And some of them became sick.[1] Itâs not surprising that some young people wouldnât think much about their own mortality and the mortality of others. On the other end of the spectrum, some people are very afraid. Some people are afraid of getting sick, or theyâre afraid of their loved ones getting sick. I think more of us are afraid that this situation will cause other problems. We think weâll lose our jobs, run out of money, or run out of food and basic household supplies. Why do people hoard? Because, at the end of the day, most people fear death.
This pandemic only highlights what was and has always been a reality: We will all die. Thatâs a hard truth. But I think itâs a good thing to think about death, for the very reason that we will all die. In one of the most fascinating books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, we read these words:
 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart (Eccl. 7:2).[2]
Death is a great teacher. Since weâre all going to die, we should think more carefully about what matters most in life.
One of my favorite philosophers, Blaise Pascal, thought deeply about the meaning of life. He uses this illustration to shock us to think about the meaning of our lives:
Imagine a number of men in chains, all under the sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of the others; those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows, and looking at each other with grief and despair await their turn. This is an image of the human condition.[3]
Thatâs a cheery thought, isnât it? Weâre all sentenced to die, we see other people much like us who receive that sentence, and we know our time is coming.
Since that is the case, itâs foolish not to think deeply and carefully about death. If death is a great teacher, what should it teach us? Thereâs a great book called Remember Death, written by Matthew McCullough, that came out a couple of years ago. In that book, McCullough writes these words: âDeath makes a statement about who we are: we are not too important to die. We will die, like all those whoâve gone before us, and the world will keep on moving just as it always has. No one is indispensable. Itâs a harsh, even terrifying statement.â[4] Let those words sink in a bit: âwe are not too important to die.â
But those are not the last words that McCullough writes. He also writes this: âIf death tells us weâre not too important to die, the gospel tells us weâre so important that Christ died for us.â[5] The word âgospelâ literally means âgood news.â Weâre looking for good news these days. And the best news is that God would send his Son to die in place of his enemies.
If that doesnât make sense to you, I urge you to keep listening. Itâs ironic to think that anyoneâs death could be good news. But thatâs what Christians have always believed. At the heart of the Christian faith stands Jesus. And the central act of Jesus is to sacrifice himself for his people, which is what weâll talk about today. The other act that is central to what Jesus has done is to rise from the grave in a body that can never die again. Weâll talk about that next week, on Resurrection Sunday, better known as Easter.
Today, weâre going to continue to study the Gospel of Luke. Weâre going to look at Luke 23:44â56. I invite you to turn there in your Bibles, or your Bible apps. You can find the passage easily enough with a Google search, too. If you donât have a Bible, would you let us know? You can send a private message or contact us through our website. Weâll mail a Bible to you to make sure that you have your own copy.
Letâs start by reading Luke 23:44â49:
44Â It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45Â while the sunâs light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Â Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, âFather, into your hands I commit my spirit!â And having said this he breathed his last. 47Â Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, âCertainly this man was innocent!â 48Â And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49Â And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
Over the past two months, as we have studied the closing chapters of Luke, we have seen that Jesus was betrayed by one of his own disciples, arrested by Jewish leaders who didnât believe that he was the Christ, the anointed King of Israel, or the Son of God, that he was put on trial for making himself out to be those things, and that he was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate in order to satisfying a bloodthirsty mob. Last week, we saw that Jesus was crucified, nailed to a cross as if he were a threat to the Roman Empire.
Jesus was crucified at the third hour (Mark 15:25), which would be about 9 a.m., three hours after sunrise. At the sixth hour, at about noon, darkness appeared until the ninth hour, 3 p.m. Obviously, this is an unusual event. Why is darkness appearing in the middle of the day?
This darkness has everything to do with how we understand the meaning of Jesusâ death. Light and darkness have deeper meanings in the Bible. Throughout the Bible, weâre told that the human condition is one of darkness. Think about what light does. It shows us what is real. Without light, we couldnât see. Light exposes what is truly there. Light also gives life. Without any light from the sun, life on earth would end rather quickly. The Bible says that our real condition is that weâre separated from God. We have broken a relationship with God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. That relationship is broken by our failure to love him, honor him, and obey him. Instead of coming into the light, into a true relationship with God, we hide from him in the darkness (John 3:19â20). It is our running away from God, our hiding in darkness, that is ultimately responsible for what is broken in the world. That is why we die. We run from the source of light and life.
But Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). Earlier in Lukeâs Gospel, weâre told that Jesus came to bring light to those who were in darkness (Luke 1:79). God the Father sent God the Son to reveal what is true, and to shine a light on the path back to God. In fact, Jesus is not only the light, but he is also the way to God (John 14:6). It was appropriate that when Jesus was born, in the middle of the dark night, the sky was filled with angels and glory, a brilliant light (Luke 2:8â14).
But now it becomes dark in the middle of the day. Why does this happen?
The answer is that this darkness is a sign of judgment. If youâre familiar with the story of the Bible, you know that Israel was rescued while they were slaves in Egypt during the time of Moses. God delivered Israel out of Egypt through a series of plagues. The ninth plague was darkness that covered the land for three days (Exod. 10:21â29). This darkness was a sign that judgment was coming. And, indeed, the next plague was the death of all the firstborn in the land (Exod. 11:1â10). So, this darkness that lasted for three hours as Jesus was hanging on the cross was a sign that God was judging sin, rebellion against him.
God, as the perfect judge, must punish wrongdoing. He must punish crimes. And this is a loving thing to do because sin is destructive. A loving person will want to crush that which destroys. God has promised that in the end, he will do that.
In fact, that judgment against sin was often foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. They referred to a âDay of the Lord,â a day of salvation for Godâs people and a day of destruction for those who rebelled against him. These prophets spoke of what would happen when God judges sin, and this often involved darkness. Here are a few passages. This is Isaiah 13:9â11:
9Â Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10Â For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11Â I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
And here is another word from God about the Day of the Lord. This is Amos 8:9:
âAnd on that day,â declares the Lord God,
âI will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.”
Again, here is another word about this day of judgment. Here is Zephaniah 1:14â16:
14Â The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there.
15Â A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16Â a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.
So, what is happening here in Jerusalem, when the sky turns dark in the middle of the day as Jesus is dying? It is a sign that God is judging sin. But, as we saw two weeks ago, and as weâll see again today, Jesus is completely innocent. He never did anything wrong. He never sinned. So why is God judging him?
Remember those words I shared earlier: âIf death tells us weâre not too important to die, the gospel tells us weâre so important that Christ died for us.â Jesus was dying in our place. He was enduring the judgment of God that we deserve. All rebellion against God and all the destruction that comes with failing to love him and love others, failing to live life on the Creatorâs terms, will be judged. But God did something amazing. He sent his Son, who came willingly, to bear the penalty that we deserve. Jesus was enduring the Day of the Lord on the cross. He was dying to pay the penalty for sin, a penalty that all of us should face.
Thereâs another sign that Jesus was atoning for the sin of his people. Weâre told that the curtain of the temple was torn in two. The temple was where God dwelled among his people. It was a place of worship, where people taught Godâs word and prayed. It was also a place of sacrifice. God told Israel to sacrifice animals, symbolically transferring their guilt to animals who would die in their place. Now, an animal canât bear the penalty for a human. So, these sacrifices did not actually satisfy justice. But God told the Israelites to do this, and it was a sign that sin deserves to be killed. It also was a sign that the death penalty could be taken by another.
When Jesus died, he fulfilled the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. His death made the temple obsolete. (The book of Hebrews makes this abundantly clear.)
In the Old Testament, for people to approach God, they had to go to the temple. They had to go through priests. But now, to go to God, we only need to go to Jesus. So, the curtainâs tearing was a sign that there is now open access to God. You donât have to go to a special building. You donât have a go to a priest. You have direct access to God through Jesus. In fact, Christianity says that all Christians are part of Godâs temple. The Spirit of God does not dwell in some manmade building that you must visit. The Holy Spirit dwells in Godâs people. And the Bible says that all Christians are royal priests. Jesus is our High Priest, and we must go to him to get to God, to be reconciled to God. This doesnât mean that there is no longer any kind of structured religion. Jesus gave the church pastors to lead, teach, and protect his people (Eph.4:11ff). And his people do often meet in buildings. But none of these things are necessary to know God and have a right relationship with him. All you need is Jesus.
Though Jesus seems to be passive in his dying on the cross, he is in control. He lays down his life. He yields his life to God the Father. He continues to trust in the Father, even as heâs enduring hell on earth. When he says, âFather, into your hands I commit my spirit,â heâs quoting something from the Old Testament. Heâs quoting a part of Psalm 31. This is what Psalm 31:1â8 says:
1Â In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me!
2Â Incline your ear to me;
rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me!
3Â For you are my rock and my fortress;
and for your nameâs sake you lead me and guide me;
4Â you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
5Â Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
6Â I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.
7Â I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have known the distress of my soul,
8Â and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
you have set my feet in a broad place.
Even as Jesus is enduring the greatest physical suffering we can imagine, and even as heâs enduring greater spiritual and psychological pain that we can ever imagine, he trusts in God. God is his refuge, his help. He knows that God will deliver him. Even as Jesus saves his people, he serves as an example of how to trust God even in our darkest moments.
When Jesus dies, we see another example. We see a positive reaction to Jesus. A Roman solider, a centurion, a leader of a group of one hundred soldiers, sees Jesus suffer and die, and he comes to this conclusion: âCertainly this man was innocent!â This is the seventh time that someone claims that Jesus is innocent. Luke makes it clear that Jesus wasnât dying for his own wrongs, crimes, or sins. He was dying for ours. If you want to know why Jesusâ innocence is important, go back and listen to my message from two weeks ago.[6] Jesus fulfilled Godâs designs for humanity by living the perfect life, and he takes the penalty of sin for all who trust in him, so that his people, those who believe that he is Savior, Lord, and God, those who trust in him and are willing to follow him, are regarded by God as perfectly righteous, and their sins are removed from them, so that they can be forgiven by God and reconciled to him.
We also see other reactions to Jesus. The crowd leaves the site after Jesus died and they lament. And we see women watching Jesusâ death. This is important for at least three reasons. One, Jesus had female followers (Luke 8:1â3). While his inner ring of disciples consisted only of men, Jesus loved women and treated them with respect. Sometimes you hear how the Bible is misogynistic or somehow against women. But thatâs not true at all. Itâs also important to see that Jesusâ faithful followers are willing to follow him to the end. That, too, is an example for us. And, third, it shows that these women witnessed Jesusâ death. Jesus truly died. Some people claim he didnât. Islam teaches that Jesus only appeared to die, that either he didnât die or that someone else who looked like him took his place on the cross. But thatâs not true. These women knew Jesus, they knew what he looked like, and they saw that he actually died.
Now, letâs read the rest of todayâs passage in Luke. Here is Luke 23:50â56:
50Â Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, 51Â who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. 52Â This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53Â Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. 54Â It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. 55Â The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56Â Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
This passage is important because it talks about Jesusâ burial in the tomb. Weâre now told of a man named Joseph, who was good and righteous. He was a member of the Jewish council that was opposed to Jesus. And he didnât agree with their decision. We donât know if he actively worked against them, or if he silently disagreed. But itâs clear that he knew that Jesus did not deserve to die. In the other Gospels, weâre told that he was a disciple of Jesus (Matt. 27:57; John 19:38).
Joseph wanted to honor Jesus by giving him a proper burial. Jesus would have been buried in a shallow, common grave if Joseph hadnât stepped in. To be thrown into a ditch is dishonoring. It was particularly dishonoring in the view of Jewish people, though we would think the same thing today. Just recently I watched a documentary on the Holocaust, and that documentary showed footage of the emaciated corpses of Jews being pushed by a bulldozer into a ditch. It was a horrific thing to see. Though these people had already died, it was a further offense not to treat their bodies with care.
Joseph, a follower of Jesus, wanted to honor Jesus, to treat his body with respect. After all, the body is no less a creation of God than the soul. So, Joseph asks for Jesusâ body. In Markâs Gospel, weâre told that Joseph âtook courageâ to do that. Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader, might have treated Joseph poorly for asking for the body of an enemy of the state. But he doesnât do that. Joseph is allowed to take the body, and he puts it in his own, unused tomb. This is important because we see that Jesusâ body had a specific location after he died. He was put in a tomb, one that these women saw, a tomb that would be empty less than forty-eight hours later.
It is also important because it shows that even Jesusâ burial fulfills a prophecy of the Old Testament. Isaiah 53:9 says this:
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Jesus really died. Joseph would be able to see this. Jesusâ female followers saw it. They saw exactly where Jesus was entombed. Weâll see why this important next week, when we consider Luke 24 and Jesusâ resurrection.
Luke also tells us that Jesus that it is now the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, a day of rest. In Jewish law, all work was to be done on six days. The seventh day was for rest and worship. So, Jesus died on the sixth day, when his work was done. He accomplished all the work that is necessary for us to have a right relationship with God. As Jesus says in Johnâs Gospel, âIt is finishedâ (John 19:30). And then, on the seventh day, Jesus rested in the tomb. On the eighth day, or the first day of a new week, Jesus will rise from the grave, to begin a new era.
Now that we have looked at this passage, Iâll ask the question that I always ask: why does all of this matter?
Itâs important to see why Jesus dies. He dies to satisfy Godâs justice against sin. Since he is innocent, he didnât die for his own sin. So, he must have died for the sins of others. And he did. All who come to Jesus in faith, who are willing to confess their sin, to acknowledge that they are not God, that Jesus is God and the worldâs only Savior, and who are prepared to follow Jesus like these women and Joseph, are cleared of all their wrongdoing. They are innocent. They are reconciled to God. Our greatest need to is be connected to God, to have a right relationship with Jesus. And Jesus gives us that. He gives us open access to God. We simply need to come to him.
The death of Jesus is also very important to people who fear death. And I think all of us fear death in some way. Thereâs a book in the Bible called Hebrews, which talks about how Jesus is all that we need to be in the right before God. Jesus is greater than angels, prophets, and priests. He is the true temple, the true priest, the true sacrifice for sin. Early in that book, the author of Hebrews says that the Son of God was made to become like us. He became a human being, to live a perfect life and to die in our place. And Hebrews 2:14â15 says this:
14Â Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15Â and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Through his death, Jesus destroyed the work of the devil (also 1 John 3:8). The devil wants to tempt us to sin and then accuse us of our sin. In other words, the devil wants to separate us from God. And we willingly separate ourselves from God when we hide in the darkness. But Jesus came to destroy Satanâs work and to bring us back to God. If you have put your trust in Jesus, you have no reason to fear death. You are delivered from the fear of death, which is a form of slavery. And that is so important in this time.
If youâre a Christian, you should find the idea of Jesusâ death comforting. Thatâs not only true because he died to pay the penalty for your sins. But Jesus knows what itâs like to die. Jesus can relate to us. He knows what itâs like to die.
You may wonder how it is that the Son of God can die. Well, we should remember that dying isnât ceasing to exist. Death is the dissolution of the body, a separation of body and soul, something that is not Godâs ultimate plan for us. Christianity says that the body is important, because God made it. Thatâs why itâs important to honor the body, even after death. So, Jesus was separated from his body, but he continued to exist. Thereâs never a moment when the Son of God hasnât existed. But he did take on a human nature over two thousand years ago, and that meant having a human body, one that could die. But even as a man, Jesus never stopped existing. His soul endured and went to paradise, which was opened up by Jesusâ death. The curtain is torn, heavenâs gate is open, and Jesus invites you to come in.
If you do fear death, trust in Jesus. Jesus has died. He knows what it is like to be mortal. But he came back to life. And Jesus has reported what happens after death. He knows what lies beyond the curtain of death. Thatâs not a frontier that scientists or politicians or journalists can tell you about. Science is important. I would say itâs a gift from God. But it has its limits. It cannot tell us what lies beyond the grave. We need someone to report that to us, someone who has died and come back to life, someone who knows everything because heâs God. Jesus is that someone.
Weâll talk more about the resurrection next week, but I think itâs important to say this even now. Jesus once told someone mourning the death of her brother these very important words: âI am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?â (John 11:25â26). That is a question for you, too. Do you believe? If not, I urge you to. At the least, learn as much about Jesus and the Bible as you can. I would love to help you do that.
Notes
- David Montgomery and Manny Ramirez, â44 Texas Students Have Coronavirus After Spring Break Trip,â New York Times, April 1, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/us/coronavirus-texas-austin-spring-break-cabo.html.â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Blaise Pascal, PensĂŠes 434/199, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer, rev. ed. (London: Penguin, 1995), 137. â
- Matthew McCullough, Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 28. â
- Ibid. â
- https://wbcommunity.org/i-find-no-guilt-in-this-man. â
Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit (Luke 23:44-56)
Why did Jesus die? What is the meaning of his death? Find out by listening to his sermon, preached by Brian Watson on April 5, 2020.
Father, Forgive Them
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on March 29, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
For some people, this is a very tense time. To put it mildly, some people are freaking out. We may feel like weâre under pressure. We all have experienced other times of stress, times when we feel like weâre being squeezed. When weâre under pressure, what comes out of us? What comes out of you when you are put in the vise grips of life? I imagine that there are times when youâve been under pressure and something ugly has come out of you. I can imagine that because itâs true of me. When Iâve been in stressful situations, some ugly things have poured out of me.
Itâs during those moments that our true selves are revealed. So, what comes out of you when youâre stressed out and under pressure? What does that reveal about you?
Now let us think about what comes out of the greatest man who has ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth, when he was under tremendous stress. This morning, weâll see what comes out of him when he is pressured in ways that you and I will never be. When he has been betrayed, rejected, abandoned, mocked, tortured, and put to death, what comes out of him? And how do people respond to Jesus in this situation? Those are the questions weâll consider as we continue our study of the Gospel of Luke this morning.
Weâll be looking at Luke 23:26â43. I would encourage you to look at the text if you can. You can find it easily through a Google search, or by visiting www.esv.org/luke+23.
To give us some quick context: this is the moment when Jesus is about to die. Jesus isnât just a man, heâs the God-man, the Son of God who has existed forever, and who took on a human nature over two thousand years ago. He has spent two or three years teaching and performing miracles. In this last week of his pre-crucifixion life, he was in Jerusalem for the time of the Passover. A conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day increased throughout the week. These religious leaders did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, or the Christ (or Messiah), which is a reference to an anointed king, a descendant of King David, who would come and reign over Israel forever, defeating their enemies and bringing about perfect justice and peace. The religious leaders were jealous of Jesus, they wanted to maintain the status quo and their power, and they simply didnât believe him. So, they arranged for Jesus to die. They told the Roman leader, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus was a threat to the Roman Empire. Pilate didnât believe that Jesus had done anything to deserve death, but because the mob demanded that Jesus die, Pilate gave in to their demands.
And now we come to Jesusâ crucifixion. Letâs begin by reading Luke 23:26â31:
26Â And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27Â And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28Â But turning to them Jesus said, âDaughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29Â For behold, the days are coming when they will say, âBlessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!â 30Â Then they will begin to say to the mountains, âFall on us,â and to the hills, âCover us.â 31Â For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?â[1]
Jesus was put on trial inside the walled city of Jerusalem. Law required that crucifixion take place outside the city. It was custom to have the condemned carry the cross beam to the place of crucifixion. But Jesus is probably too exhausted to carry his own cross. He has been awake for twenty-four hours. He probably hasnât had anything to eat or drink in about twelve hours. He has been beaten and flogged, so that he probably has already lost a significant amount of blood.
So, the cross is given to a man named Simon, from Cyrene, which was in northern African, in what is now Libya. This man was probably in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. I donât want to read too much into his carrying the cross, but perhaps this is an echo of Jesusâ earlier teaching, that all who want to be part of Godâs kingdom must be willing to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). To have a right relationship with God, we must be willing to change, to deny our natural desires, to be willing to suffer along with Jesus.
As Jesus is making his way to the place where he will be crucified, some people mourn and lament for him. Jesus turns to the women and says that they shouldnât weep for him. Instead, they should weep for themselves and their children. Thatâs strange, isnât it? Jesus has already been tortured, and he is about to die, and yet he says that they shouldnât be sad for him, but for themselves? Why? Because a time of suffering will come upon them. Jesus already taught that in the future, great suffering would occur in Jerusalem. Roughly forty years later, the Jewish people would rebel against the Roman Empire. Rome would respond by besieging the city, surrounding it, attacking it, and destroying it. The suffering would be great. Many Jewish people would die. This destruction was Godâs judgment against Jerusalem for rejecting Jesus. Yet even though Jesus knows that Godâs judgments are just, he is sorrowful about them. And he warns these women. If Godâs judgment falls upon him, the only truly innocent person who has ever lived, what will happen to those who have rebelled against God?
The fact that Jesus is concerned more about these women and their future grief than his own suffering brings me to my first point. In all that is happening, Jesus is not primarily concerned with what is happening to him. He is concerned about others. This is what a perfect person looks like. First, that person is primarily concerned about God, because God is the greatest being there is. Second, that person loves others and cares for their welfare. Jesus puts us to shame in both ways. When we are doing well, we often donât look to the needs of others first. But when weâre suffering, thatâs the time we usually turn inward. But Jesus doesnât do that. He looks outward. If you want to suffer well, do what Jesus does. But the fact that we donât look outward when we suffer is proof that weâre not perfect. Itâs proof that we need someone like Jesus.
Letâs move on now and read verses 32â38:
32Â Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33Â And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34Â And Jesus said, âFather, forgive them, for they know not what they do.â And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35Â And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, âHe saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!â 36Â The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37Â and saying, âIf you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!â 38Â There was also an inscription over him, âThis is the King of the Jews.â
Jesus is not crucified alone. There are two others with him. Luke says theyâre criminals, but itâs wrong to call them thieves. Crucifixion was reserved for enemies of the state. Itâs more likely that they weâre insurrectionists of some kind. We might call them terrorists today. At any rate, they arrive at the place of crucifixion, called âThe Skull.â In Aramaic, it is called Golgotha, which means skull. Sometimes, we use the word âCalvary,â which is a good example of Christianese, a language that we Christians understand but others may not. Calvary is an anglicized version of a Latin word that means âskull.â It was probably called that because it was a bit of land that looked like a skull. It was there, outside that city walls, in view of passersby, that Jesus and these two criminals are executed.
Crucifixion involved attaching the condemned to a cross beam, either by rope or by nails. Jesus was nailed to the cross. At the least, nails would be driven through his wrists, and perhaps also his feet. The Gospels donât get into the gory details, however. Crucifixion was a word that wasnât used in polite society, because crucifixion was so gruesome. Itâs enough to know that Jesus endured a terrible death.
And as heâs hanging on that cross, left to die a slow, agonizing, literally excruciating death, what does he do? What does he say? What comes out of him in that moment of pressure and pain? He says, âFather, forgive them, for they know not what they do.â This is amazing. Jesus prays to God the Father that these people who are putting him to death would be forgiven. Now, they should have known what they were doing. They should have known who Jesus is. But because of their unbelief, they thought they were putting a blasphemer to death. They were wrong. They were doing something tremendously evil. Yet Jesus wants them to be forgiven.
Now, I donât think Jesus expects that they will be forgiven without their realizing what they have done. To have forgiveness, or at least to have forgiveness and reconciliation, there must be confession on the part of those who have done wrong. There must be remorse. There must be a desire to change and repentance. We donât know how many people involved in Jesusâ death later repented and sought Godâs forgiveness. But the important thing is to see that Jesus has a heart of forgiveness. He doesnât want to hold their sin against them. He wants them to be reconciled to God.
The fact that these people have stripped Jesus and are casting lots for his clothes, and the fact these people are mocking Jesus, even after he has prayed for their forgiveness, highlights how unworthy they are to receive Godâs forgiveness. But weâre not much different. Sure, we havenât mocked the Son of God to his face, but we have often ignored him, acting as if he doesnât exist, or acting as if heâs not King. No one is worthy to receive Godâs forgiveness. Thatâs why his forgiveness is an act of grace. Itâs a gift. And Jesus seeks that gift for others.
I want to point out two other things before we move on. One, what happens here fulfills a prophetic psalm. Psalm 22 is one of many Psalms written by David. It begins with the famous line, âMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?â Both Matthew and Mark report that Jesus cried out those words while he was on the cross. Psalm 22 also contains other words fulfilled by Jesus. Here are verses 6â8:
6Â But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7Â All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8Â âHe trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!â
And then look at verses 14â18:
14Â I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15Â my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16Â For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feetâ
17Â I can count all my bonesâ
they stare and gloat over me;
18Â they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
These words illustrate the kind of pain and suffering that Jesus endured. He was surrounded by evildoers, who gloated over him and mocked him. âHe trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him.â Jesus must have looked like a joke to those who mocked him. What kind of king is this, who is crucified? How can this man be the Son of God if heâs dying, and dying in such a shameful way?
Jesus could have saved himself. He could have come down from the cross. He could have accessed the divine power that was always at his command. He could have summoned legions of angels to crush his enemies. But he didnât do that. He laid down his life for his enemies. Why? If Jesus saved himself, he couldnât save others. Jesus came to earth not only to live the perfect life, but also to die in place of sinners. He came to take away the death penalty that we deserve. He came to receive Godâs wrath, Godâs just penalty against sin. This was Godâs plan. It was the Son of Godâs plan. Jesus canât save himself and save others. So, he endures suffering in order that others can be forgiven. What comes out of Jesus in his suffering? Forgiveness and sacrifice. He focuses on God the Father and on those who will be reconciled to God through his selfless act of love.
Letâs move on to the last section of todayâs passage. Here are verses 39â43:
39Â One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, âAre you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!â 40Â But the other rebuked him, saying, âDo you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41Â And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.â 42Â And he said, âJesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.â 43Â And he said to him, âTruly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.â
When the people who were killing Jesus said, âIf you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!â they were mocking Jesus. They thought it was a joke. But one of the criminals who is being crucified alongside Jesus picks up this language. Luke says he ârailedâ against Jesus, saying, âAre you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!â He must have been desperate for a rescue.
But the other criminal rebukes him. Itâs as if heâs saying, âDonât you realize whatâs happening here? Weâre both guilty. We deserve condemnation. But this man is righteous. Heâs done nothing wrong. If you realized who we are and who this man is, you wouldnât talk to him that way. If you feared God, you wouldnât talk to this man that way.â
This is something of a confession. This second criminal realizes heâs guilty. He makes no excuses. He doesnât expect to be rescued from the punishment that he deserves. So, itâs a confession of his sin. But it also seems to be a confession of faith. Perhaps he doesnât realize exactly who Jesus is. But he knows that Jesus is innocent. And he also knows that Jesus has the power to bring him into Godâs kingdom. He realizes that Jesus is a king. Perhaps he realizes Jesus is the King of kings. Thatâs why he says, âJesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.â
How did this criminal know this about Jesus? Perhaps he heard about Jesus before this day. Jesus had become well known. But Matthew, in his Gospel, says that those who were crucified âreviledâ Jesus (Matt. 27:44). Matthew uses the plural to indicate that both men reviled Jesus. So, what could move this one criminal from disdaining Jesus to having faith in him? It must have been seeing how Jesus suffered, seeing that he didnât hate those who hated him. He saw that Jesus didnât curse those who cursed him. Instead, he asked for their forgiveness. What kind of man would do that? Perhaps, this criminal must have thought, Jesusâ claims are true.
If the people who killed Jesus, who mocked him, provide a negative example of how to respond to Jesus, this criminal provides a positive example. He knows heâs guilty and he knows Jesus is his only hope. And in response, Jesus says, âToday, you will be with me in paradise.â Paradise is a word that comes from the Persian language. It refers to an idyllic garden. Paradise is where God put the first human beings, Adam and Eve. When they rejected God, he removed them from paradise. And ever since, we have lived in a world marked by suffering and death. Thatâs why we have thing like viruses that kill people. Itâs because of the first sin, and also because we continue to sinâall of us. Ever since mankind was kicked out of paradise, we have tried to get back in. We also desperately want to get back to the garden, to be with God, because thatâs our real home. Thatâs what we were made for. We canât find paradise in money or politics, in romantic relationships or careers, in convenience and entertainment. Paradise only comes with having a right relationship with God.
The one way back to paradise is Jesus. He is the only road that leads back to God. And to make it possible for rebels, enemies of God, to come back to the garden, someone must take their sin away from them. God is a perfect judge who must punish evil. He canât let the crimes of our failure to love him and to love others go unpunished. If we received what we deserved, we would be like this criminal, condemned. But Jesus came to save his people from their sin. He seeks forgiveness. So, though he is perfectly righteous, he lays down his life, allowing himself to be arrested, tortured, and killed, so that we can go free. Jesus was numbered with the transgressors, and he takes away their sin.
In dying among criminals, Jesus fulfills another prophecy from the Old Testament. This is what Isaiah 53:11â12 says:
11Â Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Â Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
The Righteous One makes others righteous. He bears their iniquities, their sins.
But Jesus doesnât do this for everyone. He makes âmany to be accounted righteousâânot all. He âbore the sin of manyâânot all. He only takes away the sins of those who come to him in faith, those who realize who he is and who realize that he is their only hope.
What do we do with this passage? What does it have to do with us? Let us think of what we have already seen.
I want to speak first to Christians. Christians, we must look first to God and then the needs of others. We must love God and we must love others, just as Jesus did. Jesus is more than an example, but heâs not less than an example. We can follow him by caring more for what God wants of us than what we want for ourselves. We can follow Jesus by looking first to the needs of others instead of being so concerned about our own needs. Even in our suffering, we must not forget the needs of others.
In this time, there are people around us who have needs. Most of those needs will probably be very practical. People will need help getting groceries and other supplies. Many people will need financial help. Over three million people filed for unemployment just last week. We should check in on our families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers to see how theyâre doing. We should be prepared to help as we are able.
One way to help is to give to our benevolence fund, also known as the deaconsâ fund. That money is used to help people in need. If you want to give to that fund, you can simply mail a check to the church and put âbenevolenceâ or âdeaconsâ fundâ on the memo line. But you donât need to go through the church to help others.
The greatest need that we all have is to be reconciled to God. And to do that, we need to know Jesus. So, Christians, use this time to help other people know about Jesus. Tell them what you believe. Share with them this video, or other resources we have online. Give them a book to read, or even a Bible.
Christians, we should also seek to forgive as we have been forgiven by God. We should never curse our enemies or respond to hate with hate. Itâs not just Jesus who asked for the forgiveness of his enemies. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, did the same. As he was being stoned to death, he said, âLord, do not hold this sin against themâ (Acts 7:60). We should have that same gracious, forgiving spirit.
Now, to those who are not yet Christians: In this passage, we see two different ways to respond to Jesus. You can respond by laughing off the idea that God can become man and die in your place to take away your sins. Most of you wonât mock Jesus or the Christian faith, though of course there are some people who do that. Youâre more likely to be apathetic or indifferent, to shrug your shoulders and say, âThatâs a nice story, but I donât believe it.â But thatâs just another way to reject Jesus. Jesus is not someone you can shrug your shoulders at. Heâs either God incarnate, or this is all a lie. If heâs the Son of God, then he demands a response like the one the criminal gave him, a confession of our sin and a humble request for help. If heâs not the Son of God, if this is all a myth, then you can feel free to reject Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible.
But in order to reject Jesus, you must first know about him. And most people have never taken the time to think deeply about the claims of Christ and of Christianity. I encourage you to do that today. Youâll find a lot of resources on our website that will help you. You can listen to other sermons on the Gospel of Luke[2] or you can check out a series of messages I gave about Jesus a few years ago.[3] Or you can simply read the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Learn about why the Bible is historically accurate. Consider the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. If you want to know more, you can personally contact me. You can find my contact information on our website or send a private message through our Facebook page.
Last week I said that one of the things that prevents people coming to Jesus is that we have an authority problem. We donât want a king to reign over us. We donât want someone telling us what to do, especially when that involves making hard changes. Another reason that keeps people from coming to Jesus is having to take a hard look at ourselves and see that weâre guilty of rejecting God, that weâve done wrong. That rejection of authority and that failure to confess our wrongdoing both stem from pride. But pride is foolish. We donât have the power to fix ourselves or to fix this broken world. The coronavirus is proof of that. And even if a foolproof vaccine is developed very quickly, something else will occur that will kill us. We will all die. And before we die, so many other things beyond our control will happen to us. And weâll do so many things we regret doing. Weâre not in control, and we are all guilty.
The good news is that there is one who is in perfect control, who desires the forgiveness of sinners. Jesus welcomes such people into his kingdom. But we must realize we canât force our way or earn our way into Godâs kingdom. The criminal on the cross realized there was nothing he could do to earn Godâs favor. He simply asked Jesus for help. Thatâs all that you need to do. Admit youâre broken, and that you havenât loved God or others the way that you should. Ask Jesus for forgiveness and help. All your sins can be erased. You can be forgiven of everything youâve ever done wrong. And you can have the promise of living in paradise with God. You can have that promise today if you turn to Jesus in faith.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- https://wbcommunity.org/luke. â
- https://wbcommunity.org/jesus â
Father, Forgive Them (Luke 23:26-43)
What comes out of us when we’re under pressure? Contrast that with what came out of Jesus when he was dying on the cross. Brian Watson preached this sermon, on Luke 23:26-43, on March 29, 2020.
I Find No Guilt in This Man
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on March 22, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
This is a very strange time in our lives. And it can feel like a very heavy time. Itâs a time of uncertainty, and it can be a time of fear. We have already heard the reports of high death counts in China and Italy, and itâs natural to wonder how many might die of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in America. As we respond to this pandemic by shutting down public gatherings, we know that life wonât be the same for us for some time, and that can lead to anxiety and panic. At times like these, we long for hope. We may wonder what all of this has to do with God. We may wonder what God is doing, and why there are things such as deadly viruses in the world.
Those kinds of responses and questions are natural. They come with living in an uncertain world. They come with living in a world that is marred by diseases, natural disasters, and death. So, where is hope? What does this have to do with God? What is God doing? Iâm not sure that I can answer all those questions completely this morning, but I think we can get partial answers as we turn to another heavy time in history. In fact, I would argue that this was the heaviest time of all history. This is the time when God himself was subject to the powers of darkness.
This morning, weâre continuing our study of the Gospel of Luke. If you havenât been with us before, you should know that weâre a church that is committed to studying the whole Bible. That means that we go through entire books of the Bible, looking at one passage each week. If you want to learn more about the rest of this book of the Bible, you can visit wbcommunity.org/luke. This morning, weâre going to look at Luke 23:1â25. If you have a Bible at home, Iâm sure you can find that passage rather quickly. If youâre on your computer, you can pull it up by typing into your web browser âesv.org/luke+23.â
To give us some context: Jesus has been arrested by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. They have charged him with blasphemy, for claiming to believe that he is the Messiah, or the Christ, and the Son of God. Messiah or Christ mean âanointed one.â In the Old Testament, God promised that there would be a king of Israel who would reign forever and who would defeat Israelâs enemies. He would bring about justice and peace. He would be a perfect king. Now, Jesus is that perfect King, and he is the Son of God. But the Jewish leaders didnât believe that.
The Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus, but they didnât have the authority to put someone to death. They were living under the rule of the Roman Empire, the worldâs superpower. If they wanted to put Jesus to death, they had to present him to the occupying forces. So, they bring him to Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judea. The prefect was in charge of keeping the peace. He had the power to enforce capital punishment. Thatâs why Jesus is now presented to Pilate.
Letâs begin by reading Luke 23:1â25:
1 Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. 2Â And they began to accuse him, saying, âWe found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.â 3Â And Pilate asked him, âAre you the King of the Jews?â And he answered him, âYou have said so.â 4Â Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, âI find no guilt in this man.â 5Â But they were urgent, saying, âHe stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.â
When the Jewish leaders bring Jesus before Pontius Pilate, they make three accusations. They say that Jesus is misleading the nation, which means that his teaching is somehow dangerous and deceptive. Or so they think. But the fact is that they were misleading the nation, whereas Jesus only taught what was true. They also claim that he has forbidden giving money to Caesar, the Roman Emperor. But that is false. Jesus said it is right to pay taxes to Caesar Luke 20:25). Then, they say that Jesus has claimed to be the Christ, a king. Thatâs true. Jesus is the Christ, and he is the King of kings. But not in the way that some people might think. He didnât come to overthrow the Roman Empire. He didnât come to command an army and lead a revolution. He was no political threat to the Roman Empire. But the Jewish leaders hope that by presenting Jesus to Pilate in this way, that would be enough to get him executed.
Interestingly, similar charges are brought against Christians in the book of Acts. Paul was a great missionary and teacher, who traveled through the Roman Empire after Jesusâ death and resurrection, telling people about Jesus. When he was in the city of Thessalonica, in modern-day Greece, with his associate Silas, they taught about Jesus in the local synagogue. Some people didnât like what they heard about Jesus, and they tried to get these Christians in trouble with the local authorities. They couldnât find Paul and Silas, but they brought a man named Jason before the cityâs authorities and said, âThese men who have turned the world upside down . . . are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesusâ (Acts 17:6â7). Jesus has always been viewed as a threat by some people. Thatâs still true today. Itâs true in totalitarian countries, like North Korea. Itâs true of Communist countries like China. But itâs also true of individuals. A lot of people reject Jesus because they realize that Jesus is an authority. You canât really be a Christian without coming under the authority of Jesus. People realize that if you become a Christian, your life must change in some way. There are some things that you may have to give up. And they donât like that. Some people just donât like being told what to do. They want to be their own authorities.
Now, you can remain your own authority in this life and reject Jesus. But you canât be your own king and have Jesus. If you reject Jesus, you reject your only path to God and to eternal life in a new creation where there are not more diseases and deadly viruses, where there is no more death. If you come under Jesusâ authority, you must admit your own failures and limitations, and you must start to obey King Jesus. You canât have it both ways.
When Pilate is told about these charges, he asks Jesus if he is king of the Jews. Jesus only says, âYou have said so.â These are the only words that Jesus says in this whole passage. Jesus doesnât defend himself. He doesnât make any qualifications to the charges made against him. This must have puzzled Pilate. He must have looked at Jesus, who was already beaten and must have looked rather weak, and not seen a threat to the Roman Empire. So, he says, âI find no guilt in this man.â Luke makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is innocent and has done nothing deserving of death.
But the crowds arenât happy with that. They try to convince Pilate that Jesus is stirring up the people, and not just in Jerusalem. He has taught throughout the regions of Judea and Galilee. When Pilate hears this, he wonders whether Jesus was a Galilean. Galilee was a separate region, to the north, and it was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, who was the Jewish ruler when Jesus was born. These Jewish rulers were under the authority of the Roman Empire, but Rome allowed them to exercise some power. So, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas. Perhaps Pilate was trying to pass the buck. He saw an innocent man and an angry crowd, and he didnât want to take responsibility for whatever happened to Jesus.
At any rate, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod. Letâs read what happens next. Here are verses 6â12:
6Â When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7Â And when he learned that he belonged to Herodâs jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. 8Â When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. 9Â So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. 10Â The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. 11Â And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. 12Â And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
Herod Antipas was the Jewish ruler over Galilee and another region called Perea. He didnât have all that much authority, since he was under Roman rule. He certainly didnât have the authority that his father, Herod the Great, had. Herod the Great was a king, known as âKing of the Jews.â But after his death, his kingdom was divided among his sons. Several years after this episode, this Herod sent his wife, Herodias, to Rome to ask if Herod could be given the title of âking.â The emperor refused and Herod was deposed.
This Herod was, like his father, a bad man. He took his brotherâs wife as his own wife. He had John the Baptist beheaded. He wanted to see Jesus for some time (Luke 9:9). There was even a rumor that he wanted Jesus dead (Luke 13:31). But here weâre told that he wanted to see Jesus because he was hoping that Jesus would perform a âsign,â a miracle for him.
If youâve ever seen Jesus Christ Superstar, you might remember that Herod sings a song in which he asks Jesus to turn his water into wine and walk across his swimming pool. He wants Jesus to perform for him. Thatâs how some people treat Jesus today, or how they treat God more generally. They expect God to perform wonders at their command. If God did that, then we would be the authorities. We would be kings. But God isnât obligated to do what we demand. He has performed miracles, signs that point to his existence. Jesus did perform miracles, signs that illustrated what he came to do, which was to heal people of their greatest disease, sin. But he didnât come to perform tricks or to entertain peopleâs curiosity.
So, Jesus doesnât play that game. He doesnât answer Herodâs questions. He knows that Herod is not sincerely interested in his identity or his mission. Yet, apparently, Herod doesnât find Jesus to be a threat, despite the accusations given by the Jewish leaders. So, he sends him back to Pilate, but not before his soldiers mock Jesus. They put him in âsplendid clothing,â as if to say, âIf youâre such a great king, letâs dress you like one.â Of course, they didnât believe he was king.
Then, Luke gives us this interesting little bit of information. Pilate and Herod had once been at odds with each other. But now, they became friends. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. They both agreed that Jesus was no threat. Yet neither of them did anything to save Jesus from the accusing Jewish leaders and the angry crowds. They were typical politicians, lacking courage and acting to save face.
So, Jesus is sent back to Pilate. Letâs read verses 13â16:
13Â Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14Â and said to them, âYou brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. 15Â Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. 16Â I will therefore punish and release him.â
This section is important because it establishes once again that Pilate didnât find Jesus guilty, and neither did Herod. Jesus did nothing wrong. Ever. He certainly didnât do anything to deserve the death penalty. Iâll talk more about that in a moment. But first, itâs interesting to see that Pilate was hoping he could release Jesus. He thought that if Jesus were flogged, that would satisfy the blood lust of the crowd. And he did have Jesus flogged (Matt. 27:26; John 19:1). That was a terrible punishment on its own. Flogging was done with a weapon torture: a wooden handle with leather strips that had bone or metal attached to them. Flogging would tear the skin and could even kill a man. But the crowd wasnât satisfied by some blood; they wanted Jesus dead.
Letâs now read verses 18â25:
18Â But they all cried out together, âAway with this man, and release to us Barabbasââ 19Â a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. 20Â Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21Â but they kept shouting, âCrucify, crucify him!â 22Â A third time he said to them, âWhy? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.â 23Â But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. 24Â So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. 25Â He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.
Pilate had a habit of releasing one criminal on Jewish holidays. The crowd knows this. They know that Pilate might release Jesus. So, they ask him to release another man instead, a man named Barabbas, an insurrectionist who had committed murder. He was basically a terrorist.
When Pilate tries to release Jesus instead, the crowds demand that Jesus be crucified. Crucifixion was a terrible way to kill someone. Roman citizens couldnât be crucified. But enemies of Rome, people suspected of treason, could be. Crucifixion meant attaching a person to a cross with rope or nails and letting that person hang there until they could no longer breathe. It was a slow, agonizing way to die. And it was a public execution. It said: âDonât mess with Rome.â
Pontius Pilate finds himself in a predicament. He can release Jesus, whom he finds to be innocent, but then he knows the crowds will not be satisfied. They might riot. And Pilateâs job was to maintain order. Or, he can give an innocent man over to the will of the people and release a real criminal. Pilate tries to plead with the crowd, but in the end, he gives into their demands. He releases Barabbas, a murderer, and he puts the only truly innocent person who has ever lived to death.
Thereâs a great irony here. Barabbas literally means âson of the fatherâ (bar = son; abba = father). Jesus is the Son of God, the true Son of the true Father. Barabbas, obviously a guilty man and a true threat to the Roman Empire, is released. Jesus, who wasnât a political threat and is the only sinless person who ever walked the face of the earth, is given the death penalty.
But thatâs the message of Christianity, and Jesusâ death is no accident. And to understand this, we must consider the broader message of the Bible. The Bible says that God created the universe for his purposes. He didnât have to create anything outside of himself. Itâs not as if he was lonely or bored. But God chose to create the universe to display his greatness and to share his existence with human beings. God created humans in his image, which means they are supposed to reflect what he is like, to represent him on earth, and to rule the world by carrying out Godâs commands. God also made us in his likeness, which means that we were made to be his children, to love him and obey him the way perfect children would love and obey a perfect parent. Thatâs good news, because it means that our lives have meaning and purpose. If there is no Creator, there is no ultimate meaning to life. Weâre just cosmic accidents, and in the end, our lives donât matter.
But thereâs bad news. From the beginning, people have turned away from God. Instead of realizing that he is King, they wantedâand they still wantâto be their own kings and queens, their own masters and lords. We tend to think the world revolves around us. And if thereâs a God, he should do what we want. The result is that we live life on our terms, and not on Godâs. We donât do what he wants us to do, because we donât love him as we should.
God desires perfect children, perfect covenant partners. God is perfect, and he canât tolerate people making a mess of his creation. The first human beings lived in a garden paradise, where there was no death. But they were evicted from the garden, and were put in the wilderness, where life was hard, where we find diseases, where we die. Because of our sinful nature, we are alienated from God. We donât see him; we donât always feel his presence. Because of our sinful nature, we are alienated from each other. We have conflicts, we fight, weâre greedy and selfishâwe hoard toilet paper and other supplies! And because of our sinful nature, we feel at odds internally. We realize weâre not who we should be, and we get depressed and anxious. We know we have thoughts and desires that are wrong. We know we have done and continue to do wrong things.
As I said, God cannot tolerate people making a mess of his creation. So, he kicked us out of paradise. And in this wilderness, we find things like viruses. The reason why things like the coronavirus exist is because of sin, because humans turned away from God in the beginning, something we call the Fall.
All of this is bad news. If we were to die separated from God by our lack of love, by our rebellion, by our sin, we would be alienated from him forever. And God would be right to punish and condemn us in that way.
But thereâs really great news. There is a way back to God, a way back to paradise. And that wayâthe only wayâis Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. That means that he is God. Heâs divine. He has always existed. He created the universe. (Itâs most accurate to say that the Father created the universe through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.) But over two thousand years ago, the Son of God also became a man. When Jesus was conceived in Mary, a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son of God added a second nature to himself. He still was and is God, but he also was and is a human being. This was God the Fatherâs plan, and it was God the Sonâs plan (and God the Spiritâs plan, too).
The Son of God became a man for two reasons. One, to live the perfect life that God demands of human beings. Thatâs why itâs so important to see that Jesus was innocent. He is the only one who lived the way God wants us to live. He always loved God. He always worshiped God. He always obeyed God. He always loved other people perfectly. He was never greedy and selfish. So, he fulfilled Godâs plans for humanity. And when people have a right relationship with Jesus, when they put their trust in him and are willing to follow him, then they are credited with his perfect standing, his innocence, his righteousness.
The second reason why the Son of God became a man was to pay the penalty for sin that his people deserve. We all deserve condemnation. And that sounds harsh, I know. But think about this: If you have a home, would you allow people there who donât love you, who donât abide by your rules, and who do things that are harmful to your family? You might put up with such a guest for a little while, but if they keep acting that way, you would kick them out. And thatâs essentially what God does. He says, âYou donât want me, you donât love me, you donât want to obey my rules? Fine. Go your own way.â But thatâs a terrible thing. God is the source of love. When we turn away from him, we find a world of hate. God is the source of beauty. When we turn away from him, we find ugliness. God is the source of light. When we turn away from him, we find darkness. God is the source of truth. When we turn away from him, we find lies. And God is the source of life. When we turn away from him, we find death.
If you want proof that people donât really want God, consider something that happened this past week. We find ourselves in this strange world threatened by a new virus. You would think that if ever people would turn to God and humbly ask for his help, now would be the time. But we donât see that happening. Sometimes, we something else, like a video of celebrities singing John Lennonâs song, âImagine.â You might have seen the video. Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman on the big screen, starts to sing the song, and then other celebrities follow her, singing one phrase at a time. Itâs supposed to be a hopeful thing, signaling that weâre all in this together. If you know the song, you may remember some of the lyrics. The song can be taken as a hopeful vision of humans working together, united in harmony. But if you stop and think of the lyrics, itâs a troubling song. John Lennon asked us to imagine that thereâs no heavenââabove us, only sky.â In other words, imagine that thereâs no God. So, in a time of crisis, people are singing a song that says, âWe donât need God and religion. That stuff is divisive. We just need to love each other and get along, and then the world will be as one.â That song is proof that we donât love God the way we should, that we donât see that he is the one who gives us life and who sustains our lives at every moment. That song shows that we donât see our desperate need for God. Thereâs no admission of our real problem, which is our sin. Frankly, the song is naĂŻve, and it doesnât provide us with any real answers to the very real problems of the world.
But Jesus is the answer. Jesus lives the perfect life. And Jesus pays the penalty for sin. He was crucified not just because some people didnât believe him and hated him. He didnât die just because Pontius Pilate was weak and was afraid to stand up to the crowds. He didnât die just because he was betrayed, and because the powers of spiritual darkness wanted to destroy him. He died because it was Godâs plan to have someone rescue us from the penalty of sin. This was Jesusâ plan, too. He laid down his life to pay for our sin. Thatâs why Jesus didnât defend himself, and why he hardly says a word. The prophet Isaiah predicted Jesusâ sacrificial death roughly seven hundred years earlier. He said,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth (Isa. 53:7).
Right before that verse in Isaiah 53, we read these words, also about Jesus:
5Â But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6Â All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turnedâevery oneâto his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:5â6).
When Jesus died on the cross, he suffered the death penalty, but also much more than that. He took on Godâs righteous punishment against sin, his holy wrath. He endured hell on earth so that we donât have to.
We donât have to experience hell if come to Jesus and put our trust in him. If we trust in him, he takes away our sins. Our punishment has already been paid. And we are credited with his perfection. Thatâs the good news. We donât have to earn our way to God. In fact, we could never do that. Christianity says that even our best efforts are always tainted by bad motives. But God came down to us. He entered a world that can be beautiful but also ugly, a world that is governed by orderly laws of nature but can also appear to be chaotic, a world that supports life but ends in death. He did this to rescue us and to bring us back to God, to bring us ultimately to paradise, which will come in the future, when God remakes the world and removes all suffering, sin, and death.
So, why do we have things like the coronavirus? They are the result of sin in the world. These things are part of living in a fallen world. Cancer and earthquakes, toilet paper hoarding and murder, are the result of sin in the world. But thereâs good news. God entered this world, and he subjected himself to rejection and betrayal, to mocking and torture, and even to death, so that he could save us. God has not promised that this life will be free of pain and sickness. But he has promised that he will sustain his people, even through death. And he has promised that one day, Jesus will return to bring human history as we know it to an end. And on that day, a new era will begin. There will be no more pain, no more disease, no more wars, and no more death. It will be God and his people dwelling in a renewed and perfected creation.
I urge us all to put our hope in God. Let us look to him during this time. I donât know exactly why God has us in this situation, but I know that he uses things like this to teach us lessons and to draw us closer to him. So, let us focus on God. Specifically, let us focus on Jesus. If you donât know him yet, learn more about him. And put your trust in him. Only he would lay down his life for you. No politician will do that. No one else can save you from your real problem, which is a broken relationship with God. But Jesus can, and he stands ready to receive you if you come to him.
Are You the Son of God? (Luke 22:63-71)
Jesus’ path to the cross is marked by ironies. The one who is blasphemed is charged with blasphemy. The one who is Judge is judged. Jesus endured this to save to his people from their sins. Find out what happens when Jesus is put on trial, and God is in the dock. Brian Watson preached this sermon on March 1, 2020.
He Went out and Wept Bitterly
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on February 23, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
Last week, I asked us how we respond when we are hurt or attacked. What comes out of us during those moments of great pressure reveal what is inside of us.
Thatâs a very important point. But thereâs something else we should think about. What happens when weâre the ones who fail? What do we do when we do what is wrong? In other words, what do we do with our failure, our mistakes, our sins? When we do what is wrong, how can we move forward? Is there hope for us? Can we be forgiven of serious failures?
Well, Christianity says there is great hope for sinners. This is why we refer to the central message of Christianity as the gospel, which simply means good news. Though we fail, God is able and willing to forgive his children.
We will see this today as we continue to look at the Gospel of Luke. Weâll see what happens when Peter fails. Though this passage doesnât give us the full story, we can look to other parts of the Bible to see what happened to Peter after he failed.
So, without further ado, letâs turn to Luke 22:54â62. While youâre turning there, I just want to remind us that this passage is among one of many that is set on the night before Jesus died, the night he was betrayed and arrested. Last week, we saw that Jesus was arrested. Peter tried to defend Jesus with the sword, but Jesus told him not to do that. The disciples fled at Jesusâ arrest (Matt. 26:56). But Peter trailed behind Jesus and the Jewish leaders who arrested him, and Lukeâs attention now turns to Peter.
Letâs now read Luke 22:54â62:
54Â Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priestâs house, and Peter was following at a distance. 55Â And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56Â Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, âThis man also was with him.â 57Â But he denied it, saying, âWoman, I do not know him.â 58Â And a little later someone else saw him and said, âYou also are one of them.â But Peter said, âMan, I am not.â 59Â And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, âCertainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.â 60Â But Peter said, âMan, I do not know what you are talking about.â And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61Â And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, âBefore the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.â 62Â And he went out and wept bitterly.[1]
Peter follows Jesus and those who arrested him from the Garden of Gethsemane back into Jerusalem, to the high priestâs house. Why was Peter following Jesus? Weâre not told. Did he think he could take his sword out again and free Jesus? Did he simply want to see what would happen? We donât know. But it seems like Peter wanted to do the right thing. He didnât simply run away from danger, from the Jewish leaders who were hostile to Jesus and who would surely be hostile to Jesusâ disciples. Peter could have done that, and that would have been the safest thing to do. Instead, Peter follows Jesus and his captors from a distance.
While waiting in the courtyard, Peter tries to blend with other people who are warming themselves by a fire. Then, he is noticed. A servant sees Peter, recognizes him, and says, âThis man was also with him.â If Peter said, âYouâve got that right!â he might have been arrested and put on trial alongside Jesus. Peter must have recognized the danger. So, in that moment of pressure, he lies to save his own skin.
Shortly thereafter, another person recognizes Peter as one of Jesusâ disciples. Now, Peter could have told the truth at that point, and confessed that he lied earlier. But as is so often the case, once we tell lies, instead of admitting what we have done, we double down in our dishonesty. I remember when I was a kid there used to be a public service announcement that played among commercial breaks of cartoons. And that PSA said something like, âWhen you tell one lie, it leads to another. So, you tell two lies to cover each other. Then you tell three lies, then, oh brother, youâre up to your neck in lies.â
After that second lie, about an hour goes by. Now, you might think that Peter would come to his senses, realize that he has twice denied Jesus, and resolve to tell the truth, no matter the consequences. But he doesnât do that. Again, he is recognized. This time, someone figures out that Peter is from Galilee, just like Jesus, and infers that Peter must be one of Jesusâ followers. Peter says quite strongly that he doesnât know Jesus. In Matthewâs Gospel, it says, âhe began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, âI do not know the manââ (Matt. 26:74).
At that moment, a rooster crows, Jesus looks at Peter from a distance, and Peter remembers what Jesus had predicted. Earlier in this same chapter of Luke, Jesus told Peter that Peter would deny him. This is what we read in Luke 22:31â34:
31Â âSimon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32Â but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.â 33Â Peter said to him, âLord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.â 34Â Jesus said, âI tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.â
And, sure enough, Jesusâ prediction comes to pass. Peter denies knowing Jesus three times.
We donât know what kind of look Jesus gave Peter. Was it a look of sadness, of sorrow that a friend would deny even knowing him? It probably wasnât a look of âI told you so.â Whatever it was, Peter remembered what Jesus had said, and left, weeping bitterly.
I think this episode is important for a number of reasons, primarily for what it teaches us about failure. If youâre like me, in moments of pressure and even in moments of panic, you might have done the wrong thing. You might have had many moments of failing to do the right thing when youâve felt under pressure. And you might feel a great sense of guilt and shame because of your failure. But there is hope, and I think that is why the Gospel writers tell us about Peter and his failure.
I want to make a number of observations about this passage and about other passages that discuss Peter. The first is one that I made a few weeks ago when we read about how Jesus predicted Peterâs failure. Jesus chose twelve men to be his disciples, his inner ring of followers who would become his apostles, his authorized messengers. (Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was later replaced by Matthias.) Jesus chose men who were not perfect. They were not the most righteous, the most religious, the richest and most powerful men. They werenât stupid, but they were also not elite scholars. They were people that were a bit like you and me.
When Jesus called Peter to follow him, Peter at first thought he was unworthy. In Luke 5, Jesus tells Simon Peter to follow him. After Jesus performed a miracle to demonstrate his divine power, Peter told him, âDepart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lordâ (Luke 5:8). What kind of sin did Peter have in his life? We donât know. But if he is anything like you and me, there were some things he had done that bothered him, moral failures of which he was ashamed. He must have thought that the things he had done would disqualify him from serving someone like Jesus in any kind of official capacity.
But Jesus deliberately chose Peter. Jesus knew that Peter was a sinful man. And Jesus also knew that Peter would sin again. As we have already seen, Jesus knew that Peter would deny him. Yet Jesus chose this man to be the leader of this band of twelve brothers. And that is a picture of grace. God uses imperfect people as his servants. He uses people who have failed, people who have cracked under pressure. We might say God uses cracked and broken vessels to carry his perfect word to the world. God doesnât have to do this. But God is merciful, not giving us over to what we deserveâat least not immediately. And for those who follow Jesus, putting their trust in him, God forgives all sin. And God doesnât just wipe away that sin. He also gives his children good things that they donât deserve.
So, the first thing to see is that Jesus chose this sinful man to be his servant, knowing his sin, past, present, and future.
The second thing to see is that what Peter did in this episode was truly wrong. It was no small thing to deny knowing Jesus. In Luke 12, Jesus said this:
8Â And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9Â but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God (Luke 12:8â9).
Peter denied Jesus before men. Jesus says the one who does that âwill be denied before the angels of God,â which is a way of saying that God will say, âI donât know that personâ on judgment day (Matt. 7:23). Itâs important that we understand that Jesus means that if one denies Jesus their whole life, they will be condemned. If one ends oneâs life in a state of denying who Jesus isâSavior, Lord, Son of Godâthen that person will be condemned. But if itâs wrong to deny Jesus for oneâs whole life, it seems like itâs wrong to deny Jesus at any point in oneâs life. And thatâs especially true of someone like Peter, who was no casual acquaintance of Jesus. Peter spent two or three years alongside Jesus. Peter was Jesusâ student, his brother, and friend. To deny knowing someone whom you actually know very well is a form of betrayal. Peter not only lied, but he separated himself from Jesus in order to protect himself from whatever harm the Jewish leaders might do to him. This was definitely a wrong thing to do.
We might wonder how someone like Peter, who had such privileged access to Jesus, who had seen Jesusâ many miracles, who was taught so much by Jesus, could do this. On one level, we could say that Peter panicked. He was scared in that moment. Instead of trusting Jesus, who had predicted what would happen to him, he was tempted to do the wrong thing in order to save himself. I know that I have sinned in moments of panic. There were times when I didnât have a premeditated plan to sin, but when I was afraid and panicked, I did what was wrong. You might say that in those moments, weâre not thinking clearly. It Peter thought clearly, he would recall Jesusâ prophecies. He would have remembered Jesusâ power and promises. He would have thought, âNo matter what these Jewish leaders might do to me, Iâll be okay.â But thereâs something about sin that is irrational. It doesnât always make sense.
The third thing we should see is Peterâs response to what happened. Though Peter didnât come to his senses during that time when he denied Jesus three times, he did come to his senses immediately after, when the rooster crowed and when Jesus looked his way. At that moment, Peter knew exactly what he had done. And he wept bitterly. That is such a moving moment. And itâs something that I can relate to easily. When we sin, and then when we realize what we have done, there is a real bitterness to that realization. Sometimes, that bitterness is immediate. Other times, the bitter realization that we have failed comes later. There are times when it resurfaces again and again, whenever we think of the wrong things we have done.
I wonder if every once in a while, during the rest of his life, Peter thought about what he had done, and a moment of bitter realization reemerged. I also wonder if the apostle Paul had those moments. Even after Jesus rose from the grave, Paul opposed Jesus and his followers for a while. He arrested Christians so that they might be put to death for blasphemy. He approved of the first Christian martyrâs death (see Acts 8:1â3). Though Paul had been forgiven of all those sins when he came to see who Jesus really is and to put his trust in him, Paul still thought of himself as the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). I wonder if Peter thought of himself in similar ways, and if every once in a while, whenever his mind thought again of these events, the bitter taste of that memory of his more failure came back into his mouth.
At any rate, sin leaves a bitter taste. At the moment, it feels good. But later, when we realize what we had done, we feel guilty. Weâre ashamed. We canât believe that we would do something like that. Peter knew what that was like.
Luke doesnât tell us what happened to Peter after this event. Specifically, Luke doesnât give us information about whether Peter was forgiven. He just tells us that Peter ran to the empty tomb after Jesus died and rose from the grave. And in the sequel to his Gospel, the book of Acts, Luke depicts Peter as a leader of the apostles.
But John, in his Gospel, does tell us what happened. After Jesus rose from the grave, Jesus had a conversation with Peter. This is what we read in John 21:15â17:
15Â When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, âSimon, son of John, do you love me more than these?â He said to him, âYes, Lord; you know that I love you.â He said to him, âFeed my lambs.â 16Â He said to him a second time, âSimon, son of John, do you love me?â He said to him, âYes, Lord; you know that I love you.â He said to him, âTend my sheep.â 17Â He said to him the third time, âSimon, son of John, do you love me?â Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, âDo you love me?â and he said to him, âLord, you know everything; you know that I love you.â Jesus said to him, âFeed my sheep.â
Why does Jesus ask Peter three times if he loves him? Surely, his asking this question three times mirrors the three times that Peter denied Jesus. Now, Jesus asks Peter to affirm his love for him three times. And though John doesnât specifically mention forgiveness or reconciliation, we understand that Jesus was forgiving Peter.
But we should also notice this: Jesus was reaffirming Peterâs position as an apostle. As we have already seen, when Jesus prophesied that Peter would deny him, he told Peter to strengthen his brothers (Luke 22:32). And here, Jesus tells Peter to âfeed his sheep,â which most likely means that Peter should âfeedâ Christians âthe word of God,â which is their spiritual food.
The point is that though Peter had sinned in a very serious way, he was forgiven, and he retained his position as an apostle. We can easily imagine Jesus forgiving Peter, but saying, âPeter, I love you, and I forgive you for denying me, but you failed your apostle audition. Weâre going to have to give your position to someone else.â But Jesus doesnât just forgive Peter. He continues to use Peter as his servant. Peter didnât deserve to be an apostle. He hadnât earned that position. But God is gracious. He gives us gifts. He uses sinners. And that should give us hope. You may feel that youâve done things that are so wrong that here is no way God can forgive you. Or, you may understand that youâre forgiven, but you still think your sin disqualifies you to serve God. You may think, âWho am I to tell other people about Jesus when Iâve denied Jesus by my behavior?â When that happens, think about Peter.
Another thing that we should think about as we think about Peter is that his life was changed. Though he was a sinful man, and though he certainly sinned in this episode, his grew in faith and obedience. The book of Acts makes that clear. And we know from sources outside of the Bible that Peter would eventually be killed for being a Christian. Roughly thirty-five years after this event, he would not deny Jesus in order to save his life. Iâm sure he learned from his sin. Iâm sure he was strengthened by the knowledge that though Jesus died, he rose from the grave. Most importantly, the Holy Spirit gave Peter strength that he didnât possess on his own.
God loves us so much that when we are adopted into his family through faith in Jesus, his Son, he wants us to grow. He doesnât want us to stay the same. He changes us from the inside out. And we need to turn away from our old sinful habits. We need to repent. We need to pursue a greater knowledge of God. We need to obey Godâs commands. God expects that of his children.
But that doesnât mean that Peter never sinned again. Iâm sure he did. Iâm sure he had moments where he harbored bad thoughts and desires. And weâre told elsewhere in the Bible that in another moment of pressure, Peter panicked once again and did the wrong thing.
In one of Paulâs letters, Galatians, he tells of an episode where he and Peter were in the city of Antioch, where there was a church that had both Jewish and Gentile Christians. Itâs hard for us to understand how radical that was. There was a huge divide between Jews and Gentiles. Jewish people thought Gentiles were unclean. This wasnât just some sort of ethnic or racial division. This was also a religious division. But one of the amazing things about Christianity is that people from all kinds of backgrounds become one when they are united to Jesus by faith. In Christ, there is no Jew and Gentile, or black or white, or male and female (to paraphrase Gal. 3:28).
Peter knew that. But when Jewish leaders came to Antioch, he felt pressured to distance himself from Gentiles. He had been eating with them, which was a thing Jewish people didnât do. But when these Jewish leaders came, Peter was afraid of them, or at least of their opinions, and so he stopped eating with the Gentiles. In doing that, he was denying the Gospel. This is what Paul writes in Galatians 2:11â14:
11Â But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12Â For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13Â And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14Â But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, âIf you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?â
Peter was acting like a hypocrite, like someone who never really understood the Gospel. And his behavior led another Christian, Barnabas, to act like a hypocrite, too. But Paul confronted Peter and told him he was wrong.
The point is that even after coming to Jesus, we still will fail. Those failures should be fewer in number and not as serious. But still, we wrestle with sin. And there are times when we fail.
Such is the power of sin. In our moments of weakness, when we are scared, when we are tired, when we have taken our eyes off of Jesus, we might panic and do the wrong thing. Sin promises us safety and security. It promises us pleasures. It promises us freedom. These are false promises, but when weâre not thinking clearly, we believe them. We fail to trust Jesus and we disobey him. And then we come to our senses once again and taste the bitterness of sin. And that is painful.
When I think about this tendency to fall back into sin, I think about different things. I think about songs. One of my favorite song writers is a man named Tom Waits. He has a beat-up voice and an odd sense of humor, but thatâs part of what appeals to me. In one of his songs called âWalk Away,â he sings these words:
There are things I’ve done I can’t erase.
I want to look in the mirror and see another face.
I said, ânever,â while I’m doing it again.
I wanna walk away, start over again.
I can relate to that. I can see the things that Iâve done wrong and desperately want to erase them. I want to be a different person. I wouldnât mind looking at the mirror and seeing another face. Iâve told myself, âIâm never going to do that again.â And then I have.
Thereâs another song I think of, one that was sung by Johnny Cash towards the end of his career. (Though the song was written by Nick Lowe, not Cash.) Itâs called âThe Beast in Me.â It seems to describe that inner, sinful self that we try to suppress, but who escapes from his cage to do bad things. Thereâs something inside of us that is a like a beast. We try to keep it shut up in its cage. But there are times when it escapes and overcomes us, and we fail.
I also think about prayers. Thereâs a wonderful collection of prayers written by Puritans called The Valley of Vision. One prayer in that book is called âYet I Sin.â Here is part of that prayer:
My faculties have been a weapon of revolt
against thee;
as a rebel I have misused my strength,
and served the foul adversary of thy kingdom.
Give me grace to bewail my insensate folly,
Grant me to know that the way of transgressors
is hard,
that evil paths are wretched paths,
that to depart from thee is to lose all good.
All these sins I mourn, lament, and for them
cry pardon.
Work in me more profound and abiding repentance;
Give me the fullness of a godly grief
that trembles and fears,
yet ever trusts and loves,
which is ever powerful, and ever confident;
Grant that through the tears of repentance
I may see more clearly the brightness
and glories of the saving cross.[2]
In that same collection of prayers, thereâs another one called âThe Dark Guest.â âThe Dark Guestâ is like âThe Beast in Me.â It says, in part:
Destroy, O God, the dark guest within
whose hidden presence makes my life a hell.
Yet thou hast not left me here without grace;
The cross still stands and meets my needs
in the deepest straits of the soul. . . .
The memory of my great sins, my many
temptations, my falls,
bring afresh into my mind the remembrance
of thy great help, of thy support from heaven,
of the great grace that saved such a wretch
as I am.
There is no treasure so wonderful
as that continuous experience of thy grace
toward me which alone can subdue
the risings of sin within:
Give me more of it.[3]
These prayers confess to God that hellish nature of sin. They make no excuses for committing sin. Doing what is wrong is evil. We are without excuse. But these prayers cry out to God to bring about repentance. They ask God to destroy this beast within. And these prayers recall Godâs remedy for sin. âThe cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul.â God the Father sent God the Son, who came willingly, to bear the penalty for sin. Jesus died on the cross, experiencing great physical and spiritual pain, in order to pay the penalty of sin for whoever would come to him in faith. This is the way that we are forgiven by God. Even the bitter memories of great sins âbring afresh into [our minds] the remembrance of [Godâs] great help, . . . of the great help that saved such a wretch as I am.â
If you have felt the bitter taste of sin, if you know that you have done wrong, if you feel the guilt and shame that come along with doing wrong, I urge you to turn to Jesus. He stands ready to forgive us all our sins. All of them. We must trust that this is true. If you are not yet a Christian, turn to Jesus now.
Of course, we must also desire to be changed, to stop living the way we have always lived. But that doesnât mean we will suddenly become perfect. We will continue to struggle with sin. Christians, if you struggle with sin, or if you struggle with the memory of your sin, turn to Jesus. There may be something in your past that you think of from time to time and think, âHow could I do that? How could I do something that bad? How I could do something that I know is wrong? What was I thinking? How could I be that bad of a person?â When that happens, donât just look back to your sins. Keep looking further back in the past. Look back to something that happened almost two thousand years ago, when the Son of God laid down his life to pay for your sins. Look to Jesus. Look to the cross. When those memories of sin come back, think of what Jesus has done for you. Experience once again Godâs cleansing grace. And be thankful.
This is the best of news for failures and losers like you and me. Not long ago, I was reading through 1 Samuel again, and I came across a verse that I must have read several times. But this time, it really stood out. It was 1 Samuel 22:2, and it described the kind of people that started to follow David even before he was king. It says, âAnd everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.â Those in distress, those bitter in soul, found hope in David. How much more should people like that find their hope in the son of David, the true King of Israel, Jesus Christ. He beckons those who are crushed by the weight of sin to come to him and find rest. He will forgive you, cleanse you, restore you, and equip you to serve him.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- The full prayer can be found here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/devotional/yet-i-sin. â
- The full prayer can be found here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/devotional/the-dark-guest. â
He Went out and Wept Bitterly (Luke 22:54-62)
What do we do with our failures, our mistakes, our sins? Peter, one of Jesus’ followers, denied knowing Jesus. Find out what we can learn from what happened to Peter, and how there is hope for the greatest of sinners. Brian Watson preached this sermon on February 23, 2020.
The Power of Darkness
This sermon was preached on February 16, 2020 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).Â
How do you respond when someone hurts you? How do you respond when someone close to you betrays you and violates your trust? If someone hates you and acts in a way that is unfair toward you, do you respond in hate and with unfair tactics? Or do you respond in a way that is different, a way that reflects truth and love?
How we respond to difficult situations reveals who we truly are. When the pressures of life come upon us and we feel like weâre being squeezed, the real me and the real you will be exposed. What happens to us when weâre attacked, when weâre hurt, when weâre treated unfairly?
Today, as we continue to study the Gospel of Luke, weâre going to see Jesusâ arrest. Weâll see that he is betrayed. His arrest isnât conducted publicly and in the light, but in secret, in the dark. His disciples try to respond one way to this arrest, by striking back. But Jesus responds with love.
Weâre going to read Luke 22:47â53 this morning. Before we do, hereâs a quick reminder of where we are in this story. Itâs the night before Jesus will die. He has spent the last few hours with his disciples. He has taken a Passover meal with them, taking the elements of the meal, the bread and the wine, to demonstrate what his death will accomplish. He has warned them that one of the twelve disciples will betray him. He has also warned them against seeking greatness, teaching them instead to be humble and to serve, for that is the way to true greatness in Godâs kingdom. He has told Peter that he will deny knowing Jesus. He has told them that the Scripture about him will be fulfilled, that he will be ânumbered with the transgressors.â And, as we saw last week, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, east of Jerusalem, that if there were any way possible, that he would be spared the suffering of the wrath of God that he would experience on the cross. Yet he yielded to the Fatherâs will.
Now, letâs read Luke 22:47â53:
47Â While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, 48Â but Jesus said to him, âJudas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?â 49Â And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, âLord, shall we strike with the sword?â 50Â And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51Â But Jesus said, âNo more of this!â And he touched his ear and healed him. 52Â Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, âHave you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? 53Â When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.â[1]
I want to point out three things that we see here. The first thing we see is Judas Iscariotâs betrayal. We have already talked about this, when we saw that Jesus predicted this betrayal. But now it comes to pass. After Jesus prays, Judas, who had left the group at the last supper, comes back with a crowd. Luke says that among the crowd were Jewish religious leaders, âchief priests and officers of the temple and elders.â Judas was in front of the crowd, and he identifies Jesus by kissing him, probably on the cheek.
Why does Judas kiss Jesus? A kiss was a common greeting of respect and love. It might have been the kind of greeting the disciples gave Jesus after they had been away for a while. It seems that Judas had arranged to identify Jesus by some sign. It was dark, and perhaps the officers of the temple didnât know what Jesus looked like. Today, the identifying sign might have been a handshake or a hug. But in that time, it was a kiss.
Yet the kiss is ironic. Instead of a sign of love, it was a sign of hate, a sign of betrayal. The man who had spend a couple of years with Jesus, who was part of his inner circle of twelve disciples, who had been the treasurer of the group, betrayed Jesus. He told these Jewish leaders how they could arrest Jesus away from the teeming crowds in Jerusalem. He knew that Jesus would be alone with his disciples, just outside the city. The leaders could arrest Jesus without any public backlash, without setting off a riot. Jesus sold Jesus out.
Think about that for a moment. We believe that Jesus is no ordinary man. He is the God-man, the eternal Son of God who also became a human being, one person with two natures, one divine and one human. That means that while Jesus had all the essential characteristics of a human being, he was still God. He was still omnipotent, all-powerful. Yet Jesus made himself vulnerable. He loved these men. He served them. He spent a great deal of time with them, traveling with them, teaching them, revealing truths to them that the rest of them would teach and preach and write down.
Though Jesus knew in advance that Judas would betray him, it must have been something else to experience it. Itâs one thing to know something is going to happen. Thatâs knowing a fact. Itâs quite another to experience it happen. Jesus knew he would die, but it was quite another thing to experience a painful death and the spiritual suffering that came along with it. In a similar manner, Jesus knew he would be betrayed, but it must have been sorrowful all the same to see one of his friends betray him this way.
And what does that mean for us? Jesus knows what itâs like to be betrayed. I donât know if you have experienced betrayal in your life, but you probably have. Of course, the betrayals that we experience are often not as dramatic; most people when they are betrayed arenât put to death. But anytime someone we love, someone we have made ourselves vulnerable to, turns on us, thatâs a betrayal. It could be a friend who has betrayed your trust. Betrayal can come from a co-worker. Betrayal can even come from a spouse. I know that Iâve experienced betrayal. There have been people that have been close to me, people Iâve trusted, who then surprised me by turning on me. Perhaps youâve experienced the same thing. The fact that someone we wouldnât expect to turn on us does is the worst aspect of betrayal. The loss of a relationship is worse than losing a job or experiencing some other bad consequence of betrayal. When people we love turn on us, weâre hurt and confused. We donât know if someone else will turn on us, too.
When we finish the Gospel of Luke, weâre going to look at the book of Proverbs. Judasâ betrayal of Jesus reminds me of a passage in Proverbs. This is what Proverbs 27:5â6 says:
5Â Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
6Â Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Real friends will tell you the truth. They will âwoundâ you with things that you may not want to hear, but they will do that directly. The kisses of the enemy, however, might appear flattering at first. People who donât truly love us will say things we might want to hear, things that will flatter us. Yet those same people will then turn on us.
The good news is that Jesus, the Son of God, knows what itâs like to be betrayed. Jesus can sympathize with us in our weakest moments. He knows what itâs like to have someone close to him turn on him. He understands. And Jesus was and is always a real friend. He doesnât betray us. He rebukes us openly with his words. He tells us hard truths that we may not want to hear. We need to follow Jesusâ example in not betraying people by acting one way to them at one time, and then turning on them the next. Jesus is faithful, the one who never betrays but who was betrayed.
The next thing we should see in this passage is that those who betray, those who are aligned with the powers of darkness, donât fight fair. At the end of this passage, Jesus says that those who came to arrest him were doing so with the power of darkness. They were doing what was evil. And evil doesnât play by the rules. Jesusâ enemies should have arrested him in Jerusalem, during the day, in public. Jesus says that they could have done that. Every day that week, he was at the temple, teaching. They could easily have arrested him then if they thought he was a threat. Instead, they come secretly at night. And though Jesus never committed acts of violence against anyone, he was treated like a violent criminal. The word ârobberâ used here in verse 52 is one used of violent criminals, not mere thieves. Why are treating Jesus this way if heâs not a real threat? Because they want to get rid of him. Darkness doesnât like the light. It hates light because light exposes the truth. Light reveals what is done in secret. So, the powers of darkness come upon Jesus. It is their hour.
The third thing we should see is that there are two different responses to Jesusâ arrest. One response comes from the other eleven disciples. They ask Jesus, âLord, shall we strike with the sword?â Before he answers, one of them takes a sword and cuts off one of the ears of the servant of the high priest. In Johnâs Gospel, weâre told that the disciple who did this was Peter. John also gives us the servantâs name, Malchus (John 18:10). We can understand why Peter would want to fight. Heâs trying to protect his teacher, his leader.
But Jesus has a very different reaction. He says, âNo more of this!â Then he heals the servantâs ear, which is the last miracle he performs before he dies. He refuses to fight back. Even though the people who come against him are wrong and want to do him harm, he refuses to run away from his mission. He must die. In Johnâs Gospel he says to Peter, âPut your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?â (John 18:11).
Jesus could have defended himself. He certainly had the power to do so. Look at what happens in Matthewâs account of this episode. This is Matthew 26:51â54:
51Â And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52Â Then Jesus said to him, âPut your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53Â Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54Â But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?â
Jesus could have responded by calling upon thousands of angels. Twelve legions could be as many as 72,000. He could have struck down all of the Jewish leaders opposed to them and all their servants and soldiers. But he didnât. He let himself be arrested so that Scripture would be fulfilled. He knew that he had to drink the cup of wrath that his Father had prepared for him.
Not only does Jesus refuse to fight back or run away, but he heals his enemy. He doesnât respond to hate with hate. He doesnât respond to swords with swords. He responds with love. Earlier in Lukeâs Gospel, he taught about loving oneâs enemy. This is what he says in Luke 6:27â29:
27Â But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28Â bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29Â To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.
We could believe that what Jesus does here is extraordinary. We know that he has to be arrested, because he has to die. He has to die and experience Godâs wrath in order to pay the penalty for sins. Of course, Jesus never committed any sins. He is the one perfect human being. So, heâs not dying for his own sins. Heâs dying for the sins of all who will come to him in faith, those whom the Father draws to him, those who cling to Jesus because he is their only remedy for sin. If Jesus didnât die for sins, we all would have to die for our sins. And we wouldnât just have to die a physical death. We would have to die a spiritual death. We would be condemned, cast out of Godâs creation, cut off from all of Godâs blessings.
So, we could easily say, âYes, of course Jesus didnât fight back. He had to die.â And then we could act quite differently when we are attacked. But we canât just write off Jesusâ actions as something that he had to do, but something that we donât have to do. We just read his words: âLove your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.â When someone mistreats us, we will be tempted to strike back. If someone lies about us, we may be tempted to lie about them. If someone calls us a name, we might be tempted to call them names. If someone does something unethical towards us, we might think weâre allowed to do the same to them. But Jesus says, âNo.â
Jesusâ message is reiterated by the apostles. Letâs look at what the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans. Turn to Romans 12:14â21:
14Â Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15Â Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Â Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17Â Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18Â If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19Â Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, âVengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.â 20Â To the contrary, âif your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.â 21Â Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
If someone persecutes you, you must bless them and not curse them. Do not repay evil with evil. Instead, do what is honorable. Donât avenge yourself, but leave it to God to deal with those who have wronged you. God will deal with all evil. In the end, all evil will be punished. Those who have turned to Jesus in faith have already had all their evil punished. Those who reject Jesus will stand before him in judgment and they will have to pay for what they have done. We must trust that a final day of justice will come. We donât have to try to right every single wrong in this life. Instead, treat people kindly. Overcome evil with good.
Paul can say those things because the Spirit of God led him to write those things. And Jesus spoke through his apostles by means of the Holy Spirit. So, Paulâs words are no less authoritative then Jesusâ words. His message is the same as Jesusâ. Paul can tell us not to repay evil with evil, but to love and bless those who hate and curse us, because he knows that justice will be done. He can also say those things because God has instituted an authority that does provide justice. Paul goes on to say in Romans 13 that the âgoverning authorities . . . have been instituted by Godâ (Rom. 13:1). The government is âGodâs servantâ who âbear[s] the sword.â The government âis the servant of God, an avenger who carries out Godâs wrath on the wrongdoerâ (Rom. 13:4). According to the Bible, the main role of government is to punish evil and to protect those who do good from those who do evil. Obviously, governments donât work perfectly. The Roman Empire wasnât the perfect model of justice in Paulâs day, but Paul realized that the role of government was to punish evildoers. And if the government failed to punish evil, as it so often does, then evil would ultimately be punished by God. And that means Christians do not have to pick up weapons to avenge themselves.
Why does this matter? Thereâs a great temptation today to rely on power to get our way. It seems like all kinds of people are obsessed with politics because they realize that if their party has control of the various branches of government, they can then enforce their will on all the people. It seems like hardly anyone cares about truth and doing what is right. Instead, they cheer on the party that can enforce their agenda, regardless of whether that agenda is entirely good or not.
Christians have been caught up in this. I think we have been led to think that if only we could get control of the government, we could enforce our views on the nation. Now, thatâs understandable. It matters who is in power. And it matters what laws are made and enforced. Laws cannot enforce virtue in the hearts of people. But laws can restrain vice. And laws are teachers. When the government says that something is legal or illegal, it is saying that something is acceptable (even if itâs not entirely moral) or that something is beyond the pale and is entirely unacceptable. So, we cannot pretend that politics doesnât matter.
But I think there are some things that we fail to think about. One is that Christianity cannot be enforced or spread through power. We canât make people believe in Jesus, or accept the doctrines of the Bible. Christianity can only be spread through persuasion and through the power of God.
Think about this: the early church had no political power. Christianity was an illegal religion. And it was considered a threat to the Roman Empire because Caesar, the emperor, was regarded as Lord. But Christianity said, âNo, Jesus is Lord.â Jesus is the real King. The Roman Empire had many, many gods. Christianity teaches that there is only one true God. So, Christianity was at odds with the Roman Empire. And for about three centuries after Jesus died and rose from the grave, the Roman leaders were not Christians. Eventually, in the fourth century, Christianity became a legal religion and then even the official religion of the Roman Empire. But that was not the case in the early years. The first Christians had no political power. They werenât the richest people. But Christianity spread through persuasion. Christians stated what Jesus did and how he fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament. They explained how all the other gods couldnât save them, and that they were in fact false gods. They pointed out the beauty and the coherence of the Christian faith while pointing out the inferiority of other beliefs.
You simply canât spread Christianity with force. To try to do so is wrong. Enforcing religion is more or less the way of Islam. Islam started in Saudi Arabia in the early seventh century. After Mohammed died, in 632, the alleged revelations of God that he received in his life were written down and codified in the Qurâan. And before long, the first Muslims engaged in military conquests in the Middle East and across northern Africa, all within the seventh century. By the early eighth century, Muslims invaded Spain.
Now, itâs technically true that people didnât convert to Islam through violence. We donât have accounts of people being told, âConfess Allah or you will die!â But Islam wouldnât have spread without violence, force, and great social pressure. Those people who were not Muslims and who lived in lands that were conquered by Muslims were treated as second-class citizens. They were forced to pay taxes that Muslims didnât have to pay. There was enormous social pressure to convert to Islam. And that is still true today in Islamic countries in the Middle East.
But that is not the way of Christianity. It canât be, because you canât force someone to have a change of heart. When we try to enforce what we believe, it simply doesnât work. And it often creates a backlash. People resent being forced to live in a way they disagree with. Powerful social movements in our country have not been achieved through power. Part of the reason why the civil rights movement in the â50s and â60s of the last century worked so well is because it was accomplished through persuasion and through people being willing to be arrested and even to suffer mistreatment. Of course, Christians can and should agree that treating someone poorly based on their skin color or ethnicity is wrong. Itâs a failure to treat someone as an image bearer of God, regardless of what they believe and how they live.
But there have been social movements in our country that do not align with Christianity. And they, too, have been spread not with violence or power, but with persuasion. We can think about homosexuality and now transgenderism. These movements have been spread through subtle means of persuasion. I donât think there are good arguments to state why homosexual desires and behaviors are acceptable. I donât think there are good arguments to say why we should believe that a biological man can be a woman, or a biological woman could be a man. Logic and truth are not on the side of people who advance such causes. But these movements have learned how to play upon the emotions of people. They have used media well, introducing characters in television shows and movies who were non-threatening, appealing to peopleâs sense of freedom, to the idea that we should be free to love whomever we want, however we choose.
If Christianity is going to counter such movements, it cannot do so through political power. That wonât succeed. We must engage in a battle for hearts and minds. We must present Christianity as a more beautiful alternative. We must persuade people that truth is on our side. We must show them through our acts of love that we care for them and want what is best for them. And I trust that what the Bible teaches about sex, sexuality, gender, and the family will be shown to be true and wise in the end. That may take a long time. In the interim, we must love and persuade.
The other reason why we canât fight spiritual battles with political power and literal weapons of war is because, ultimately, this is a spiritual battle. This is what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3â6:
3Â For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4Â For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5Â We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6Â being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Paulâs message was opposed by many people. It was opposed by Jews who refused to see that Jesus was their Messiah, the one who fulfilled the promise of the Hebrew Bible. It was refused by Gentiles who didnât want to turn from their idols to the true God. And it was even refused by people who claimed to be Christians yet who taught false things about Jesus. Paul realized his battle was not against people. Ultimately, it was against spiritual forces of evil, led by Satan himself. The weapons he used were not swords and clubs. He used reasoning and persuasion. He clung to the truth. He didnât destroy people, but he destroyed arguments and opinion that were against the knowledge of God. His punishment wasnât physical, but conducted through church discipline, using the censure of the church as a way of telling people they are wrong.
If youâre familiar with Ephesians, you may recall that Paul told Christians to âput on the whole armor of Godâ (Eph. 6:10â20). Itâs a metaphor for finding our protection in Jesus. Most of the elements of that armor are purely defensive. The only weapon is âthe sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Godâ (Eph. 6:17). And right after that, he tells us to pray (Eph. 6:18). Our weapons to fight against evil and darkness are the Bible, prayer, faithfully obeying God, reasoning with people, and trusting in the power of the only One who can destroy darkness.
We need to learn how to fight against spiritual darkness with spiritual light. Instead of relying on political power, we must draw on Godâs power by using the resources he has given to us. Thatâs why itâs so important to know the truth of the Bible and understand it well. Itâs our âsword.â We donât use the Bible to beat people up, but to show that what they believe is false. We must learn how to reason and persuade, and to do so in love. We must rely on Godâs power, and ask him, through prayer, to deliver us from evil.
And we must be willing to suffer if thatâs what God has called us to do. According to Paul, Jesus âdisarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in himâ by dying on the cross (Col. 2:15). He defeated evil through suffering. He triumphed by dying. Martyrdom has often been a powerful way of persuading people, because when people see someone dying for a cause, they start to consider that such a cause is worth dying for. Who would die for something they believed to be false? Who would die for something that they didnât believe was important? The word âmartyrâ literally means âwitness.â When we suffer for the sake of Jesus, weâre bearing witness to the world that Jesus is worth more than the worldâs pleasures and comforts.
So, let us follow Jesus. He knows what itâs like to be betrayed. He knows that the forces of darkness are real and that they donât fight fairly. Yet he knows that we canât respond with hate and evil. We must respond with love. We must respond with blessings, not curses. And we must respond in faith. The gospel message teaches us that evil isnât something outside of us. It teaches us that we have evil within us. And it also teaches us that Jesus died for evil people, that those who come to him in faith have their evil defeated, and that those who come to Jesus can love others who act in evil ways toward them. Trust in Jesus and follow in his footsteps.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
The Power of Darkness (Luke 22:47-53)
When Jesus was arrested, he refused to fight back. He was treated unfairly, but he was willing to suffer to fulfill God’s plans. Find out what we can learn from Jesus. This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on February 16, 2020.
Pray That You May Not Enter into Temptation
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on February 9, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or continue reading below).Â
Many people claim to be Christians. And if you ask these people questions about different issues, whether those are ethical or doctrinal, youâll likely get very different answers. In fact, if you ask people who claim to be Christians some very basic questions about who Jesus is and what he achieved during his time on earth, youâll likely get different answers, too. Thatâs sad.
There are many truths about Jesus that are quite clearly expressed in the Bible. Itâs rather clear that he was a man, a human being. Though he was conceived in a unique way, he was born, grew up, ate, drank, got tired, slept, felt emotions, experienced pain and suffering, and he died. If you pay attention to what the Bible says, I think itâs also clear that heâs the Son of God. He claims to be divine and equal to God the Father, he claims to forgive sins not committed directly against him, he says that people will be condemned if they donât believe in him and follow his words.
Yet there are some aspects of Jesus that are harder to understand. How is that he could be both God and human at the same time? How could Jesus be tempted if heâs God? If heâs God, how could he really suffer? What exactly did his death accomplish?
These issues arenât just intellectual issues. These theological issues have an impact on how we live. Knowing who Jesus is and what he came to do will shape our lives in dramatic ways, particularly as we deal with issues of sin and suffering.
Today, as we continue to study the Gospel of Luke, weâll consider some of the more difficult aspects of who Jesus is and what he did. Weâll be looking at Luke 22:39â46, the passage that describes Jesusâ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died. Weâll think about why Jesus prayed, what he prayed for, and the results of his prayer. And weâll consider his words to his disciples, that they should pray that they may not enter into temptation.
So, with that in mind, letâs read todayâs passage. Here is Luke 22:39â46:
39Â And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40Â And when he came to the place, he said to them, âPray that you may not enter into temptation.â 41Â And he withdrew from them about a stoneâs throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42Â saying, âFather, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.â 43Â And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44Â And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45Â And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46Â and he said to them, âWhy are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.â[1]
Just to give us a bit of context: As I said, this is the night before Jesus will die. He is about to be arrested. He has already taken one last Passover meal with his disciples, he has told them something about the meaning of his imminent death, and he has warned them that one of them will betray him and one of them will deny him. Then, he and his followers left Jerusalem, crossed the Kidron Valley, just east of the city, and came to the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the western slope of the Mount of Olives.
Jesus tells his disciples to pray that they may not enter into temptation, and then he withdraws a relatively short distance from them to pray on his own. In Matthewâs and Markâs Gospels, weâre told that Jesus took his inner circle of disciples, Peter, James, and John, with him (Matt. 26:36â46; Mark 14:32â42).
Now, I want us to see why Jesus prayed. Why, at this moment, does Jesus pray? In fact, why does Jesus need to pray at all, if heâs God? Well, Jesus prayed throughout his time on earth because he was also a man. He came to live the perfect human life. Most of the time, he didnât rely on his divine power. There were times when he performed miracles and didnât pray beforehand. But as a human being, and as the perfect human being, he relied on God the Fatherâs provision. A perfect human being realizes that he or she isnât God, that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Provider of all things. So, a perfect human being doesnât rely on his own strength, but instead he relies on God.
Prayer isnât simply asking God for things. Weâve read through most of the Psalms on Sunday mornings, and in those poems, those prayers, you see that the psalmists often express emotions to God. They simply talk to God. They praise him. They tell him how they are feeling. They express their concerns, their sorrows. They confess their sins. They dare to command God to rise up and defeat their enemies. They ask God where he is and how long it will be before they are vindicated. Prayer is quite simply spending time with God. Prayer is taking whatever youâre going through and processing it in the presence of God. God already knows whatever it is that youâll say. Youâre not going to tell something new to God. He knows everything, even what is going on in your heart and mind. God doesnât need your requests to act. But what prayer does is it helps us to focus on God. In our time of need, it reminds us that God is there, that God is in control, and that he is our ultimate source of help and hope. Prayer realigns us to God.
So, why does Jesus pray? He knows whatâs happening. He knows heâs about to die. He already has clearly predicted his death. He knows his body will be broken and his blood poured out. He knows Judas Iscariot is telling the Jewish leaders right now that where they can arrest him away from the teeming crowds in Jerusalem. Jesus knows that what he is about to endure isnât just physical suffering, as bad as that will be. He is going to experience something far beyond physical pain. So, he prays.
What does Jesus pray for? Here is his prayer: âFather, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.â Jesus is asking to be relieved of something. But what? He wants a âcupâ to be removed from him. Since heâs not literally drinking anything, this cup must be a figurative or symbolic reference. What is this cup? Iâve heard some people refer to this as a cup of suffering. It is that. But the cup refers to more than just suffering. You and I suffer in various ways. But the cup that Jesus had to drink wasnât just any suffering.
To understand what âthis cupâ refers to, we must go back to the Old Testament. As a Jewish man, Jesus was steeped in the Old Testament. He often quoted and alluded to the Old Testament, just as the early Christian writers like Paul did. The cup is a reference to something we find in the Old Testament. Itâs best to look at some passages that mention this cup to understand what Jesus is talking about.
First, weâll look at the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied over seven hundred years earlier, at a time when Israel was divided into two kingdoms. During his ministry, the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated by the Assyrian Empire, and later, the southern kingdom of Judah would be defeated by the Babylonian Empire. The division and defeat of Israel happened because the Israelites turned away from God. They didnât trust him and love him as they should have. They disobeyed him, broke his commands, and also started to worship false gods, idols. So, God gave them over to their sins and to their enemies. But God promised he would deliver a remnant, whom he would call back to himself and save.
In Isaiah 51, God says he would comfort his people, thought they had forgotten him (Isa. 51:12â13). Because they had forgotten him, God gave them over to punishment. Look at verses 17â23:
17Â Wake yourself, wake yourself,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
the bowl, the cup of staggering.
18Â There is none to guide her
among all the sons she has borne;
there is none to take her by the hand
among all the sons she has brought up.
19Â These two things have happened to youâ
who will console you?â
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
who will comfort you?
20Â Your sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God.
21Â Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
who are drunk, but not with wine:
22Â Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:
âBehold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23Â and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to you,
âBow down, that we may pass overâ;|
and you have made your back like the ground
and like the street for them to pass over.â
Jerusalem had once drunk the cup of Godâs wrath, the cup of staggering, the bowl of his wrath. But now God says he will take that cup from them and give it to their enemies. The cup symbolizes Godâs judgment against sin, his righteous anger and punishment against rebellion. Sin is a destructive force, wreaking destruction in Godâs creation. God has every right to get angry against sin and to cast sinners out of his creation. If someone came into your home and started tearing things up and harming your family, you would want them to be removed and punished. So it is with God. To face Godâs righteous punishment against sin is a dreadful thing.
There are other passages that talk of this cup of wrath. Consider Jeremiah 25:15â16:
15Â Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: âTake from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16Â They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.â
God told the prophet Jeremiah to give the nations, including Judah, the cup of his wrath. What he means is that Jeremiah was supposed to warn the nations of Godâs judgment. A day of judgment, the Day of the Lord, will come upon the whole earth. All who have rejected God and rebelled against him will drink this cup.
God sends a similar message through the prophet Ezekiel. In chapter 23 of that book, God describes in a somewhat metaphorical way how both Israel and Judah, the divided kingdoms of Israel, rejected him and went after other gods. He tells Judah that what happened to her âsisterâ shall happen to her. Here is Ezekiel 23:31â34:
31Â You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand. 32Â Thus says the Lord God:
âYou shall drink your sisterâs cup
that is deep and large;
you shall be laughed at and held in derision,
for it contains much;
33Â you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.|
A cup of horror and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria;
34Â you shall drink it and drain it out,
and gnaw its shards,
and tear your breasts;
for I have spoken, declares the Lord God.
Drinking from that cup sounds like a terrible thing, something that brings shame, horror, destruction, and pain.
Another passage that speaks of the cup is Psalm 75:6â8:
6Â For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
7Â but it is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another.
8Â For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
shall drain it down to the dregs.
Again, the cup is associated with judgment.
There are a few other passages that mention the cup, but this is enough to see that the cup is something dreadful. It is a cup of Godâs judgment, his wrath against sin. It brings destruction, horror, pain. Itâs like drinking the worst poison that first makes someone crazy before killing them in the worst possible way. This is the cup that Jesus was referring to.
Why does this matter? Because there are some people who say that Jesus was referring to a cup of suffering. The cup does entail suffering, but itâs not just suffering. Jesus didnât just suffer. You and I suffer, but we donât face what Jesus faced. He didnât just experience physical pain and death. He bore the wrath of God on the cross. Some people refuse to believe that. They say Jesus died as an example of how to lay down your life, or that he died because he was oppressed by a class of oppressors. Thereâs truth to those statements. But Jesusâ death wasnât just an accident. It was planned by God. And his death accomplished something. He died to pay the penalty of sin for his people. If his death didnât accomplish something, it wouldnât be a good example. But we know that Jesus came to save his people from their sin (Matt. 1:21), and that his death ransomed his people from sin (Matt. 20:28; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 1:17â19; 2:18â25).
So, why is Jesus asking for this cup to be removed? Jesus knows he must die. He has already predicted his death. He realizes that it is part of the divine plan. But Jesus also knows that experiencing the wrath of God is something he hasnât experienced before. He has to this point experienced unbroken fellowship with God the Father. He has only experienced the Fatherâs love and approval. Now, he knows that the experience of the Fatherâs love will be overshadowed by the experience of the Fatherâs wrath. He will experience a psychological, spiritual tormentâwhat can best be described as hell on earthâand this is not something that Jesus wants to experience.
To understand whatâs happening, we must first understand that Jesus has two natures. He is one person who has always had a divine nature. The Son of God has always existed as the Son. He is eternal. God the Father created the universe through him. But when Jesus was conceived, he added a second nature to himself. He also became man. Jesus doesnât just have a body. He also has a human mind, a human soul, a human will. He needed to have these things in order to redeem them.
An early Christian theologian named Gregory Nazianzen wrote the following of Jesus:
If anyone has put his trust in Him as a Man without a human mind, he is really bereft of mind, and quite unworthy of salvation. For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole[2]
The point is that Jesus had a human mind as well as a divine mind. Jesusâ divine mind knows everything, every fact, past, present, and future. But he often only used his human mind, which didnât know everything. Praying as a human, Jesus might have thought that there could be a way for him to avoid drinking that terrible cup of wrath. His divine will desired to go to the cross. But his human will, quite understandably, didnât want to suffer Godâs wrath.
We might say that Jesus was tempted not to drink this cup of judgment. We may wonder how the Son of God could be tempted. God, after all, has a perfect character. He canât be tempted. But Jesus, as a human being, could be tempted. Yet Jesus had a perfect character. Weâre often tempted to do the wrong thing because want to do things that are inherently wrong. Jesus could be tempted to do the wrong thingâto do what wasnât the Fatherâs will, or the divine willâbut not because he desired to do things that were inherently wrong. Not wanting to suffer and die isnât inherently wrong. Wanting to kill an innocent human being or wanting to steal something is inherently wrong. But not wanting to drink the cup of Godâs wrath isnât wrong.
Still, we see in this passage that Jesus yields to the Fatherâs will. He says, âNevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.â Heâs saying that his human will isnât to suffer Godâs wrath, but he realizes this is the divine will. Itâs the Fatherâs will. But itâs also the Son of Godâs will. The divine plan that is jointly held by the Father, Son, and Spirit, is that Jesus, the God-man, must be the one who drinks this cup of wrath. Jesus, in his humanity, yields to the Fatherâs will, because Jesus is the perfect human being. A perfect human being is obedient. And Jesus was, as the apostle Paul says, obedient even to death on the cross (Phil. 2:8).
Why is it the plan that Jesus must drink this cup of wrath? Why must Jesus die and suffer great physical and spiritual pain? Itâs Godâs plan to spare sinners from Godâs wrath. Jesus drinks the cup of wrath so that you and I donât have to. And thatâs the amazing thing. We deserve to drink that cup. We all have sinned. God would be right to let us receive that punishment for our sin. But God is merciful. He doesnât give us what we deserve. God is gracious. He gives us good things we could never merit. God gave us a way to be forgiven, to have someone else take our punishment. That way is Jesus. If we put our faith in Jesus, trusting that he is our hope and salvation, trusting that he is who the Bible says he is and that he is has done what the Bible says he has done, then we are forgiven. We will never drink that cup of wrath. We are put back into a right relationship with God, adopted as his children, and we will never be disowned.
And that was made possible because Jesus didnât give into temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane. The first man, Adam, along with the first woman, Eve, gave into temptation in another garden, Eden. The last Adam, the one who came to redeem human beings, didnât give into temptation.
Iâm sure many of us saw the movie The Passion of the Christ, which came out in 2004. The movie, made by Mel Gibson, famously depicts Jesus suffering great physical pain. I donât think itâs a great movie. It doesnât contain a lot of theology. But there are some good moments. At the beginning of the movie, Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays, but his prayers are met with silence. And he falls to the ground. Then Satan appears alongside of him. Satan appears as a woman, dressed in a dark cloak. Satan tries to make Jesus doubt that he can actually bear the sins of the world. Satan tries to get Jesus to doubt that God is really his Father. Then, a serpent comes from the bottom of Satanâs cloak and slithers toward Jesus. But Jesus resolves to do the Fatherâs will. He gets up and stomps on the serpentâs head, crushing it.
That is sort of what Jesus is going through here. He expresses his reluctance to drain the cup of wrath, but he also says that he will do the Fatherâs will.
What is the response to Jesusâ prayer? Well, the Father did not take the cup from him. Jesus would have to suffer. But notice that something happens. An angel comes to strengthen Jesus. Something similar happened when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. (See Luke 4:1â13.) Jesus turned away Satanâs temptations to receive a kingdom without first suffering. And after Jesus resisted temptation, angels came to minister to him (Matt. 4:11; Mark 1:13). Here, Jesus resists temptation, though he isnât spared the cup. But what God the Father does is give him the strength to drink it. In fact, the angel apparently gave Jesus the strength to continue praying. He was in such agony that his sweat was like blood. Luke doesnât say that Jesus was sweating blood. But his sweat was like blood. Perhaps the drops of his sweat were heavy like drops of blood. Or perhaps he was sweating profusely: sweat was pouring out of him the way blood pours out of a wound. Jesus was doing battle through prayer, and God gave him the strength to do that. God strengthened him to suffer.
Now, you may be wondering what all of this has to do with you. If youâre a Christian, it has everything to do with you. This is what Jesus endured to save you. He battled through temptation and agony. In distress, he cried out to the Father, asking if it were possible for there to be some other way. But he yielded to the Father. Jesus obeyed for you. He suffered for you. He died for you. Itâs important to be reminded of this.
And if you are not a Christian, I hope that you would see the beauty of Jesusâ sacrifice. Look at what he was willing to endure. The weight of the world was upon his shoulders. The destiny of billions of people depended upon his actions. And Jesus triumphed by being willing to suffer so that he could save people. If you put your trust in him, you will be spared Godâs wrath. But if you reject Jesus, you reject God. And the reality is that you will have to drink that cup of wrath yourself, and it will be greater suffering than you can imagine.
But thereâs something else to see in this passage. Jesus twice tells his disciples to pray that they may not enter into temptation. At that moment, they would be tempted to abandon Jesus. Next week, we will see how Jesus is arrested. Judas and some soldiers and officers of the Jewish leaders were on their away to arrest Jesus. The temptation would be to run away, to abandon Jesus, to deny every knowing him, all to save their own skin. If they were coming to arrest and kill Jesus, they might do the same to Jesusâ followers.
Now, we will likely not be put in such a difficult situation. But there will be temptation to deny Jesus in situations that arenât full of so much pressure. We may be tempted to abandon Jesus when our friends and family members donât follow him. We may be tempted to abandon Jesus when it seems like the way of the world is more fun and satisfying. In other words, we may be tempted to abandon Jesus in order to pursue sin, to do things that Jesus forbids us to do. We may be tempted to abandon Jesus when we suffer, when things in this life donât go the way we want them to go. When we endure physical pain, perhaps an injury or a disease, we may wonder if this God of the Bible really exists. When we suffer in our relationships, we may be tempted to give up on Jesus. There are many different situations that might lead us into temptation. And Jesus tells us to pray so that we wouldnât give into temptation.
When youâre suffering, donât run away from God. Thereâs always the temptation to ignore that suffering, perhaps to numb your pain with drugs or alcohol or to just avoid it through things like entertainment. Instead of dealing with the problems of our lives, we may tune them out by turning on the TV or binge-watching shows and movies on Netflix. Jesus asked the disciples to stay awake with him, but weâre told that they were âsleeping for sorrow.â They were so emotionally spent that they slept. That could literally be what happens to us. Instead of facing our problems, we might just want to sleep. I think thatâs what people who commit suicide believe. Itâs better to have to âsleep,â to be done with this life, than to deal with the sorrows and sufferings of this life.
But Jesus asks us to wrestle with God in prayer. When we suffer, we should cry out to God. When youâre hurting, talk to God. When youâre in distress, express your emotions to God. You can do that through tears and even shouting. Prayer doesnât have to done in this hushed, polite, âreligiousâ tone. Jesus prayed with great emotion. This is what the author of Hebrews writes: âIn the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverenceâ (Heb. 5:7). Itâs perfectly acceptable to pray in loud cries, to pray through your tears. You can tell God how you really feel. You can ask him questions. You can beg him to spare you suffering.
But when we pray, we must realize that God may not answer us the way we want him to. When weâre hurting, our first instinct is to ask God to remove the thing thatâs hurting us. Thatâs not a wrong thing to ask of God. Jesus did it. Paul did it, too (see 2 Cor. 12:1â10). Bringing that request to God makes us aware that God has the power to remove suffering from our lives. It reminds us that God is in control. And thatâs a good thing. But we must also be willing to say, âNot my will, but yours.â Godâs answer might very well be âno.â His plan might be for us to continue to suffer. But if that is the case, God will give us the strength to endure that suffering. God strengthened Jesus through the help of an angel. Luke doesnât tell us what the angel did to strengthen Jesus. Weâre not even sure that Jesus could see the angel. Perhaps when weâre suffering, angels minister to us in ways that we canât see. I donât know. But if God plans for us to suffer, then he will give us the strength to suffer.
So, if youâre facing something difficult today, something you wish were different in your life, tell God about it. Cry out to him. Tell him how youâre in pain, or youâre confused, or you donât know what to do. Wrestle with him. Cry, shout, wail. Tell him what you would like to happen. But then be willing to do Godâs will. When you pray, you will more than likely never hear an audible reply. You have to wait and see what Godâs answer is. There are times when he removes the suffering, when he improves our situation, when he heals us. But there are many times when our circumstances donât change, when we continue to suffer. If that is the case, take heart. God will strengthen you, perhaps in ways that you canât sense, ways that you donât see. He will give you the grace to endure. God will not ask us to bear the weight of the world on our shoulders. Only one person could do that, and he already did. But you will bear some weight. Just know that God will strengthen you to bear it. As Jesus told his disciples on that same night, âIn the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the worldâ (John 16:33).
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Gregory Nazianzen, âSelect Letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen,â in S. Cyril of Jerusalem, S. Gregory Nazianzen, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow, vol. 7, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1894), 440. â
Pray That You May Not Enter into Temptation (Luke 22:39-46)
Jesus resisted temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane by praying to the Father. Though the cup of God’s wrath was not taken from Jesus, he yielded to the Father’s will and was strengthened for his mission. Brian Watson preached this sermon on Luke 22:39-46 on February 9, 2020.
Numbered with the Transgressors
This sermon was preached on February 2, 2020 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon.
Last Sunday, news of a death shocked many people. We found out that Kobe Bryant, one of the NBAâs most successful players, died in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people. The news of any death is shocking. But I think what shook people was the fact that Bryant was only 41. He had retired less than four years ago. He was healthy and wealthy and accomplished. People like him arenât supposed to die this young. They are supposed to live long lives. We would expect him to go on to work on television or to coach and to die at an old age. But Bryant, like anyone else, was mortal.
Such news reminds us that life is fragile. Weâre only one phone call, text message, email, letter, or police notification away from receiving devastating news, whether thatâs a death or some other emergency, or having a relative or friend betray us in some way, or something lesser like being fired or finding out weâve lost money. Thereâs no guarantee that things in this life are secure.
There are times when we will feel like weâre shaken. That feeling may come even when thereâs not some apparent emergency. We may feel shaken when weâre depressed or anxious, overwhelmed, when the weight of the world is too much for us to bear. We may look back on our lives and have a great sense of regret and shame for what weâve done, and we may feel like weâre coming undone. We may have great worries about how weâll make it through another week, another month, or another year.
In short, there are times when we feel like weâre being attacked. The fact is that there are forces that we canât see that are attacking us, forces of darkness and evil that are very real and that are stronger than we are. Yet there is still great hope. In the midst of all this uncertainty, in a world of tragedies, there is someone who can protect us from ultimate harm and failure.
Today, weâre continuing our study of the Gospel of Luke. Weâre in the middle of chapter 22. It is the night before Jesus will die on the cross, nearly two thousand years ago. Jesus has taken one last Passover meal with his disciples. He has explained what his death will accomplish. He has warned them that one of them will betray him. He has told them not to strive for greatness in the worldâs eyes, but to be humble and to serve one another. And now he gives one disciple another warning.
Letâs begin by reading Luke 22:31â34:
31Â âSimon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32Â but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.â 33Â Peter said to him, âLord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.â 34Â Jesus said, âI tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.â[1]
Jesus speaks to Peter, the leader of the disciples, calling him by the name âSimon,â which is what he is called when Jesus first invited him and some others to follow him (Luke 5:1â11). Perhaps calling Peter by this name would remind him that Jesus chose him as one of his disciples. Jesus warns Simon Peter that Satan has demanded to âhave you.â We canât see this in English, but in the Greek, the âyouâ here is plural. Itâs a reference not just to Peter, but to all the disciples. Satan wanted to âsift them like wheat,â to separate them from the chaff, to pull them away from Jesus. Itâs like Satan, the devil, wanted to shake Jesusâ little group of ragtag followers to see which of them would fall away from Jesus.
A couple of weeks ago, we saw that Satan had managed to sift one of Jesusâ disciples, Judas. Satan decisively influenced Judas to betray Jesus. Now, we find out that Satan has attacked the other eleven disciples, too. Satan is a mysterious and shadowy figure in the Bible. There are few references to him in the Old Testament. From his appearance in the book of Job, we understand that he was a rebellious angel, or at least some kind of otherworldly being who was in heaven. In the book of Job, Satan tries to get a righteous man to renounce God by taking away his wealth, his family, and his health, all with Godâs permission. Yet Satan failed in that attack. Satan is also known as being an accuser. In Zechariah 3, in a vision he accuses Joshua, the high priest, pointing out his sin. Yet God rebuked Satan, took away Joshuaâs âfilthy garmentsâ (representing his sin) and clothed him in âpure vestmentsâ (representing righteousness).
We learn more about Satan in the New Testament. Though we donât know much about his origins, heâs called âa murdererâ and âa liar and the father of liesâ (John 8:44). We find out that he is the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the âdeceiver of the whole world,â and âthe accuserâ (Rev. 12:9, 11). Satan even tried to tempt Jesus, to get him to abandon his divine mission (Luke 4:1â13).
To summarize what the Bible says about the devil, we can say that he is real, that he is a preternatural or otherworldly force, that he delights to deceive and tempt people so that they turn away from God, that he then accuses those sinners of their sin, and that he tries to thwart Godâs plans. But itâs important to know that Satan does not have Godâs power and knowledge, and certainly not his wisdom, love, and holiness. And itâs also important to know that Jesus is stronger than Satan, he came âto destroy the works of the devilâ (1 John 3:8), and that Satan will be defeated (Rev. 20:7â20).
Here, in Luke 22, Jesus warns Peter that Satan has attempted to separate him and the ten other disciples. (Satan already managed to separate the twelfth.) But Jesus has protected Peter. He has prayed for him. (Jesus then uses the singular form of âyouâ to refer specifically to Peter.) Jesus has prayed that Peterâs faith would not failâat least not in the ultimate sense. That doesnât mean Peter wouldnât fail in smaller ways. In fact, he predicts that Peter will deny him.
Whatâs interesting is that Jesus first says that to Peter that after he has âturned again,â he should strengthen the other disciples. This implies that Peter will fail, not in the ultimate sense that Judas failed, proving himself faithless, but sinning in some significant way. Peter doesnât seem to think he will do that, because he claims that he is ready to go to prison and to death with Jesus. Peter will eventually go to prison for being a Christian (Acts 12), and according to Christian tradition outside of the Bible, Peter would eventually be martyred in Rome. But those events would come much later. First, Peter will deny even knowing Jesus. Weâll see that in a few weeks.
I want to drop a little footnote here. Some people donât believe that the Bible is the truth. They donât believe that the Gospels and the other historical books of the Bible tell what really happened. They assume that people fabricated these stories, or that theyâre some kind of myth. One of the reasons to believe they are true is that they report details that you wouldnât make up if you were creating a story. Peter, along with Paul, is one of the two great leaders of the early church. If you were making up a story about him, you wouldnât tell a story about his failures. But Peterâs faults are clearly displayed. He and the other disciples sometimes come across as foolish and thick-headed. Other great figures of the Bible, like Noah, Abraham, and David, are presented warts and all. Compare that with Islam. Islam presents Muhammad as a perfect man. The Qurâan tells stories about biblical figures. (Keep in mind that the Qurâan was written hundreds of years after the Bible was completed.) But in the Qurâan, âDavid does not . . . seduce Uriahâs wife; Lot does not sleep with his daughtersâ and acts of violence are expunged from the record.[2] If youâre making up a story, you donât share embarrassing depictions of that storyâs heroes. But if youâre telling the truth, you have nothing to hide.
Think about this for a moment. Jesus chose the twelve disciples. He did this after a long night of prayer to God the Father (Luke 6:12â16). This means that Jesusâ choice of these particular twelve men was Godâs choice. This was all part of Godâs plan. God knew that Judas would betray Jesus. He knew that Peter would deny him. Yet Jesus chose them still. And Jesus knows that Peter will deny him. Yet he tells Peter in advance that he will repent, that he will have a role in strengthening Christians.
What does this have to do with us? If you are a Christian, know that God chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3â14). God didnât just choose to create us. God chose to adopt us into his family, to save us from our sins and the condemnation that sinners deserve, through the sacrificial death of Jesus. (If you donât understand what that means, hang on; I will soon explain what Jesus does to save us.) God did this knowing all the sins that we would ever commit. Jesus, in his divinity, knew what Peter would do. Yet Jesus chose him anyway. And Jesus protected Peter from Satan. He interceded for Peter. He prayed for him. He promised Peter that even though he would deny Jesus, which is a serious sin, Peter would still have a role to play as the leader of the disciples.
This is a picture of grace. Jesus gives things to Peter that Peter doesnât deserve. On his own, Peter would not only deny Jesus, but he would come under Satanâs sway. He would believe lies. He would fail. But not with Jesus in his corner. The same is true of us. If it were not for Jesus, we would be lost. We would believe lies and fall away from God. But nothing can remove us from God and his love for us.
Iâll come back to this idea in a moment. But first letâs read the rest of todayâs passage. Here are verses 35â38.
35Â And he said to them, âWhen I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?â They said, âNothing.â 36Â He said to them, âBut now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. 37Â For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: âAnd he was numbered with the transgressors.â For what is written about me has its fulfillment.â 38Â And they said, âLook, Lord, here are two swords.â And he said to them, âIt is enough.â
Earlier in Lukeâs Gospel, weâre told that Jesus sent out the twelve disciples on a mission to preach and to heal people (Luke 9:1â6). He told them not to take provisions with them. Later, he sent out a larger group of seventy-two people to preach (Luke 10:1â12). Again, he told them not to take provisions, but to trust that God would provide for them through the kindness of others. Now, Jesus tells them to take provisions. They should bring money and a bag. He also tells them they should have a sword.
At the least, Jesus is telling them that something is changing. Earlier, they were not met with much resistance. They preached and they had success. But now Jesus is warning them that times will be hard. In Johnâs Gospel, he tells them that the world will hate them because it first hated him (John 15:18â25). âThe worldâ refers to the powers of the world that are opposed to God. The disciples will need to be prepared to face such adversity. Things will not be easy for them.
Still, itâs odd that Jesus tells them to buy a sword. Why does he do this? This command is debated. I have seen some people use this passage to justify carrying weapons, as if Jesus were telling the disciples something about the Second Amendment. Iâm not opposed to the Second Amendment in principle, but I think it would be a mistake to justify carrying weapons for self-defense based on this passage. And this is why: Jesus tells them to buy a sword. They tell him they have two swords. Two swords would not be enough to defend twelve men. It wonât be enough to defend them from soldiers. Soon enough, they will come to arrest Jesus. Peter, ever the impetuous disciple, attempts to defend Jesus by swinging his sword at a servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear (Luke 22:50; John 18:10). But Jesus miraculously heals that manâs ear and says, âNo more of this!â (Luke 22:51). We should also notice that in the book of Acts or in the rest of the New Testament, there is no account of the disciples brandishing weapons or defending themselves physically. So, if Jesus is telling them to literally carry swords wherever they go, then they didnât obey him.
Also, in this passage, when the disciples tell Jesus they have two swords, he says, literally, âIt is enough.â That could mean, âThat number will suffice.â But it wonât be enough to defend themselves. Jesus could also mean something dismissive. He could have been referring to a sword in a figurative or metaphorical way, warning them about the danger and divisions that will come their way. When they show him their swords, Jesus could be saying, âEnough of that. You obviously donât understand exactly what I mean.â
Just about every commentator believes that Jesus is referring to a sword in a figurative or metaphorical way. He does do that elsewhere, when he says that he came not to bring peace to the world, but to come with a sword, metaphorically separating his people from those who reject him (Matt. 10:34).
But perhaps he does want his disciples to have literal swords for another reason. Jesus gives us a reason for having swords in verse 37. He says, âFor I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: âAnd he was numbered with the transgressors.ââ Heâs quoting Isaiah 53:12, part of a passage that talks about Godâs servant, who will suffer and be crushed for the sins of his people so that they could be healed. In fact, right after that portion of Isaiah 53:12, it says, âhe bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.â We have already seen that Jesus intercedes for sinners, people like Peter. We will soon talk about his bearing the sins of many. But itâs important to see that Jesus is numbered with the transgressors. Perhaps part of the reason why the disciples need to have swords is so that they will appear to the unbelieving Jews and Romans as if they are treasonous. Jesus will be accused of being a threat to the Roman Empire, challenging the rule of Caesar (Luke 23:2; John 19:12). Similar charges will be made against the disciples (Acts 17:6â7).
Whatever the exact meaning of the sword is, itâs important to see that Jesus is regarded as a sinner. That, too, is part of Godâs plan. Sin is a turning away from God. It his rejecting him. Itâs a failure to love him, trust him, and obey him. Itâs really a failure to embrace the purpose for which we were made. God made us to know him, to represent him, to reflect his glory, to love him, obey him, and serve him. But we donât want that. We want to determine our own purpose in life. Instead of accepting Godâs terms for our lives, we want to live life on our own terms. Sin is a great crime, one that deserves punishment. That punishment is just repaying evil. Itâs also a form of protection, removing evil from Godâs world so that it doesnât further contaminate his creation. God would be right to remove all of us from his world.
But God is gracious. He has provided us a way to be forgiven. He doesnât sweep our sin under the rug. No, sin must be punished. God is a perfect judge, one who sees all the evidence and must issue a sentence for the crime, which must be punished. But he takes the punishment that we deserve and puts it on his Son. As the apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21, âFor our sake he [God the Father] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.â And God the Son takes this punishment upon himself willingly. He lays down his life to save his people, all who trust I him.
To see all how Jesus sacrifices himself for his people and how he protects them from Satan, itâs worth looking at another passage of the Gospels. In John 10, Jesus is teaching about his identity and the role he plays in saving his people. He says that he is a good shepherd who protects his people, his sheep. There is a thief who comes to harm the sheepâthis must be Satan. But Jesus protects his people from them. Here is what Jesus says in John 10:10â18:
10Â The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11Â I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12Â He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13Â He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14Â I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15Â just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16Â And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17Â For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18Â No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
Jesus protects his people and gives them abundant life. Heâs not a hired hand who abandons the sheep when things get difficult. No, he risks life and limb to protect them. In fact, he lays down his life for them. There is one flock of God, both Jews and Gentiles, anyone who puts their trust in Jesus. They will listen to his voice, and no one can take them from him.
A few verses later, Jesus reinforces this idea. Look at verses 27â30:
27Â My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28Â I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29Â My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fatherâs hand. 30Â I and the Father are one.
What does it mean to be a Christian? You follow Jesus. You hear his voice in the pages of the Bible and you follow him. This begins by trusting in Jesus and his ability to save you from sins and the attacks of the enemy. It starts with believing that he is the Son of God, the perfect God-man who lived a righteous life and died an atoning death. But such faith will lead to obedience, even the imperfect obedience of someone like Peter.
But the good news is that if you are a Christian, no one can take you out of Godâs hand. Satan can try to deceive you and attack you, but he wonât succeed. Satan could decisively steer away Judas because he didnât have real faith in Jesus. But Jesus protected Peter, and he protects all his other sheep.
There are other passages in the Bible that express this great truth. In the book of Romans, Paul gives his most systematic account of this good news message of Christianity. He discusses the universal problem of sin and how it brings condemnation, Godâs righteous wrath. But he also tells us that God sent his Son to redeem sinners, and that those who trust in Jesus will experience no condemnation.
At the end of Romans 8, Paul writes these powerful words. Here are verses 31â39:
31Â What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32Â He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Â Who shall bring any charge against Godâs elect? It is God who justifies. 34Â Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who diedâmore than that, who was raisedâwho is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35Â Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36Â As it is written,
âFor your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.â
37Â No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38Â For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39Â nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you are a Christian, you have God on your side. If God is for you, no one can ultimately be against you. If God gave you his own Son, knowing all the sins that you have committed and will ever commit, will he not give you everything you need? He will. If God has covered your sins with the sacrifice of Jesus, can anyone bring charges against you to condemn you? No. Jesus died for your sins and rose from the grave, showing that he paid the penalty in full. And he is now in heaven, interceding for all Christians, pleading his sacrifice to the Father, praying for us.
If you are a Christian, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Nothing! Though Christians will experience trials and tribulations, distress and persecution, and even death, all of those things canât separate them from God. Death canât remove you from God. No emergency or crisis can remove you from God. Your own sin canât remove you from God. Satan and demons canât separate you from God and his love for you.
That is, if youâre a Christian. If you are not a Christian, you are not protected from these things. The fact is that you will die, and you will stand before Jesus one day. And if you have rejected him, he will not protect you on that day. He will judge you. He will condemn you. You will be removed from Godâs creation and you will experience a literally hellish existence. The only protection from the trials of this life, from all kinds of emotional, psychological, and spiritual distress, from death, and from condemnation, is Jesus. The only protection from all our own failures is him. Turn to him now. If you donât know who Jesus is and want to know more, I would love to talk to you. If you donât know what it looks like to hear his voice and follow him, please talk to me.
Christians, this should be a great comfort to you. You may feel like your life is being shaken. You may be reflecting on your own sins. You may feel like youâre coming under attack. You may be overwhelmed by forces that are greater than you. You may be looking at many problems that you canât solve, broken situations that you canât fix. When that happens, look to Christ. He is praying for you. He is protecting you. He knows all your sins and yet he still died for you. He loves you and cares for you. And he will preserve your life, all the way to that day when you will receive a resurrected body and live in a perfect world with him forever.
I want to close this message with one more passage of Scripture. Itâs a great commentary on this passage, just as itâs a great commentary on the book of Job. Not surprisingly, itâs written by Peter himself. This is 1 Peter 5:6â11:
6Â Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7Â casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8Â Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Â Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10Â And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11Â To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Timothy Winter, âIslam and the Problem of Evil,â in The Cambridge Companion to the Problem of Evil, ed. chad Meister and Paul K. Moser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 234. â
The Greatest
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on January 26, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or continue reading below).
Itâs funny how language changes over time. Certain words that once had one meaning now have have another. One example is goat. As long as that word has existed, itâs always referred to a specific type of animal, but it also has had a secondary meaning. Goat used to refer to someone who was a failure, someone you could blame. And that was most clearly the case in the world of sports. A goat is someone who lost the game for the team. The clearest example that comes to my mind is Scott Norwood, the placekicker of the Buffalo Bills who failed to kick a field goal to win Super Bowl XXV in 1991. With only seconds left in the game, the Bills were down only one point to the New York Giants. Norwood attempted a 47-yard field goal and missed it as the ball sailed wide right. The Bills lost that Super Bowl and the next three Super Bowls. Norwood played only one more year in the NFL before becoming an insurance salesman and then a real estate agent. Of course, Bill Bucker is another infamous goat, because his error helped the Red Sox lose Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
But now goat has a new meaning. Itâs now spelled in capital letters as an acronym: Great Of All Time. People refer to Tom Brady as the GOAT. There are debates about who is the GOAT of the NBA. Is it Michael Jordan or LeBron James, or is it someone else?
While the acronym GOAT might be new, the question of who is the greatest is old. Itâs the kind of barroom and sports radio debate that has gone on for as long as professional sports has existed. The question of who is the greatest isnât limited to sports. Thereâs something in the human heart that seems to rank everything. We debate over which is the greatest movie, the greatest song, the greatest product, and everything else. This seems to start at a young age. Caleb often gives Simon two choices and asks him to pick which is better.
Everyone wants to know who or what is the greatest. This isnât limited to our culture or time. In fact, even Jesusâ disciples debated about which one of them is the greatest. Earlier in Lukeâs Gospel, his biography of Jesus, weâre told that the disciples argued about which one of them is the greatest. Jesus used a child as an example of greatness and said, âhe who is least among you all is the one who is greatâ (Luke 9:48).[1] The shocking thing about that episode is that Jesus had just told his disciplesâfor the second timeâthat he was going to die (Luke 9:44; the first time was in Luke 9:22). I canât imagine someone saying to a group of people, âIâm about to suffer and be killed,â and then that group of people act as if they hadnât heard any of those words and start to debate something as petty as which one of them was the greatest. But thatâs what Jesusâ followers did, and that reflects something about the human heart. Our pride causes us to try to be seen as great. We want other people to acknowledge us above others.
This same pattern occurs in chapter 22 of Luke, which we will continue to study today. Jesus has been sharing one last supper with his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. He explains that his body will be crushed and his blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. He has even warned his disciples that one of them will betray him. And, once again, the disciples start arguing about which one of them was the greatest.
Weâll see that in todayâs passage, Luke 22:24â30. Letâs turn there now and read the passage:
24Â A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25Â And he said to them, âThe kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26Â But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27Â For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
28Â âYou are those who have stayed with me in my trials, 29Â and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30Â that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Itâs strange that the disciples would pick this moment to argue about something such as this, but I think it makes sense. Jesus has just told the group that one of them would betray Jesus. That person was Judas, who sold Jesus out to the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill Jesus. They had to arrest him away from the throngs of Jewish people celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem. When the disciples heard that one of them would betray Jesus, eleven of them must have thought, âI would never do that.â Then they started to ask each other which one would be the betrayer. In verse 22, it says, âAnd they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.â Itâs not much of a leap from that kind of question to a discussion over who was so great among them that he would never betray Jesus.
At any rate, the disciples were quarreling over who was the greatest, and Jesus issues them another warning. He basically says, âDonât try to be like those pagan kings who are all about power and prestige. They donât lead their people by serving them. No, they lord their power over their people. They may be called benefactors, but they donât benefit the people.â âBenefactorâ was something of a technical term. It sounds good to us, but it reflects another situation in the ancient world: those who were wealthy became benefactors to patrons in order to gain political power and also to have their patrons be indebted to themânot in literal financial and legal terms, but socially. People in the ancient world didnât give charitably; they gave gifts with the expectation that those who received the gifts would give back to them one way or the other.
Jesus tells them not to be like those worldly leaders. Instead, in the kingdom of God, the truth path to greatness comes through humility and service. Those who were older and in positions of power and respect should act like younger people, people without power. In our day, youth is a prized possession, but that wasnât the case then. People didnât idolize youth the way they do now. The point Jesus is making is that they shouldnât strive for positions of high status. When those who were wealthier or who were honored guests would eat a meal, they would ârecline at table.â They would literally be on the floor, in a somewhat reclined position, eating off low tables while they relaxed. In that society, they would be viewed as greater than the people serving them. Perhaps think of a very fancy wedding reception, where the guests are served by those working for a hotel or catering company. The honored guests have a higher status than those servers. In that sense, they are greater. But Jesus tells them that, in reality, itâs greater to serve.
First, he says that leaders should serve. Leaders are not in leadership position to get attention, to accrue power, to sit around and be served by people who are under their authority. Instead, leaders are supposed to serve.
Second, Jesus says that he, the real GOATâGreat Of All Timeâhas come to serve. If Jesus, the greatest person that has ever walked the face of the Earth, is a servant, then his disciples should be servants. The disciples are students. They should follow the example of their teacher. The disciples are subjects of the King, Jesus, who is not only King of the Jews, but King of kings, the Son of God who became a human being. If such an exalted, authoritative, powerful person came to serve, then his disciples should as well.
Iâm going to come back to how Jesus serves in a while. But first, I want to point out that what Jesus says here is consistent with what the Bible says about seeking power and glory. And this is a message that we desperately need to hear, especially in our celebrity-infatuated culture.
It seems like everyone in our culture wants to be famous, wants to be rich, wants to be popular. And because of social media, it is easier than ever to aggrandize yourself. People with a moderate amount of looks and talent parade themselves online in a long series of selfies and videos. They may post revealing pictures of how they look. They may brag about their achievements, or even brag about their family. They may post videos of themselves singing or performing. Itâs not wrong to post a picture of yourself, or to share news about something in your life, or to be pleased with your family. Itâs not wrong to share your talent with the world. But I think many people go beyond mere sharing. They want to be acknowledged. They want to be seen as great.
But thereâs something rather distasteful about such status seeking. Certainly, the Bible addresses that issue. Proverbs 25:27 says this:
It is not good to eat much honey,
nor is it glorious to seek oneâs own glory.
Seeking your own glory is like eating too many sweets. It may feel good at the time, but itâs not good for you.
Proverbs 27:2 says this:
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips.
These verses arenât just biblical. Theyâre also highly practical. They speak about how things go in the world. I think weâve all experienced people who love to talk about how great they are. Generally, we donât want to be around such people. The practice of praising yourself is annoying. And truly great people donât do that sort of thing. Their greatness is apparent. I have a Facebook friend who is a former student of mine, from when I was a professor of music. He posts quite a few selfies of when, I suppose, heâs dressed up for work. Heâs not a bad looking guy, but heâs also not a matinee idol. And more than once, he has posted a selfie with a few little fire emojis, which I guess is his way of saying, âIâm looking really hot right now.â Iâve been tempted to write, âIf youâre really hot, you donât need to say it.â But I donât, because I donât want to humiliate the guy. But there is something kind of desperate and pathetic about drawing attention to yourself.
Yet we tend to idolize people who have greater power, money, talent, and status. We do that through celebrity news. We do that through sports. If we were to meet a great entertainer or athlete real life, we would be star struck. But we donât tend to be in awe of the person who volunteers their time, without fanfare, for a church or some charitable cause. We donât see a woman who has given away a large percentage of her income each year and get nervous and be reduced to a bumbling idiot because weâre so in awe of her generosity. We are drawn to celebrities and we are in awe of them.
This happens within the church, too. We live in an age of celebrity pastors. There have been celebrity pastors for a long time. We might think of Charles Spurgeon, for example. Billy Graham was a celebrity preacher and evangelist. There are pastors of megachurches who are celebrities. Itâs not wrong for a preacher to have a large audience. If he faithfully preaches the word with a great amount of skill, we might expect that heâll gather an audience. Jesus gathered crowds. But thereâs a danger there. Because we tend to be drawn to people who appear great, we may put them on a pedestal. And because we tend to crave power and popularity, celebrity pastors may be tempted not to serve God and the people who are under their care, but to build their own kingdoms. And this is happening now. Pastors have used their positions to become rich. They have used their positions to be celebrated, to appear before large crowds, to gain power. And a lot of people seem to buy into this. We elevate a man, thinking he is the anointed one, when in reality he may be not be serving others, but serving his own interests. Churches build additional campuses in which there isnât a live preacher, but a celebrity preacher on a screen, as if thereâs only one man who can preach. This just feeds into our celebrity culture. Itâs not a good thing.
And itâs not terribly new. Of course, today there are many ways for one pastor to be broadcast to large audiences. But even before such technology, there were celebrity pastors of a sort. In the first century, there were some men who claimed to be preachers of the gospel. They claimed to be apostles of Jesus Christ. They probably dressed nicely and spoke in very eloquent, clever, and powerful ways. The apostle Paul, who probably wasnât terribly impressive physically or even vocally, refers to these men ironically as âsuper-apostlesâ (2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11). The problem is that they werenât preaching the same message as Paul. They werenât preaching the true gospel message, the good news of Christianity.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about this issue, he urged them not be deceived by appearances (see 2 Cor. 11:1â15). Though he had to defend his ministry and remind them that he taught the truth, he said he wasnât boasting in himself. He writes, ââLet the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.â For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commendsâ (2 Cor. 10:17â18).
Paul knew that what mattered most was not seeking to make oneâs self look great in the eyes of other people. He knew that what mattered was not boasting in oneâs self. He realized that people would view him differently. Some would love him, and some would look down on him. What mattered to Paul was being faithful to what God had called him to do, to be commended by God. We might say he was working for an audience of One.
Jesus commended this same practice. He taught that we should aim not be seen as righteous, but to aim to please God. In Matthew 6:1, he says, âBeware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.â One way of trying to be great is to do good works in order to be seen. I think thatâs part of the human condition. Thereâs something inside of us that craves recognition. This isnât entirely bad. Itâs just that itâs misplaced. We should want Godâs recognition, Godâs approval. But even then, our motivation shouldnât be to do something for God so that he will reward us. We should do things for God out of love and thanks and because itâs simply the right thing to do. We certainly shouldnât do things to be seen to a good person.
Yet thatâs so hard for us, to do what is good and right without calling attention to it. Iâm sure many of us have been guilty of that. Iâve certainly heard people in this church boast in their own way about how they were doing good things. But that is one way of seeking greatness, even within the church. Another way of seeking greatness in the church is getting our way or maintaining our little positions of power. I think thatâs why there is often conflict in churches. If we all focused on doing things the best way, doing what was right, and doing it in the most excellent manner, then we would have greater unity. But instead, we have our pride. We want to be the ones to do that thing, whatever it is, because we want recognition. If we all focused on pleasing God first, then many problems would be resolved.
Instead of seeking to draw attention to ourselves or seeking to have power, we should seek to serve, because that is the way of Jesus. As he told his disciples, âI am among you as the one who serves.â Jesus doesnât say here how he serves. But we know from the other Gospels how he serves. In Matthewâs Gospel, when Jesus says these words, weâre told something else. He says this in Matthew 20:25â28:
âYou know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26Â It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27Â and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28Â even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.â
Jesus came to serve by giving his life as a ransom for many. He came to redeem people from sin. Sin is not just the wrong things we do. Sin is a power at work within us, a tendency to rebel against God, to do things our way instead of his way. And chief among the various sinful dispositions is pride. That was the sin of Adam and Eve, who wanted to be God. Itâs the sin of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who surveyed his kingdom and said, âIs not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?â (Dan. 4:30). (Nebuchadnezzar was immediately humiliated by God until he came to his senses.) Itâs the sin of Herod Agrippa, who was claimed to a be a god and who was struck down by the real God âbecause he did not give God the gloryâ (Acts 12:23). And itâs the sin of you and me. We want to be the center of the universe. We want to do life on our terms, not Godâs. We want to be GOATs. But thereâs only one GOAT, and itâs not you or me.
Because God is truly the greatest, and because this is his creation, he would have every right to condemn rebels, to remove them from his world. But Godâs greatness includes his mercy and grace. Instead of destroying all rebels, he sends his Son to save many of them. The Son of God, who has always existed in glory and splendor, the one through whom God the Father created the universe, became a human being. He humbled himself to become a man (though he was and is still God). And he came not be like Nebuchadnezzar and Herod, to live in a palace and be served. No, he came to serve by laying down his life for his people. After living the perfect life, he was treated like a real goat, a scapegoat. The sins of his people were placed on him, and he died to pay the penalty for sin. He bore great physical pain on the cross. But he also endured the spiritual pain that is condemnation. He endured this so that his people could be spared that penalty and could be forgiven. He lowered himself so others could be exalted.
Jesus demonstrated this act of service by washing his disciplesâ feet. Though Luke doesnât write about this in his Gospel, John does. That is an interesting fact, by the way. You would think that Luke would write about that, because it would strengthen his point, that Jesus came to serve. But Luke doesnât. John does write about. Now, since Johnâs Gospel was written later, some people who are skeptical might think that this story of Jesus washing his disciplesâ feet was fabricated, a bit of fiction. But if that were so, itâs quite odd, because John doesnât discuss the disciples arguing about who would be the greatest. When you read John, you donât understand why it was that Jesus washed his disciplesâ feet. The reason is given in the other Gospels. The Gospels have several of these moments, which some have called âundesigned coincidences.â[2] Each Gospel is like a puzzle. The pieces fit together, but sometimes it seems like a piece is missing. That missing piece can be found in one of the other Gospels. Yet this fitting together of the Gospels isnât done in any kind of obvious way, so that it looks like humans contrived to make up stories that fit together, the way that criminals might come together to make up an alibi. Instead, the Gospels read more like eyewitness testimony. Each witness focuses on certain things, perhaps what they remembered most clearly or what was most important to their story. But together, these eyewitnesses give us a greater picture of what happened.
At any rate, this is what happens in Johnâs Gospel. Here is John 13:1â5:
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2Â During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simonâs son, to betray him, 3Â Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4Â rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5Â Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciplesâ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
In this time and place, people wore sandals. And they walked great lengths along dirty and dusty road. Their feet became quite dirty. When they ate at someoneâs home, that host would have a servant wash the feet of his guests. Here, Jesus becomes the servant, washing their feet, because he loved his disciples âto the end.â He later makes it clear that his washing their feet symbolized his cleansing them of their sin. Those who belong to Jesus, who trust him and follow him, are made clean. Their sins are removed.
Then, after Jesus had washed their feet, he said to them:
Do you understand what I have done to you? 13Â You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14Â If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one anotherâs feet. 15Â For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16Â Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Â If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (John 13:12â17).
We canât remove the sins from other people. But we can serve them in many ways. This is the way of Jesus. He served and he expects his people to serve. Those who do this are blessed.
So, Jesus teaches his disciples to be humble and to serve. And, paradoxically, this is the way to be exalted. Look again at Luke 22:28â30:
28Â You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, 29Â and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30Â that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus tells his disciples that their positions in the kingdom of God will be great. They will sit on thrones in the new creation, leading all of Godâs people, a renewed and reconstituted Israel that consists not just of Jewish people, but of Gentiles, too. In fact, all of Godâs people will reign with God forever (Rev. 22:5). But I think the apostles will have greater authority than we will, and thatâs God choice. All Christians will be with God forever in the new creation, but not all will necessarily have the same role to play and the same status. And thatâs fine.
The reason thatâs fine is thatâs the way it is in this life. Jesus does not teach here that the disciples were not to be authorities. Jesus isnât teaching that there arenât authorities in the church. The church needs leaders. Never does it say in the Bible that the church is a democratic society, where everyone decides what is right. Christians are called sheep, and they need shepherds. There are many Christians who donât think the church should have real authority, that the pastors or elders of the church shouldnât be strong leaders. I think thatâs very misguided. Jesus isnât teaching that at all. In fact, Jesus, though he came to serve, was a very strong authority. He spoke with authority. He delivered hard truths. But he did this for the right reasons. Being a leader who makes decisions, even unpopular ones, is one way of serving. Jesusâ point is that leaders should lead in a way that benefits the people. And what benefits Godâs people is doing things Godâs way. God designed life to function in a certain way. Because he loves us, he wants us to live rightly. Leaders are supposed to love people by pointing them in the right way, by making sure they stay on the right path. Leaders are not supposed to seek their own glory or build their own little kingdoms. And all of us are supposed to have the same kind of attitude.
The reality is that the true way of greatness is loving God and loving other people. The truth path to greatness is serving God and serving other people. Ironically, if he we strive after greatness, weâll never be great. Weâll never be the GOAT. Those people who strive for greatness now will come to a harsh reality when the meet the true GOAT. They will have to stand before him in judgment, just as we all will. And the ones who failed to serve the GOAT will be the real goats. Their sins remain on them, and they will be punished for those sins. Those who trust and serve the GOAT are sheep, the people who will enter the new creation to live with God forever. (See Matt. 25:31â46.)
Seek greatness and you will never get it. But forget about greatness and serve the One who is truly great, and you will find it. What matters is not whether we appear great to other people. What matters is what God thinks of us. What matters is whether weâre faithfully serving God, doing what he has called us to do.
God has not called all of us to be in the limelight. He has not called all of us to be leaders. Some Christians will end up doing things that are far more public than others. But that doesnât mean they are greater. The one who serves quietly and faithfully in the background may be the truly great one.
Wherever you find yourself today, seek to serve God. You must first see that you are not great. You certainly arenât the GOAT. But Jesus is the GOAT. And heâs the only goat, the scapegoat, upon whom your sins can be placed and punished so that you donât have to be punished. Trust that Jesus is the only way to be in a right relationship with God. If youâre not a Christian, humble yourself before God, confess your sins to him, and accept Jesus as his provision for your sin. As James, the brother of Jesus, writes, âDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt youâ (James 4:8, 10).
Christians, faithfully serve Jesus in whatever situation you find yourself in. God has put you in a certain place and time to do what he wants you to do. Donât compare yourself to other people. Donât wish God had made you somehow differently. Accept the role that God has assigned for you, and faithfully serve in that role. That doesnât mean itâs wrong to seek out a different job, or to find some new position of service. If thatâs Godâs plan for you, it will happen. But I think one of the ways that we could all thrive is not to covet the supposed greatness of other people. I think we would be happier and healthier if we accepted the role God has given to us and served in that role according to his commandments. That is the only way to true greatness.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- See Lydia McGrew, Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts (Chillicothe, OH: DeWard Publishing, 2017). â
The Greatest (Luke 22:24-30)
Who is the greatest? Many people think being the greatest means striving to be the richest, most popular, or most accomplished person. But Jesus says the path to true, lasting greatness is through humility and service. Brian Watson preached this message on Luke 22:24-30 on January 26, 2020.
Him Who Betrays Me
This sermon was preached on January 19, 2020 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or continue reading below).
One of those questions people from all times and places have asked is: Why did this happen? We may ask that when someone we know unexpectedly dies at an early age. Why did she die so young? We may ask that when we look at the news and see a report of a war or a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. Why do people kill each other? Why did such a devastating earthquake happen? We may ask a similar question if something bad happens in our life. Why did that happen to my child? Why did my spouse get cancer?
And if we believe in God, we inevitably draw him into these questions. We wonder why God would allow evil, which can be defined as whatever causes the world to be the way it shouldnât be. We have a sense that something is wrong, and we start to ask why that such a wrong thing should exist. The problem of evil can be formulated in many ways, but itâs basically expressed in these kinds of questions: If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and loving, why is there any evil at all? If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and loving, why is there so much evil? If God is all powerful, if he knows how to prevent evil, and if heâs truly loving and cares, then why is there such horrific acts of evil? If God is real, why did this particular evil event occur? If God loves me, if he has all the power thatâs possible, why did this evil thing happen to me? How we answer those questions has everything to do with what we believe about God and this world that he has made.
Weâre going to think about such questions today as we continue to look at the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Today, weâre going to consider some verses that talk about how one of Jesusâ followers, one of the twelve disciples, arranged to betray Jesus. Jesus was aware that this was going to happen. He said it was determined by God. Yet he also said that those who commit evil are responsible for their sin.
Weâll begin by reading the first two verses of Luke 22. As you turn there, I want to remind you that the Gospel of Luke is a biography about Jesus. Like the other Gospel writers, Luke spends quite a bit of time detailing the days leading up to Jesusâ death. Thatâs because Jesusâ death and the events that led up to it are so important. This is Thursday, the day before Jesus will die. Jesus is with his disciples in Jerusalem.
Letâs now read Luke 22:1â2:
1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2Â And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.[1]
Why do the chief priests and scribes, some of the most prominent Jewish leaders, want to kill Jesus? And why does Luke tell us that they feared the people? They wanted to get rid of Jesus because they didnât like what he was teaching. In Johnâs Gospel, we find out that they had long wanted to kill Jesus because he was challenging their religious customs and, more importantly, because he was making himself appear equal to God (John 5:18; 8:58â59; 10:30â31). Jesus taught in many ways that he is divine, that he is in fact the Son of God. The Jewish people did not yet realize that God is triune, that there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. They didnât realize that God the Father sent God the Son to become a human being. They didnât think this was possible. They thought Jesus was lying. They thought he might actually be demon-possessed (John 7:20; 8:48). They certainly knew that he was a threat, and that he had to go.
But the Jewish leaders were afraid of what the crowd might do if they arrested Jesus in public. Jesus continued to gather crowds to himself. No one ever spoke like he did. No one was able to perform all the miracles that he performed. There was simply no one like him. Many people found hope in Jesus. Some were just fascinated by him. Jerusalem was full of people during the time of Passover, as Jewish pilgrims came from afar to celebrate the feast in their holy city. If Jesus was arrested in the city, there would be backlash, probably a riot. A riot would likely lead to some terrible consequences. The Jews lived under Roman rule. The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, was charged with maintaining order. If a riot broke out in the city, Roman soldiers would put an end to it in a violent fashion. The Jewish leaders might be removed from their positions. So, they had to find a way to get Jesus killed without stirring up a riot.
One of the reasons why Jesus died is because people did not believe that he is God. They thought he was committing blasphemy. They rejected him. But there are other reasons why Jesus died. Another reason is that Satan, the devil, wanted to thwart Godâs plans. Satan is a mysterious, shadowy figure. Jesus himself called him a âmurdererâ and âa liar and the father of liesâ (John 8:44). We might call him the very embodiment of evil. Heâs no match for Godâheâs not omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscientâbut heâs more powerful than mere humans. Satan tried to stop Jesus by tempting him (Luke 4:1â13). But Jesus, the perfect man, never sinned. He resisted Satanâs temptation. Satan continued his attack through the Jewish leaders who tried to trap Jesus in his own words. Jesus called them the devilâs children (John 8:44). But Jesus resisted all their traps. And now, Satan sees another opportunity. He will get Jesus through one of his followers.
Letâs read verses 3â6:
3Â Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4Â He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5Â And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6Â So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
Weâre told that Satan âentered intoâ one of Jesusâ twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot. What does this mean? This kind of language, of Satan actually entering a person, is rare in the Bible. In fact, as far as Iâm aware, this is the only time that weâre told Satan did this. Weâre told that other people were demon-possessed while Jesus was on the Earth. But weâre not told that Satan himself entered into them.
While itâs not clear what it means for Satan to enter into Judas, it doesnât mean that Judas was no longer responsible for his actions, as weâll see. I donât think it means that he went into some kind of zombie-like trance, becoming an entirely different person. Judas was still Judas, still responsible for his actions. But he was under the very strong influence of the devil in a way that is unique. In his own Gospel, John says that Satan âput it into [Judasâs] heart . . . to betrayâ Jesus (John 13:2). Satan likely thought that if Jesus were put to death, that would be the end of him, that Godâs plans would be thwarted. But Satan didnât know the future. He didnât understand that God would use him for his own wonderful plan.
So, Satan strongly influenced Judas to conspire with the Jewish leaders. They gave him money, and he would tell them how to arrest Jesus âin the absence of a crowd.â
A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the verses that come next, which discuss how Jesus prepared to have one final Passover meal, one âlast supperâ with his disciples. We also looked at the what happened at that meal, how Jesus said that the elements of the mealâthe bread and wineâwould represent his body broken and his blood shed in order to initiate a new covenant with his people. Jesus knew that he would soon be put to death. He had already predicted his death several times (Luke 9:21â22, 44; 18:31â33). Jesus knew that he, the Son of God, became a human in order to die for the sins of his people.
Right after the verses we looked at two weeks ago, which told of him eating this last, intimate meal with his followers, teaching them the meaning of his impending death, something strange happens. Jesus tells them that he knows that one of his followers would betray him. Look at verses 21â23:
21Â But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. 22Â For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!â 23Â And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.
Jesus knew that one of them was his betrayer. Did Jesus know that it was Judas? Luke doesnât tell us that, but John does. Well before he died, Jesus seems to indicate that Judas is âa devil.â (See John 6:70â71). Itâs possible to believe that Jesus only knew that one of his disciples would betray him, and not specicially that Judas would betray him. But in Johnâs Gospel, Jesus clearly identifies Judas as the one who will betray him, and when Satan enters into Judas, Jesus turns to him and says, âWhat you are going to do, do quicklyâ (John 13:21â27). Jesus knew what would happen.
In fact, Jesus said that what would happen to him, the Son of Man, was ordained by God. He says that he âgoes as it has been determined.â All that was happening to Jesus was Godâs plan. But that doesnât mean that Satan knew that, or that Judas knew that, or that the Jewish leaders or the Roman officers and soldiers knew that. They were all acting according to Godâs plan, but they were still responsible for their sins. What God meant for good, they simply meant for evil (Gen. 50:20). Their purpose was to harm Jesus, not to bring about good through his death. So, Jesus says that though he would âgoâ according to Godâs plan, âwoe to that man by whom he is betrayed!â Thatâs basically a way of warning that the person who betrays Jesus will be condemned.
How can it be that God has a plan that uses evil, and that those who commit evil are still responsible for their sins?
Well, we must realize first that many Christians wouldnât agree with what I just said. They donât think God planned everything. Some people think that God simply knows in advance all that would happen. But thatâs not the language Jesus uses. He doesnât say that the Son of Man goes as it has been foreknown. He says that he goes as it has been determinedâdetermined by God. (That God is not mentioned is typical. This is an example of the âdivine passive.â An action is put in the passive voice that we understand to be Godâs action.
Other people think that God canât truly foreknow the future because the future hasnât happened yet. God knows everything possible, but itâs not possible to know something that doesnât yet exist. But Jesus makes specific predictions about the future actions of people. He knows what Judas will do. Judas chose to do something, under the very strong influence of Satan, and yet still this was all part of Godâs plan.
The way that we view these events has everything to do with the way that we understand Godâs relationship to evil. And how we understand Godâs relationship to evil has everything to do with what we think about God and what we think about the world he has made. Iâve been doing quite a bit of reading about the problem of evil, and I want to quote from one Christian theologian and philosopher named Paul Helm. This is what he writes:
When there is a theological or philosophical debate about God and personal evil and how it is to be addressed, it must not be taken for granted that there is agreement about everything else except the matter in question. . . . If one has a concept of God as a Mr. Fixit . . ., then that personâs approach to Godâs relation to personal evil will necessarily be different from that of someone who thinks of God as the transcendent and yet immanent Creator, the ground of being whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways. . . .
Similarly, someone who thinks that the universe is arranged principally for our benefit, or even for oneâs own individual benefit, will necessarily have a different approach to the justification of personal evil than someone who believes about that âof him and to him and through him are all thingsâ [Rom. 11:36]. . . . Someone whose attitude to personal evil presupposes that the death of our bodies is the terminus of life will necessarily approach the evaluating of that evil differently from someone who looks forward to the life everlasting.[2]
What he is saying is basically that our worldview shapes how we view evil. Is this life all there is, or does this life precede a life that never ends? Is there a God who is in charge of the universe? If so, what is this God like? Is he our cosmic butler, a doting grandfather, a âMr. Fixitâ? Or is he a God whose ways are not our ways, who has revealed himself yet who also has plans that are beyond our full understanding? Does the universe exist for primarily for us or for God? Is the goal of this life what we think of as happiness or is the goal of this life to know our Maker and to have a right relationship with him? How we answer these questions will shape how we view evil and Godâs relationship to it.
The Bible clearly teaches that God is a transcendent God who is all-powerful, that he molds and shapes his creation in the way that he sees fit, according to his purposes. He has revealed much of his purposes, but not all. We know in part, not in full. There are certainly some mysteries about God and his ways. God made everything for his glory, to demonstrate his greatness. He also made everything because he simply is creating. Godâs love knows no bounds, and it seems that his creation is an extension of his love. But the Bible presents God as one who is making a plan for his purposes, not primarily for ours. Yet since God is inherently good, his purposes are good. His overall plan is good. Yet, strangely, his plan contains evil. God doesnât perform the evil, so he is not the author of sin. And there is only evil because evil is the only way to gain some greater goods, goods that arenât possible without first there being any evil.
For example, we might say that things like bravery, overcoming adversity, and being victorious are all great goods. But they arenât possible without there first being some kind of evil. If thereâs no evil, no threat of harm and even death, thereâs no bravery. If thereâs no evil, thereâs no triumph over evil. If there were no sin, the Son of God wouldnât need to become a human being. The reason why Jesus came was to âsave his people from their sinsâ (Matt. 1:21). If the first human beings never sinned, and if all subsequent human beings never sinned, then Jesus wouldnât need to become a human being. There would be no need for him to live the perfect life that we donât live, thus fulfilling Godâs plans for humanity, because we would already be living perfect lives. If we were living perfect lives, we would love God as we should. We would desire to know him and please him through the way we lived. If we lived perfect lives, we would love each other as we should. We wouldnât be selfish and greedy. We wouldnât hate other people. And we wouldnât ignore or reject God. But the fact is, quite clearly, weâre not perfect. God desires to have perfect human beings. Thatâs his plan. And part of the reason Jesus came is to fulfill that plan.
Because God became a human being, God can better relate to his people. He knows what itâs like to be a human. Thatâs a great good that couldnât come without sin. And because God became a human being, we can better understand what God is like. God isnât some mysterious being that we canât see or imagine. People who saw Jesus had a clearer picture of what God is like, because Jesus is the clearest revelation of God (Heb. 1:1â3). And we have access to what Jesus is like in the Bible.
But Jesus didnât just come to live. He also came to die. He did that because God cannot tolerate evil actions. He canât tolerate sin. As a perfect judge, he must have sin punished. You wouldnât think highly of a human judge who had all the evidence before him, who could see that a certain person was guilty, and yet who swept all that evidence under the rug and let that guilty person go free. If you wouldnât expect a human judge to do that, you shouldnât expect the perfect divine judge to do that. So, God must punish sin. And sin is so heinously evil that it must be destroyed. It must be crushed. Sinners must be killed.
But God is gracious. He allowed for a substitute to come, someone to take the punishment that we deserve for sin. God the Father sent God the Son to die in place of all who would trust him. And God the Son came willingly to die, to lay down his life for his people. He takes their sin and receives the full penalty for that sin by dying on the cross. He was treated horribly, tortured and killed in a slow and painful way. But he also absorbed a spiritual punishment because what we can comprehend. Jesus takes the wrath of God, experiencing hell on earth, so that all who come to him in faith donât have to experience that terrible reality.
And Jesusâ deathâand his subsequent resurrectionâare also great goods that couldnât come without there first being evil. Obviously, itâs good for sinners to have a way to be forgiven. But Jesusâ death shows us how much God loves us. Jesusâ death teaches us the importance of sacrifice. And his resurrection is a great triumph. Without evil, there is no victory. Thereâs no great story of bravery and sacrifice. But with evil, thereâs the greatest story ever told.
So, Jesus had to die. And someone had to kill Jesus. Many people had to plot Jesusâ death. The Jewish leaders, Judas, Satan, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who was too cowardly to release a man he believed to be innocent, the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesusâall these individuals were part of Godâs plan, though they didnât know it. And we are part of Godâs plan, too. Jesus died because our sin, the sin of all humanity, required it.
But just because weâre part of Godâs plan doesnât mean our sin isnât evil, and that weâre not responsible for our sin. Verse 22 of this passage makes it clear that God is in charge of all that happens, but also that those who commit evil are held responsible for their sin. The reason that is so is because people willingly commit sin. Judas betrayed Jesus willingly, even if he was under the influence of Satan. And we all pursue our own desires and commit sins. It wonât do for us to complain to God that we canât help it.
I want to drop an interesting footnote here. About fifteen years ago, a somewhat recently discovered ancient manuscript, the so-called Gospel of Judas, was finally translated into English. This Gospel portrays Judas as a hero, Jesusâ favorite disciple. Jesus secretly approached Judas and told him to betray him so that he would die. However, this is not the truth. This so-called âlost gospelâ wasnât really lost. It was most likely written in the second half of the second century, a hundred years or more after Luke wrote his Gospel, long after all those who witnessed Jesus had died. In the year 180, the Christian theologian Irenaeus dismissed the Gospel of Judas as fictitious history.[3] Strangely, there was a group of people called the Cainites who wrote stories about the villains of the Bible, like Cain and Judas. These people claimed that these villains were actually the real heroes of the Bible. After the Gospel of Judas was published in English translation in 2006, Adam Gopnik wrote a review of it in The New Yorker. He said that these gospels âno more challenge the basis of the Churchâs faith than the discovery of a document from the nineteenth century written in Ohio and defending King George would be a challenge to the basis of American democracy.â[4]
So, Judas was not a hero. He did evil. In fact, we can say he participated in the greatest evil, killing the Son of God. I know many people would say that there have been greater evilâs than Jesusâ death. We have to admit that itâs hard to weigh acts of evil. How can we compare the Holocaust with the institution of slavery? Or, how can we compare the Holocaust with the abortion of tens of millions of preborn human beings each year? Even in America, there has been approximately 60 million abortions committed over the last forty-seven years, since Roe v. Wade was decided. We know scientifically that what is in the womb, whether itâs called a baby or a fetus, is a human life. That being is alive, and he or she has his or her own DNA and body, regardless of how small, how underdeveloped, and how dependent he or she is on the mother. We know these things from science, and yet we still allow the great evil of abortion to occur. At any rate, there are many evils that have been committed throughout history, and some of them quite grave, yet I think a case can be made that the greatest evil was the murder of Jesus. He was truly innocent, in a way that no other human being was innocent, because he never sinned. And he was and is truly God. If God is the greatest being, if all of reality is God-centered, then putting the God-man to death is the greatest evil.
And, yet, we know that Jesus died according to Godâs plan. That is made clear also in Lukeâs sequel, the book of Acts (see Acts 2:23; 3:18; 4:27â28). So, if the greatest evil went according to Godâs plan, and if God works all things according to his will (Eph. 1:11), even determining the outcomes of what we would consider chance events (Prov. 16:33), then we can see that no evil is outside of Godâs plans. Yet he works evil for good. Out of evil come things like bravery and victory, but also humility and spiritual growth, and many other things besides.
I know that all of this is hard to accept. Yet if we stopped and thought about it, all of us should be thankful for evil. I got this idea from another Christian philosopher, William Hasker.[5] Basically, he says that most people are glad that they exist. Yet most of us likely wouldnât exist were it not for great evils in the world. War is a great evil, and many people die in wars. That is certainly true of World War II. Millions of people died in World War II, including over 400,000 Americans. My parents were born in New Jersey, rather close to New York City, shortly after the war ended. My mother was born at the end of 1946. My father was born in the middle of 1948. They met in high school, started dating, went to college together at Gordon College and married before they graduated. And I owe my existence to them. But itâs easy to imagine that if there were no World War II, I might not be alive. Both of my grandfathers served in the military during the war. They were married to my grandmothers before the war, and then they came back home and made babies. I imagine that there were men from that part of New Jersey who went off to war and were killed. They might have been married already, or perhaps might have married after coming back home, but they died. What if there was no war, and those men who went and died married and had children who were approximately the ages of my parents? What if that man had a son my motherâs age, and what if my mother met that son and fell in love with him instead of my father? Or what if that man had a daughter who met my father and married him? Or what if both happened? If any of that occurred, my parents wouldnât have married each other. They wouldnât have had my brothers and me. And I wouldnât exist.
Now, thatâs just one war. Imagine if World War I didnât happen, and the Civil War. Imagine how different the population of American would be, not just in size, but in composition. Now think about all kinds of wars and genocides and natural disasters. If those didnât occur, many people who now are alive wouldnât exist. Other people would be alive, perhaps far more people, but we wouldnât be here.
Thatâs not a full answer to the problem of evil. But it gives us a different perspective on it. The reality is that every event that occurs is interconnected with every other event in ways that we donât understand. This is basically what is called âthe butterfly effect.â Since we donât understand how evil leads to good doesnât mean that it canât happen. It has happened. And the greatest example of God using evil for good is the death of his Son.
So, though we may not understand why evil has occurred, we can trust that God is in control, and that his purposes are good. The greatest example of his goodness and his love, even in the face of evil, is the death of Jesus. Though evil people plotted against Jesus, and though the devil helped bring it about, it was Godâs plan. In fact, we can say that it was through the death of Jesus that God trapped Satan. Satan was hanged with his own noose. God brings about the death of evil through evil.
The death of Jesus shows us that though God is in control of evil, he isnât cold and distant. God knows what itâs like to experience evil firsthand. The Son of God was mocked, srejected, betrayed, arrested, tortured, and killed. Jesus knows what itâs like to be born, to grow up, to be hungry and thirsty and tired, to have people ridicule him, to have his friends desert him. He knows what itâs like to be lonely and forsaken. And he knows what itâs like to die. God can relate to us in our suffering because he has suffered. And even this was all part of Godâs plan.
The lesson for us is to know that God is in charge, and to know that he has a plan that includes evil and defeats evil. That center of that plan is Jesus. The plan hasnât been completed just yet. Thereâs obviously still evil in the world. When Jesus comes again, evil will be pulled up by its long roots and destroyed. In the meantime, we must trust God. We donât have to understand all the mysteries of evil. Only God knows them. But we must trust God. When evil comes our way, it is intended for our good. We donât have to like evil and suffering. No one does. But we must cling to God and trust he has a reason for it. If possible, we must work against evil. The fact that God is in charge doesnât mean we should be passive. He teaches us to fight against oppression, to expose evil, to help those who are suffering. Our fighting against evil is also part of Godâs plan, and it helps us become the kind of people that God wants us to be. But our best efforts will not destroy evil. Only Jesus can do that. And Jesus died to destroy the evil that lurks within us, to take it upon his shoulders and crush it. A God who is in control, and a God who would sacrifice himself for us, is a God worth trusting, even when we donât understand.
I urge us all to trust Jesus. He is the only way to escape evil. And if we trust in Jesus, we can trust that every evil weâve experienced will turn out for our good. As Paul writes in Romans 8:28, âwe know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.â
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Paul Helm, âGodâs Providence Takes No Risks,â in The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings, ed. Michael L. Peterson, 2nd ed. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017), 345â46. â
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.31.1. â
- Adam Gopnik, âJesus Laughed,â The New Yorker, April 17, 2006, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/04/17/jesus-laughed (accessed December 13, 2014). â
- William Hasker, âOn Regretting the Evils of This World,â in The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings, ed. Michael L. Peterson, 2nd ed. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017). â
Him Who Betrays Me (Luke 22:2-6, 21-23)
Jesus knew that one of his disciples would betray him. This was determined, yet Judas, the betrayer, was responsible for his sin. This gives us an insight into the problem of evil (why there is evil if God is all-powerful and good). Brian Watson preached this sermon on January 19, 2020.
Do This in Remembrance of Me
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on January 5, 2020.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or continue reading).
When I was a child, there were many things that I did not understand about life, about God, and about church. One of those things was the Lordâs Supper. I remember going to church, where once a month some broken pieces of bread were passed around on shiny plates and thimble-sized plastic cups of grape juice were distributed. The pastor would say, âThe body of Christ, broken for you. Take and eat,â and, âThe blood of Christ, shed for you. Take and drink.â I had no idea what he meant by eating Jesusâ body and drinking his blood, but I went along with the program and I didnât ask any questions.
Now that Iâve matured, I understand the Lordâs Supper better and I hope that you do, too. Yet I think that the taking of the Lordâs Supper isnât understood by many. And this practice probably seems very bizarre to non-Christians. What are we doing when we take this little bit of food and this little bit of drink? Why do we do it? What does it all mean?
What is the Lordâs Supper? Itâs one of two ordinances, sometimes called sacraments, that the church observes. The other is baptism. According to the Puritan, Thomas Watson, âThe sacrament is a visible sermon. . . . The Word is a trumpet to proclaim Christ, the sacrament is a glass to represent him.â[1] Both the Lordâs Supper and baptism are visible sermons, pictures of what Jesus has done for us.
The Lordâs Supper presents a visible picture of the gospel, specifically Jesusâ substitutionary, atoning death. He died in our place, as our substitute, to atone for our sins. Yet there is more to the Lordâs Supper than this. The Lordâs Supper is based on the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus ate with his disciples before he was arrested, tried, and crucified. At this meal, all the great themes of the Bible coalesce, for the Last Supper had associations with the past, present, and future. Likewise, the Lordâs Supper is rooted in history; it affects our present; and it contains promises for our future.
Today, weâre returning to the Gospel of Luke, one of four biographies of Jesus found in the Bible. Weâre beginning chapter 22. Today, weâre going to look at the passages related to Jesusâ last Passover meal that he shared with his disciples before he died on the next day. Then, in the next sermon, Iâll look at the verses related to Judasâ betrayal of Jesus.
So, weâll begin with Luke 22:1, which says, âNow the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.â[2]
What was the Passover? Let us review some Old Testament history.
In Genesis, God chose Abraham and his family as the people he would use to bless the world. At the end of Genesis, this family ends up in Egypt, where Joseph, Abrahamâs great-grandson, is second in command. At the beginning of Exodus, something has changed. About 400 years have passed by and the Israelites have multiplied greatly, but they no longer find favor in the Egyptiansâ eyes. Instead, the Egyptians oppress and enslave them. God looks upon them with compassion and, because of his covenant with Abraham, he prepares to deliver them through the ministry of Moses. God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the Israelites go. Pharaoh refuses because of the hardness of his heart, so God hits the Egyptians with nine plagues. Pharaoh still refuses to let the Israelites go, so God sends a tenth and final plague.
This time, all the firstborn in Egypt will die. The first nine plagues did not affect the Israelites, but this time, in order to avoid the tenth plague, they must do something. They are to take male, year-old, unblemished lambs, slaughter them, and place some of their blood on their door frames. When God comes to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, he will pass over the houses of the Israelites because of the blood. God tells them to commemorate this occasion by roasting the meat of the lambs and eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They are to do this with their belts fastened, their sandals on their feet, and their staffs in hand, because they will soon leave Egypt, for Pharaoh will now let them go. God tells them to keep this feast once a year to remember the event. The Passover is so important that God even tells them that the month of this event will now be the first month of their calendar year.
So, thatâs what the Passover was. Now, Iâm going to skip to verse 7. Weâll come back to verses 2â6 in the next sermon in this series. Here are verses 7â13:
7Â Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Â So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, âGo and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.â 9Â They said to him, âWhere will you have us prepare it?â 10Â He said to them, âBehold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters 11Â and tell the master of the house, âThe Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?â 12Â And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.â 13Â And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Jesus is about to eat the Passover meal with his disciples. He sends two of his closest followers, Peter and John, to prepare this meal, which had to be eaten within the walls of Jerusalem.
It seems that Jesus has made prior arrangements to have the meal in an upper room. Peter and John would have had to prepare a lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, the elements of the original Passover meal. Other elements were added over the years: a bowl of saltwater, a fruit puree or sauce, and four cups of diluted wine. Each element was very symbolic. The lamb reminded them of the sacrifice needed to be saved. The Israelites were sinners like the Egyptians, and the only way to be spared Godâs judgment against sin was for someone to die in their place. The unleavened bread reminded them of Godâs swift deliverance of his peopleâthere wasnât time for the bread to rise. The herbs reminded them of the bitterness of their slavery. The saltwater reminded them of tears shed in captivity as well as the Red Sea. The fruit paste reminded them of the clay used to make bricks for the Egyptians. And the four cups of wine symbolized the promises found in Exodus 6:6â7, that God would deliver them from slavery, that he would judge the Egyptians, that they would have a special relationship with God (âI will take you to be my people, and I will be your Godâ), and that they would know that he is âthe Lord your God.â
Normally, a family would eat this meal together. Jesus chose to share it with his disciples. They had become his family. During the Passover meal, there would be a time when the host of the meal recalled the Passover narrative, explaining the redemptive history behind the feast and expressing thanksgiving. Listen to this statement from the collection of Jewish oral traditions known as the Mishnah. The parallels with our redemption should be obvious:
Therefore are we bound to give thanks, to praise, to glorify, to honour, to exalt, to extol, and to bless him who wrought all these wonders for our fathers and for us. He brought us out from bondage to freedom, from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning to a Festival-day, and from darkness to great light, and from servitude to redemption, so let us say before him the Hallelujah.[3]
The celebration would include the singing of Psalms 113 through 118. After the fourth glass of wine, the meal would end, and the guests were supposed to spend the night in prayer.
Before we look at verses 14â20, allow me to make an observation. It is no coincidence that the Last Supper is a Passover meal. The Passover and the whole Exodus form the greatest act of redemption in the Old Testament. There are numerous references to this event in the Old Testament as well as the New. You can find it mentioned throughout the historical books, there are several Psalms devoted to it, and the prophets refer to this event repeatedly. In short, the Exodus proved that God does mighty acts to save his people.
By connecting the Last Supper to the Passover, God is showing us the relationship between the greatest act of redemption in the Old Testament and the greatest act of redemption. He is showing us how his plan of redemption spans across the Old and New Testaments.
God is sovereign over history. He can make history do what he wants. Throughout history, he revealed himself and his plans gradually, through not only his word but also through people, events, and institutions that we find in the Old Testament. Certain events in the Old Testament anticipate greater events in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we see certain types, or foreshadows, that anticipate the work of Jesus. We see certain people in the Old Testament that resemble Christ, but they are imperfect saviors, prophets, priests, and kings. We see acts of redemption in the Old Testament, but they do not conquer sin and death. We also see acts of judgment in the Old Testament, often coupled with those acts of redemption, though they are not the final judgment that will occur when Jesus returns to Earth. These types in the Old Testament taught the people of that time about God and gave them clues that greater events were going to occur in the future. For us, on this side of the cross, they provide a context for Jesusâ ministry, so that we can see how he fulfilled all the promises of God in the Old Testament.
Here are a few things we can learn, as Christians, from the Passover. One, it anticipated Jesusâ sacrifice on the cross. We know this because the apostle Paul tells us that Jesus is our Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). Peter tells us that we were ransomed from sin âwith the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spotâ (1 Pet. 1:19). The redemption of the Israelites out of Egypt was accomplished through a blood sacrifice. Though they were freed from slavery to the Egyptians, the Passover did not deal with their slavery to sin. No animal sacrifice could atone for human sin. Therefore, the Passover was an incomplete redemption and a mere foretaste of Jesusâ greater, perfect redemption.
Two, the Passover and the Exodus show us that God is powerful, that he performs amazing acts of redemption, and that he is to be feared. For those of you familiar with the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the image of Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, you know how powerful and frightening God can be. God is still a holy and jealous God. He is still a consuming fire. It is important that we still have that image of God.
Three, we see that God graciously saved his people even though they were sinful. The Israelites were often not any better than the people of other nations. God simply decided to be gracious to them. Their salvation was not based on their obedience and their goodness, and neither is ours.
Four, in Exodus, there is a phrase that God tells Moses to say to Pharaoh: âLet my people go, that they may serve meâ (Exod. 7:15; 8:1, 20; 9:1). God freed the Israelites from the yoke of slavery to the Egyptians, but they were not rescued so that they could live for themselves. If you have faith in Christ, you are freed from slavery to sin, but you still have a master. Jesus says, âTake my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is lightâ (Matt. 11:29â30). We are freed from the yoke of sin in order to serve the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Itâs important to understand the Passover and what it means for us. Now, letâs see what happens when Jesus shares this meal with his disciples. Letâs read verses 14â20:
14Â And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15Â And he said to them, âI have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16Â For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.â 17Â And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, âTake this, and divide it among yourselves. 18Â For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.â 19Â And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, âThis is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.â 20Â And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, âThis cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Jesus wanted this last opportunity to teach his disciples the significance of his impending death. He knows he is about to die, and yet he is in complete control. In fact, his vague directions to Peter and John in the previous section were probably intentional: he wanted to make sure that Judas did not know the address of this upper room so that the meal would not be interrupted by a premature arrest. (Weâll talk more about this next time.)
Jesus is acting as host of the Passover meal, yet instead of recounting the Exodus story, he starts to teach them about the theological significance of his death. Jesus tells his disciples that he will not eat this meal again until âit is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.â He will not share in such a meal until the kingdom is consummated, when he returns.
Then, Jesus takes one cup and gives it to his disciples. This is probably either the first or second of the four cups of wine of the Passover meal. It is a common cup that he shares with his disciples, just as it is a common loaf of bread. This meal scene is one of intimacy and unity. It seems completely natural to read about people eating, but we must remember that Jesus is not just a man; heâs also God. God is eating with humans! God dwells among us and desires close fellowship with us. What an amazing idea!
In verse 18, Jesus says he âwill not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.â The kingdom was inaugurated with Jesusâ first coming, but it will not come in its fullest form until he returns and recreates the universe to be Paradise. In this passage, Jesus twice refers to a future fulfillment of the kingdom of God. He wants his disciples to know that, even though he will die, death will not have the last word.
Then, Jesus takes the bread and gives it to his disciples. Here, Jesus begins to reinterpret the elements of the Passover meal in a radical way. The bread and the wine of the Passover meal will correspond to Jesusâ death.
Jesus takes the bread, a symbol of life and sustenance, and makes it a symbol of his death. Elsewhere, Jesus had called himself the bread of life (John 6:35, 48) because he is the source of eternal life. In order to impart that life to those who have faith in him, his body would have to be broken. Animals die so we can eat their flesh. Grain is crushed so that we can live. Even grapes were crushed so that their juice could be extracted and fermented. It is possible that the references to bread being broken and wine being poured out are references to a famous passage in Isaiah 53, one that we looked at two weeks ago. Isaiah 53:5 says, âBut he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.â A few verses later, we read, âYet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his handâ (Isa. 53:10). God the Father had to pour out his wrath on someone, for sin must not go unpunished. God is a perfect judge. He cannot let evil go unchecked. But God is also gracious. He gave his Son to take the punishment that his people deserve. And willingly Jesus took that punishment in our place. He was crushed so that we donât have to be. That was Godâs will. It was always his plan.
Notice that Jesus said, âDo this in remembrance of me.â Israelites were supposed to remember the Passover, but when they did, they didnât just bring a past event to mind. Rather, they saw themselves as participants in the Exodus. In that way, it affected their present life. They also anticipated a future redemption that would come through the Messiah. For us, we should remember Jesusâ death, not in order simply to review history, but in order for our lives to be changed. We, too, should also look forward to Christâs return, when he makes all things new.
We should also notice that, in saying, âDo this in remembrance of me,â Jesus isnât saying, âDo this in order to be saved,â or, âDo this to receive more grace.â Catholics believe that the eucharist (their word for the Lordâs Supper) imparts grace and is a key part of salvation. But Jesus doesnât say anything like that.
Finally, Jesus distributes the cup, which commentators agree corresponds to the third cup of the Passover meal. He says, âThis cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.â The âpouring outâ likely refers to Isaiah 53:12: âTherefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.â In the Bible, blood represents life (Lev. 17:11). In order to bear the sins of many, Jesus had to die in the place of many. Because of our sin, we should die eternally, yet Jesus took our sin and nailed it to the cross, so that we could be credited his righteousness. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, âFor our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.â
We also come to the important idea of the covenant. A covenant is a bit like a contract. It is a binding commitment that is made unilaterally, which is to say there is no negotiating. God sets the terms of the agreement and he faithfully keeps his end of the arrangement. There are many covenants in the Bible: ones made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, as well as the new covenant. The two covenants in view here are the âold covenant,â the one made through Moses at Mount Sinai, and the new covenant.
After God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, he made a covenant with them. He said that if they obeyed him, then they would be his âtreasured possession among all peoplesâ and âa kingdom of priests and a holy nationâ (see Exod. 19:4â6). God then gave Moses and the Israelites the Ten Commandments as well as many other laws. This covenant was based on a condition: if the people obeyed those laws, then they would be Godâs treasured possession.
After the law was given, a ceremony was held to inaugurate this covenant. In Exodus 24, Moses and the people offer animal sacrifices and Moses reads them the law. The people said they would obey the law. Then something very strange happens: Moses takes some of the blood of those animal sacrifices and threw it on the people. There are two important ideas behind this strange event: One, the people of Israel were Godâs people because they were made clean from a blood sacrifice. Two, if they failed to obey the terms of the covenant, the result would be the shedding of bloodâtheir blood! Most covenants began with blood, a reminder of the consequences of breaking that contract. And if that contract was broken, blood would be shed.
We know from the Old Testament that Israel was not perfectly obedient to God. In fact, they were often wildly disobedient. The same is true of all human beings. We often ignore God instead of living for him. We fail to love God as we should. We fail to love one another. We donât do life on Godâs terms; instead, we act as if were gods.
In the end, the old covenant simply didnât work. Thereâs no way that mere human beings could obey its terms. Therefore, God would establish a new covenant. This was promised in Jeremiah 31:31â34, but there are other passages in the Old Testament prophets that speak of a new covenant. In short, the new covenant promised that all of Godâs people would be forgiven of sin, would truly know God because they have a right relationship with him, and would have Godâs laws written on their hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God.
The new covenant is better than the old covenant. But that was by design. Godâs plan is perfect. He knew his people could not obey the old covenant. Godâs intention was to show that only one son person could ever obey that old covenant, and that person was Jesus. The only way the old covenant could be fulfilled was to have God become man and live a life of perfect obedience. He fulfilled the terms of the old covenant. Butâand this is the amazing partâthough he alone fulfilled those terms, he took on the penalty that covenant breakers deserve. He died on the cross to take away the penalty that we all deserve for our sin.
What Jesus is saying at this Last Supper with his disciples is basically this: âWhat Iâm about to do is the key to Godâs eternal plan of redemption. My blood sacrifice will pay the penalty of the old covenant for you, and my blood will usher in a new, fulfilled covenant. People who are part of this covenant will never pay for their sins. Your sins will be forgiven, and you will have new hearts.â
The fact that Jesus asks his disciples to do this in remembrance of him means that he expects that they will take it regularly after his death. We understand that the Lordâs Supper, which we take here once a month, is based on this Last Supper. It is a time to remember that Jesus died for our sins.
What does all of this mean for us? How does this affect our view of the Lordâs Supper? First, we should see how great Jesus is. I hope you now have a deeper understanding of just how central his life, death, and resurrection is to all of history, to Godâs plans, and to your life. Jesus is the greatest. He is truly the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of history, and the author and goal of our faith.
Second, food in the Bible is often a symbol for spiritual sustenance. Of course, we need to eat food regularly to live. But we also have spiritual hunger and thirst, a longing for something that the things of this world cannot satisfy. Jesus is the only one who can satisfy the deepest yearnings of your soul. In John 6:27, Jesus says, âDo not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.â Are you trying to fill your spiritual hunger with Jesus or something else? No money, no job, no other relationship, no amount of pleasures and entertainments will satisfy that spiritual hunger and thirst.
Third, though weâre not told this here, the Lordâs Supper is reserved for Godâs people. It doesnât automatically give you spiritual life. Only faith in Jesus gives you that. And faith in Jesus is trusting in him. That faith should lead to love of Jesus and obedience to him.
Fourth, weâre also told that elsewhere that the Lordâs Supper is a time to examine our lives. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:28, âLet a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.â Itâs a time for us to ask certain questions, like, âDo I know God? Am I living as his servant? Are there ways that Iâm disobeying him? Do I have sins I need to repent of?â If you are not a Christian, I urge you to trust in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is the only way to be spared Godâs judgment against your sin, your failure to love and live for God. If youâre not yet a Christian, I would love to talk to you personally about following Jesus. If youâre struggling with sin, I would love to help you in any way I can.
Fourth, the Last Supper and the Lordâs Supper call us to be a community. Jesus shared a common cup and a common loaf with his disciples. Though we come to faith in Christ individually, when we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we enter the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10:16â17, Paul writes, âThe cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.â Are you an active part of the body of Christ? Are you using your spiritual gifts to serve the church? Or do you just come to consume a spiritual product and live life alone? God meant for us to be in relationship with him and with each other. I would encourage all of us to be more involved in the life of this church, to be more committed, to become members. Take ownership of this church. Regard it as your family.
My fifth and final point is this: The Last Supper looked backwards to the Passover. And it looked forward to when Jesus would not only die for his people, but also to when he would return to complete the establishment of Godâs kingdom on Earth. The Lordâs Supper looks back to when Jesus died for us, but it also looks forward to when Jesus will return to make all things right. And when that happens, we who are Christians will eat a meal with God.
There are several places in the Bible where this new creation is pictured as a great meal. We read one of those passages, Isaiah 25, last week. God promised that in his new creation, there would be the finest of feasts. That could be a literal mealâwhich might be a comfort to those of us who love to eatâor it could symbolize the kind of fellowship that we cannot imagine right now. Either way, God will make all things new, he will eradicate death, and he will offer us the very best food and fellowship that we could ever hope for. At that time, we will commune directly with God. All his people, those who know him, those who have been forgiven of sin, those who have been given the Holy Spirit, will live forever in Godâs house.
When we take the Lordâs Supper together, we remember what Jesus did for us: His body was broken and his life drained out so that we donât have to be broken, so that we can live. And when we take the Lordâs Supper, we experience a foretaste of what will come in the future. We will eat and drink together in the presence of God. We can take the Lordâs Supper with seriousness, remembering that it cost nothing short of the death of the God-man, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from sin and eternal death. But we can also take it with thanksgiving and joy, knowing that God loves us so much that he gave us his Son, and that the Son laid down his life willingly for his people, to bring them back to the table in his house.
Notes
- Thomas Watson, The Lordâs Supper (1665; repr., Edinburgh; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2004), 1-2. â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Pesahim 10.5, quoted in I. Howard Marshall, Last Supper and Lordâs Supper (1980; repr., Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2006), 22. â
Do This in Remembrance of Me (Luke 22:1, 7-20)
What is the Lord’s Supper, or communion? Why do we take bits of bread and juice (or, in some churches, wine) and say that these are the body and blood of Christ? Brian Watson preached this message on Luke 22:1, 7-20 on January 5, 2020.
The Gospel according to Isaiah: A New Earth
All of us long for a good ending to our lives. We want to live in a better world, one that doesn’t end, one that doesn’t have evil, decay, and death. The good news is that the Bible promises such a world for those who have fixed their minds upon God. Brian Watson preached this message, based on various passages in Isaiah, on December 29, 2019.
Heaven and Earth Will Pass Away
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on November 17, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
Does anyone know whatâs going to happen tomorrow? How about next year?
A lot of people make claims about the future. People make predictions about sports, about which team will win today or which team will win the championship. People make predictions about the economy, whether the market will rise or fall. People make political predictions: who will win next yearâs election. Whose predictions can we trust?
Generally, we trust predictions made about the future if predictions about the past have come true. Thatâs how science often works. Scientists come up with hypotheses about how the natural world works, then they make predictions based on those hypotheses. If experimentation and observation prove that the predictions are true, then those hypotheses become theories. Those theories could always turn out to be false, but we trust that things in physics, chemistry, and biology will work tomorrow the way that they have worked today.
But not everything that happens tomorrow can be predicted by science. Some events are singular and canât be predicted scientifically. Human behavior, for example, isnât always predictable. Divine behaviorâwhat God will do tomorrow and beyondâisnât always predictable. Yet people make predictions about the future, so how do we know if we should trust them?
We generally canât know ahead of time if a prediction is correct, but we tend to listen to people who make predictions if they have a history of making correct predictions. If a political commentator has correctly predicted who will win elections, you will probably listen to their predictions regarding the next election. If a sports commentator has correctly predicted who will win this weekâs games or the next championship, youâll think their predictions for this week and this year might be good guesses. But we donât expect these people to predict the future perfectly.
But what do we do when it comes to the things of God? Science canât address much of the issues related to God. He is spirit, an immaterial being, so we canât detect his activity scientifically. Does that mean we canât know the truth about God? I think we can know the truth about God, but science wonât get us there. To know God, we need to have him reveal himself to us. Of course, many different religions claim that they have received a revelation from God. They say very different things about God, the universe, human beings, and how we can have a right relationship with God. These different religions canât all be true. Are any of them true? How can we know?
One way to test a religion is to see if its alleged revelation matches up with history. Is there any archaeological evidence that lines up with what that religionâs holy book claims? Did the predictions made by that religionâs prophets turn out to be true?
When we test Christianity, it comes out well. For example, though not all of the Bibleâs historical claims are backed by archaeological evidence, I believe that none of its claims are refuted by archaeological evidence, and every time a new discovery is made, it supports what the Bible says. Also, prophecies about the future are made in the Bible, and we can see if those prophecies have come to pass. Not all religions can say as much. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed that a temple would be built in Independence, Missouri within a generation. Yet that generation died before a temple was built there. His prediction was wrong.[1]
On the other hand, Jesus, who was a prophet (and King and Son of God), made predictions regarding what would happen within a generation. And his predictions came true. Specifically, he predicted that Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed within a generation. He made this prediction either in the year 30 or, possibly, 33. (Many of the writings of the Bible are difficult to date with great precision because ancient writers didnât provide specific dates for the events about which they wrote. But the details of Jesusâ life are such that the details of the week of his death can fit with either the year 30 or 33.) The three Gospels that record these predictions were most likely written sometime between the late 50s and mid-60s. Then, beginning in the year 66, Jewish people in Palestine rebelled against the Roman Empire, the worldâs greatest superpower and the occupying force of Judea. Rome responded by destroying Jerusalem and its temple, slaughtering many Jews in the year 70. So, Jesusâ prediction, made forty years earlier (the length of a generation according to the Bible; Num. 32:13), was true. Since the Bible says that the test of a true prophet is that he speaks the truth (Deut. 18:22), that means that Jesus is a true prophet, and that we should take Jesus at his word. And Jesus predicted a greater future event: he said that one day he would come again to the Earth, this time to judge everyone who has ever lived and to recreate the world. The destruction of Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago foreshadowed that greater day of judgment, which will come in the future. To be spared judgment, we need to respond to Jesus.
Today, weâre looking at a lengthy section of the Gospel of Luke. Weâll be reading Luke 21:5â38. Most people think this is entirely about what hasnât come to pass yet, the âend times,â as theyâre often called. I think thatâs wrong, as Iâll show when I explain the text. Some people think itâs entirely about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. I think thatâs very possible. But I think the best reading is that though this passage is primarily about the destruction of Jerusalem and specifically the temple, that event foreshadows the end of the world as we know it.
One more note before I start reading this passage: Todayâs sermon may feel a bit like a history lecture. But I think itâs important to know history, and itâs important to know that Christianity is an historical religion. It is based on historical events, events that are recorded even outside of the Bible. This is one of the ways that we know Christianity is true.
So, without further ado, letâs begin reading. Weâll start by reading verses 5â7:
5Â And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6Â âAs for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.â 7Â And they asked him, âTeacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?â[2]
This is probably Thursday morning, the day before Jesus will be crucified. He and his disciples are in the temple complex in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital of Judea, the holy city of the Jews, and the temple was the religious, political, and symbolic center of their world. It was the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover, when Jewish people throughout the Roman Empire would come to Jerusalem, to worship at the temple.
Itâs hard to stress how important the temple was to the Jewish people. It was where God dwelled among them, where they worshiped, where sacrifices for their sins were offered. God told the Israelites to build a tabernacle, a portable temple, about fourteen hundred years earlier. During the reign of Solomon, a temple was built in Jerusalem. That temple was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians, because the Jewish people had been unfaithful to God. They worshiped idols and refused to obey God, so God used a foreign nation to judge them.
This was the second temple, which was built in 515 BC, but was substantially renovated by Herod beginning in 20 or 19 BC Most of the work on the building was finished within a decade, but ornamental details were worked on until about AD 63 or 64. The temple was one of the most impressive buildings in the middle east. Herod increased the Temple Mount to an area the size of thirty-five football fields. The retaining walls of the temple were made of huge, heavy stones. âIn the 1990s an archeological exploration of the temple foundations revealed a large stone . . . that was 42 x 14 x 11 feet in size and estimated to weigh 600 tons.â Two other stones they found were 40 and 25 feet long.[3] The temple was covered with gold plates that shone so brightly in the sun that people were nearly blinded. This would have been the most impressive site that people living in that area had ever seen.
When some of Jesusâ disciples comment on how impressive the building is, Jesus says the whole thing will be torn down. He doesnât give the reason why this will happen here, but elsewhere he says it is a judgment by God against a largely unfaithful Jewish people. Also, the time of the temple was about to be over. Jesus, the true temple of God, was about to offer himself up as the only sacrifice needed for sin. Jesusâ words must have shocked his disciples. So, they ask him when this would happen, and what sign would occur before this would take place. This is very important, so Iâll repeat it. Jesus has said that the temple will be destroyed, and his disciples ask when that will happen. This is primarily what this passage is about.
Jesus starts to answer that question in verses 8â19:
8Â And he said, âSee that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, âI am he!â and, âThe time is at hand!â Do not go after them. 9Â And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.â
10Â Then he said to them, âNation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11Â There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12Â But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my nameâs sake. 13Â This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14Â Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15Â for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16Â You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17Â You will be hated by all for my nameâs sake. 18Â But not a hair of your head will perish. 19Â By your endurance you will gain your lives.
First, Jesus tells his disciples that the time leading up to the temple of the destruction would be one full of people trying to deceive them, claiming that they are the Messiah. We know that there were several people in the first century who claimed to be the Messiah, so this prediction came true.[4] Second, Jesus says there would be wars and rumors of wars. These things happen all the time, so the disciples shouldnât be worried about such things. There was a war between Rome and Parthia in 36 and a local war between Herod Antipas and the Nabatean king Aretas in 36 and 37.[5] And the war between the Romans and the Jews started in 66. Perhaps thatâs what Jesus means when he says, âNation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.â But the âend,â the destruction of the temple, was still to come.
Third, says that there would be earthquakes, famines, and pestilence. Again, these things happen all time. There was a large famine during the reign of the emperor Claudius, between roughly 45 and 48 (predicted by the prophet Agabus in Acts 11:28).[6] There were several major earthquakes between 33 and 70, including earthquakes in Antioch (37), Phrygia (53), Asia Minor (61), and Jerusalem (67).
Fourth, Jesus says there will be signs in heaven, probably something to do with stars. Beyond what the New Testament tells us, much of what we know of first-century Palestine comes from Flavius Josephus, a Jew who was a leader of the rebellion in Galilee. He was captured by the Romans and would eventually write histories of this time. Josephus says that during the time when Judea was at war with the Roman Empire, comets were visible for a year and a star that looked like a sword appeared over Jerusalem.[7]
Fifth, Jesus tells the disciples that they would be handed over to civic and religious authorities. We know from the book of Acts that the disciples appeared before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council in Jerusalem, and were flogged (Acts 5:27â42). Stephen and James were martyred (Acts 7:58; 12:2). In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul describes getting flogged and beaten (vv. 23â25), probably by leaders of local synagogues. And Paul appeared before various governors and kings (Acts 18:12â17; 23:23â24:27; 24:27â26:32). All of this would happen before the temple was destroyed.
Normally, we would think that people being killed simply because theyâre Christians is a bad thing, but Jesus says that something good will come out of this. When the disciples stand before various religious and civil leaders, they will have an opportunity to bear witness to Jesus. We see that happen most clearly with the disciples in the books of Acts. The disciples were beaten in Jerusalem, but not before proclaiming Jesus (Acts 5:27â32). Stephen gave a long speech in Acts 7 before being killed. Paul used his appearances before various leaders to proclaim Jesus.
Here, Jesus tells the disciples, âSettle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.â Some people misuse this passage to say that we should never think about how to tell people the news of Christianity, or how to answer their questions about and objections to our faith. But think about the context: Jesus is telling his disciples what will happen to them between roughly the years 30 and 70. And, furthermore, heâs telling them not to think about how to answer during times of persecution. He promises them to give them wisdom during those times of great pressure. In those situations, it might be very difficult to say anything, and God will give his people the words to say. But we shouldnât use this passage as an excuse not to prepare for evangelism. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the apostle Peter tells us, âalways being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in youâ (1 Pet. 3:15). I think Christians gravitate towards this passage in Luke because they donât read passages in the Bible in context and because weâre lazy. Thereâs no excuse for not knowing the Bible, not knowing what the central message of the Bible is, and not knowing how to communicate to people who donât believe what we believe. Just as I donât fail to prepare a sermon and say, âWell, God will give me the words to say on Sunday morning,â we shouldnât fail to prepare to tell people the truth about God.
Jesus also says, in those verses we read earlier, that family will be divided. âYou will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.â Earlier in Lukeâs Gospel, Jesus said that he didnât come to bring peace to all people, but to bring division. He said that family members would be divided because some would respond to him and others would not (Luke 12:51â53). That happened then, and it happens today, especially in areas of the world where there is great persecution against Christians. In this past weekâs prayer list that we publish, there was a story from the Voice of the Martyrs about an Egyptian woman who converted from Islam to Christianity. Her own father and brother beat her and tried to kill her.
Jesus doesnât sugar-coat things here. He says that persecution will come to his followers. Some will even die. But, strangely, he says that not one of their hairs will perish. He canât mean that literally. He must mean that even if they should die for their faith, they will not ultimately be harmed. The worst that someone can do to them is kill them. They can kill the body, but not the soul (Luke 12:4â7). Those who endure in their faith, even through persecution, will be saved. Real faith allows a person to survive even death.
Now that Jesus has told his followers what will happen before Jerusalem and its temple is destroyed, he starts to talk about what will happen when the Roman Empire surrounds the city and destroys it. Letâs read verses 20â24:
20Â âBut when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21Â Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22Â for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23Â Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24Â They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
There had always been conflict between the Jews and the Roman Empire, who took control of Palestine in 63 BC. Eventually, the conflict would come to a head in AD 66. In 70, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. This war left untold numbers dead. Josephus tells us that over 600,000 died from starvation in the city and that some people resorted to eating the dung of cattle (Jewish Wars 5.569â571). Even more disturbing, he reports that some women ate their own children (Jewish Wars 6.201â212). This is what would happen when a foreign army came in and besieged a city. They would cut off escape from the city by building siege works. Because this type of battle took a long time, the conquered city would run out of food and people would starve. Josephus tells us that 1.1 million Jews died and 97,000 were taken captive (Jewish Wars 6.420). Some people believe Josephus exaggerated numbers, but even if he did, the destruction in this war was great. According to D. A. Carson, âThere have been greater numbers of deathsâsix million in the Nazi death camps, mostly Jews, and an estimated twenty million under Stalinâbut never so high a percentage of a great cityâs population so thoroughly and painfully exterminated and enslaved as during the Fall of Jerusalem.â[8]
When Jesus says that Jerusalem âwill be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,â he could mean that Romansâthe Gentilesâwould thoroughly crush the city. I think thatâs the most natural way to read this passage. Others think that Jesus is pivoting to talk about his return. In Romans, the apostle Paul says that many Jewish people will come to faith in Jesus in the future, but only after âthe fullness of the Gentiles has come inâ (Rom. 11:25). Thatâs a hard to understand passage, just as elements of this passage in Luke are hard to understand. But it seems that prior to Jesusâ return, a large number of ethnically, or biologically, Jewish people will come to faith in Jesus. Jesus could be referring to that reality here.
Most commentators believe that the next few verses are about Jesusâ return to Earth. If you donât know the Christian story, Jesus will die the day after he says these things. He will be crucified, killed as an enemy of the Roman Empire, not because he did anything wrong, but because it was ultimately Godâs plan to have the sin of his people punished. Because we have rebelled against God, in a far worse way than the Jewish people rebelled against the Roman Empire, we deserve death. But God has graciously given us a way to escape his wrath and have our sins punished. If we put our trust in Jesus, if we believe that he is who the Bible says he is and that he has done what the Bible says he has done, we are forgiven. But Jesus didnât just die to pay the penalty for our sins. He rose from the grave on the third day in a body that can never be destroyed. And shortly thereafter, he ascended into heaven, where he is right now. But he will come someday in the future, to judge the living and the dead. And Jesus is probably talking about that in verses 25â28:
25Â âAnd there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26Â people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Â And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28Â Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.â
I think itâs possible that Jesus is actually talking about the destruction of the temple as his vindication. He says that people will see âthe Son of Man coming in a cloud.â Thatâs a reference to something written in the Old Testament book Daniel, when the prophet Daniel sees a vision of a âSon of Manâ coming to âthe Ancient of Daysâ to receive dominion, glory, and a kingdom. We understand that this means Jesus, the Son of God, comes to God the Father to receive that kingdom, and he did this after ascending to heaven. Notice that in this passage in Luke, Jesus doesnât say where âthe Son of Manâ comes. Is he coming to Earth or to the Father? It could be that Jesus means something like this, âThe destruction of the temple will be to the Jewish people as if their world is destroyed. To them, it will be as if their world is shattered. But donât be afraid. That judgment will be a vindication of me. It will prove that my words are true. When you see that happening, stand up straight, confident in the faith.â That could be true because the Bible often uses language of âsigns in sun and moon and starsâ hyperbolically, to talk about the destruction of an empire, the end of one age and the beginning of another.
But Jesus could very well be talking about his return to Earth. He might mean something like this: âThe temple will be destroyed, just as it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. These acts of judgment are pictures of a greater, final judgment when I return. Donât worry about signs that appear before my return, because you wonât miss that. Everyone will see me come. And many will be afraid. But when I return, you have no reason to fearâif you endure in your faith.â All of the judgments we read about in the Bible, whether itâs the flood during Noahâs day, the destruction of the city of Sodom, the judgment that came upon the Egyptians during the Passover and the Red Sea, and the destruction of Jerusalemâs temples, foreshadow the great, final judgment. Those who have rejected Jesus should be afraid. They will be condemned. But those who have put their trust in Jesus have no reason to fear.
Then, Jesus returns to a discussion of what will happen before the fall of Jerusalem. Letâs read verses 29â33:
29Â And he told them a parable: âLook at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30Â As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31Â So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32Â Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33Â Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
When the disciples see that the things Jesus says will happen before the destruction of the temple come to pass, they should know that Godâs kingdom is advancing. And they are drawing one day closer to when the kingdom of God will be fully realized on Earth. Jesus says that his predictions regarding Jerusalem and the temple would happen within a generation, and they did. This is further proof that his word is true. And he boldly declares that even though this world as we know it will pass away and be replaced with a new creation, one where there is no evil, no decay, and no sin, his words wonât pass away. Jesus speaks the words of God, because he is God. So much of the words we bother with are short-lived, but Jesusâ words endure forever. Because what he says is true, we can take him at his word. His true predictions about what happen in the first century give us confidence that everything else he says is true, including his return when he comes in glory to gather his people, to condemn those who rebel against him, and to bring about the new creation.
Jesus then concludes his message with a warning for all of us. Letâs read verses 34â38:
34Â âBut watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35Â For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Â But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.â
37Â And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38Â And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.
Jesus tells us to be ready, not to get overpowered by distractions and drunkenness, not to fall into a spiritual stupor or be overwhelmed by âthe cares of this life.â Instead, we should live life knowing that Jesus could return soonâor we could die at any time. Either way, we will have to stand before him in judgment. Therefore, we should stay awake. Jesus doesnât mean that literally. He slept like everyone else. But he means we should be spiritually prepared. We should put our faith in him. We should realize that this life will not last forever.
The apostle Paul says something similar in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says that âthe day of the Lord will come like a thief in the nightâ (1 Thess. 5:2). Most people will think they are secure, but they will be destroyed (1 Thess. 5:3). Then, Paul says to Christians,
6Â So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7Â For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8Â But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9Â For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Â who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11Â Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Hereâs the main thing you should take away from today: What Jesus said would happen has happened. This isnât just recorded in the Bible. Josephus, who was not a Christian, wrote about it. One can also look at the Arch of Titus in Rome, which was built around the year 81 to celebrate Titusâs victory over the Jews and which has depictions of that victory on it. We have good reason to believe that Jesus made his predictions in the year 30 or 33, and that the Gospel of Luke was written in the early 60s. (In 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul quotes Luke 10:7. Paul wrote that letter in the mid-60s, so Luke must have been written earlier. Also, there are good reasons to believe that the book of Acts was written by the mid-60s. Since Acts it the sequel to Gospel of Luke, and since Luke probably conducted research for his Gospel while Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea around 57â59, thereâs no reason why Luke couldnât have written his Gospel around the year 60.) So, Jesusâ predictions came before the destruction of Jerusalem. His predictions were true. Why shouldnât we believe everything else he says? His words are the words of God, and they will endure long after the words of todayâs politicians, journalists, academics, actors, novelists, and historians will be forgotten.
Trust in Jesus. Be ready for his return. And tell other people how they can endure in the faith so that they can gain eternal life.
If you do trust in Jesus, know that he hasnât promised us an easy life. He didnât promise his disciples that things would be easy for them. We may or may not face great persecution, but all of will suffer. Yet Jesus promises to be with us and he promises that he will ultimately deliver us from evil.
Notes
- Robert M. Bowman, Jr., âJoseph Smithâs Missouri Temple Prophecy,â Institute for Religious Research, August 22, 2017, http://mit.irr.org/joseph-smiths-missouri-temple-prophecy. â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Robert H. Stein, Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13 (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014), 55. â
- Stein, Jesus, the Temple and the Coming Son of Man, 77, mentions several: Theudas and Judas the Galilean (Acts 5:37; Josephus, Antiquities 17.271; Jewish Wars 2.56); Simon of Perea (Antiquities 17.273â77; Jewish Wars 2.57â59) and Athronges of Judea (Antiquities 17.278â84; Jewish Wars 2.60â65). Right before a.d. 70, there were Menahem, the son of Judas the Galilean (Jewish Wars 2.433â48), John of Gischala (Jewish Wars 2.585â89; 4.121â27), and Simon bar-Giora (Jewish Wars 4.503â44; 4.556â83). â
- R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 903. â
- Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 372-374. â
- Josephus, Jewish War 6.274â89. â
- D. A. Carson, âMatthew,â in Matthew, Mark, Luke, The Expositorâs Bible Commentary, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), 501. â
Heaven and Earth Will Pass Away (Luke 21:5-38)
Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Roman Empire, an act of judgment that foreshadows that great day of judgment when Jesus comes again. Jesus predicted the future, his predictions were written down in advance of the destruction of Jerusalem, and this predictions were proven true. This gives us good reason to believe that his words are true and will never pass away. Brian Watson preached this sermon on November 17, 2019.
Beware of the Scribes
This sermon was preached on November 10, 2019 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
When I was growing up, my family would occasionally go to a restaurant in Salem called Rooseveltâs. I donât know why, but the restaurant was named after Theodore Roosevelt (1858â1919), the twenty-sixth president of the United States (1901â1909). I remember two things about the restaurantâs menu. I remember that they had a list of soups. On the menu, it said âNew England Clam Chowder,â with a description and a price. Then, it said, âManhattan Clam Chowder.â There was no price, and the description was something like this: âDrive 250 miles south on I-95.â I thought that was funny.
The other thing I remember about the menu at Rooseveltâs was that there were quotes by Teddy on it. There was one long quote, taken from a speech that he gave in Paris in 1910. The whole speech was titled âCitizenship in a Republic,â but the quote is better known as âThe Man in the Arena.â Here it is:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.[1]
I appreciated it when I was young, and Iâve appreciated it every time Iâve seen it. I even saw it framed in Graceland, Elvisâs home in Memphis. The idea is that the person that counts is the one who gets in the arena and tries, even if he fails; the one who gets off the sideline and into the game; the one doesnât simply criticize, but who gets his hands dirty. There are many people who make a living from being a critic. Think of all the talking heads on sports shows. People likely wonât remember them, but they will remember the athletes they criticize, even the ones who failed. People still remember Bill Buckner, who at the end of a long and very solid baseball career, made an error that will live in infamy, helping the Boston Red Sox lose game 6 of the 1986 World Series. But who remembers the names of all the talking heads who criticized Billy Buck?
Who is the man who counts? Who is the woman who matters? Roosevelt said it was the one who tried, the one âwho spends himself in a worthy cause.â Who do you think are the people that matter the most?
We know what the world would think. The other day, I saw that someone had posed a question on Facebook: If you could invite five people, dead or living, to dinner, who would you invite? She put down musicians. Who would you choose? We would all probably choose famous names. A lot of us would put Jesus. Certainly, I would. I might also invite Paul, Augustine, C. S. Lewis, and perhaps a wild card, a non-Christian like Winston Churchill. Maybe an artist like Vincent Van Gogh. I donât know. But we all tend to think of the big names, that these are the people that matter most in history.
But what if weâre wrong? What if the people that matter most are the ones who are quietly faithful to God? What if the ones who humbly give God their best portions, the ones who spend their lives for the worthiest of causes, are the people that matter most? To know whether a life has been spent for a worthy cause, we need an evaluator. Roosevelt wasnât afraid to evaluate. But I doubt Roosevelt had perfect judgment. To know what matters most and who matters most, we need to hear from the Great Evaluator, God himself. And God has spoken on the matter. More specifically, God the Son, Jesus Christ, evaluated people. And he has told us how to spend our lives for that worthiest of causes.
This morning, weâre going to look at two short passages that are right next to each other in the Gospel of Luke. Luke tells the story of Jesus, focusing mostly on the last years of his lifeâor, to be more specific, his pre-resurrection life, because Jesus still lives. In the passage that weâre going to read, Jesus is in Jerusalem. Itâs three days before he will be executed. Over the last few weeks, we have seen that his opponents, mostly the religious leaders of his day, have questioned him, trying to get him to say the wrong thing so that they could have him killed. But Jesus didnât fall into their traps. Now, as the day of his death approaches, he criticizes the Jewish leaders. But he praises one unlikely person. And I think Luke wants us to see that though the religious leaders of his day were hypocrites, not everyone in Jerusalem was.
So, letâs now turn to Luke 20:45â47:
45Â And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46Â âBeware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47Â who devour widowsâ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.â[2]
Jesus is in the temple complex in Jerusalem with his disciples. Heâs in the religious center of Judaism, and he publicly calls out some of the religious leaders of his day for their hypocrisy. Specifically, he mentions the scribes, which in other translations are sometimes called âteachers of the lawâ (NIV). They were experts of the law that God gave to Israel, generally what we call the Old Testament. Theyâre often associated with the chief priests and other religious leaders of Jesusâ day. When Jesus first predicted his death, he said, âThe Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raisedâ (Luke 9:22). They were among the people who wanted to âdestroyâ Jesus (Luke 19:47).
Here, Jesus says that the scribes are the kind of people who like to be seen as being very religious and very honorable. They like to walk around in their robes, which would signal to everyone that that they were âmen of the cloth.â They loved to be greeted in marketplaces. I assume Jesus doesnât just mean they like hearing âhello.â He means that they liked being referred to as an expert in Scripture, the way that some religious leaders insist on being called Pastor So-and-So, or Father Such-and-Such. When they attend feasts, they want the best seats, next to the host. If they attended a wedding, they want to be seated near the bridal party, not by the bathrooms. They also like to make long, showy prayers. In Matthew 6:5, part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, âAnd when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.â
In other words, what the scribes like to do is make a public impression. They want to be viewed as âholier than thou.â In our society, religious leaders arenât very well respected by the general public. But that wasnât the case in Judaism in first-century Palestine. The Jewish people were inherently religious. Outside of political leaders, the religious leaders were probably the closest thing to a celebrity that this society knew. They held the most favorable positions in this culture. And these scribes, like the Pharisees, loved getting the attention that came along with that.
All of the charges that Iâve singled out so far could simply be called pride. Pride is one of the roots of many sins. Itâs an overinflated view of the self. Instead of humbly recognizing oneâs true position in the world, before God and among oneâs fellow men, it leads people to think they are great, more important than others, worthy of being exalted. Itâs singled out in the book of Proverbs as a particularly bad sin. Proverbs 8:13 says,
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
And Proverbs 16:18 says,
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride is bad. But notice that Jesus includes another very serious charge in his condemnation of the scribes. He says that they âdevour widowsâ houses.â What does this mean? Somehow, the scribes are making widows poor, taking away their livelihood. In his commentary on Luke, Darrell Bock writes, âThey take from the group most in need and leave them devastated.â[3] Then he lists four possibilities of how the scribes did this, which are mentioned in non-biblical Jewish texts. There were widows dedicated to the temple, and the temple authorities managed their property, taking advantage of the widows. The scribes took advantage of the widowsâ hospitality. They âtook homes as pledges of debts they knew could not be repaid.â[4] Or they took fees for legal advice.
While we donât know exactly how the scribes were taking advantage of widows, we know that they did, and we know that this is wrong. Throughout the Bible, God says that his people should take care of widows (and orphans) because they were particularly vulnerable. There wasnât anything like social security or insurance policies to help them. Women worked, but often didnât make enough money to support themselves. They relied upon men for provision. A younger widow would need to remarry. An older widow would have to rely upon a son or other family members. The community was supposed to help widows, and God clearly denounces those who would take advantage of them. When they failed to do this, and did the very opposite, taking advantage of widows, God threatened judgment.
Listen to one passage from the Old Testament. This is Zechariah 7:8â14:
8Â And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9Â âThus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10Â do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.â 11Â But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. 12Â They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. 13Â âAs I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,â says the Lord of hosts, 14Â âand I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.â
God takes sin very seriously. Oppressing other people, who are also made in the image of God, is a serious crime against not only other people, but against their Creator. Notice that God also takes it very seriously when people âdevise evil against another in [their] heart.â We may not all actively take advantage of the widow and the orphan, but we have all had evil thoughts against other people. We may not have the same pride of the scribes and the other religious leaders of Jesusâ day, but we do all have some pride. We tend to put ourselves first. So, we shouldnât think that Jesusâ words could only apply to religious leaders.
Still, religious leaders do fall into particular temptations. Many do succumb to pride. This happens in our celebrity age. The celebrity Christian is someone who is in danger of great temptations. We have celebrity pastors and celebrity Christian musicians and celebrity Christian authors and even comedians. And many of them have fallen and will continue to fall. Some fall into sexual sin, into affairs and sexual abuse. They think that their position of authority somehow gives them license to take advantage of women or, even worse, children. Some fall because of arrogance and pride, refusing to take wise counsel, acting like bullies. Some fall because of money issues. Thereâs something about celebrity, about fame, that leads people to think they are greater than they are. It leads people to think that they are above the law. And with religious leaders, it can lead them to think they are above the law that they teach.
And thereâs a history of religious leaders using their positions to get rich. This often happens by taking advantage of the poor and gullible. Today, preachers of the prosperity gospel do this. The prosperity gospel is the message that says that if youâre faithful to God, if you really believe in Godâs power and promises, you will receive Godâs favor, usually in the form of wealth or happiness or a good family or health or friends, or something along those lines. In other words, if youâre a good Christian and you really trust in God, then he will make your life abundant in some obvious way right now. Itâs the message taught by Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar and many others. Itâs sometimes called the âword of faithâ theology. If you say something and really believe it, it will come to pass. Thatâs why itâs called âname it and claim itâ or âblab it and grab itâ theology.
I saw one example of this recently. Donald Trump appointed Paula White to be the head of his administrationâs Faith and Opportunity Initiative. The next day, Paula White sent an email to her ministry supporters, asking them to give $3,600 to her to receive Godâs blessings.[5] She made a video in which she claims that God is ready to perform âa suddenlyââthatâs what she calls Godâs sudden activity of bringing blessings to his people.[6] She quotes a lot of Scripture quickly in a way that might fool people who donât understand what the Bible says in context. She says that people should give her $3,600, or $300, or $70. This is supposedly based on numbers of animals given to God in 2 Chronicles 29:32â33. She writes to her email list: âGOD IS PREPARED TO SHIFT YOUR SEASON TO A SUDDENLY! This is time sensitive. I ask you to act NOW! And as you act I declare by Apostolic authority that over the next three months your SUDDENLY season will arrive. . . . The heavens will move as you move.â Give to Paula and God will give to youâthatâs what sheâs saying.
This theology isnât just nonsense, itâs evil. It takes advantage of the gullible, who think that if they make a sacrificial financial gift to these people, God will later reward them. Iâve heard prosperity gospel preachers say that people who canât afford to give should in faith put their donations on a credit card, trusting that God will bring finances into their life that they donât currently have so that they can later pay off their credit card balance. Iâm sure some people have responded. After all, these prosperity gospel teachers are wealthy, which means some people must be supporting them. Getting rich by telling lies in the name of God is an evil thing.
The scribes are described as hypocrites, people who put on a public show of being holy in order to achieve fame and fortune. And Jesus says such people will be condemned by Godâassuming that they donât humble themselves, confess their sins to God, and turn to him in faith. These scribes may fool other people, but thereâs no fooling God.
But Jesus doesnât just condemn religious hypocrisy. He also praises those who are sincerely religious. And we see this in the next few verses. Before we read them, I want to make a general comment about reading the Bible. The chapter and verse numbers that we have in our Bibles are not part of the original text of the Bible. Chapter numbers were created in the thirteenth century and verse numbers were created in the sixteenth century. They are very helpful in many ways. We can all find the same passage quickly even if we have different translations and editions of the Bible. But sometimes chapter numbers create divisions where there shouldnât be any. Thatâs the case in this passage. I think weâre supposed to read the end of chapter 20 and the beginning of chapter 21 together. With that being said, letâs read Luke 21:1â4:
1 Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2Â and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3Â And he said, âTruly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4Â For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.â
In the temple complex in Jerusalem, there were thirteen receptacles into which people could make offerings that were used to support worship at the temple. Jesus looks at the rich making their offerings. In Mark 12:41, weâre told, âAnd he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.â Perhaps the number and weight of the coins they put into these receptacles made a loud sound, publicly announcing how very generous they were.
But thereâs also a poor widow who makes an offering. She puts into two copper coins, two leptons, which in todayâs currency might be equivalent to two dollars, perhaps even less. Jesus says that this widow has actually given more than the rich, because âthey all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.â
Rich people sometimes are quite generous with their money. Itâs not uncommon to hear of millionaires giving large gifts to some charity or non-profit institution. But a millionaire can easily afford to give tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars. Billionaires can easily give millions of dollars. But for someone who is barely surviving to give their last two dollars is a greater sacrifice. In giving whatever money she had, this widow had to trust that God would provide for her. She would have to pray to God what Jesus told his disciples to pray: âGive us each day our daily breadâ (Luke 11:3). She would have to hope that other people, whether family members or neighbors, would have to give her more money or food, so that she could continue to live.
She wasnât giving this money because she was manipulated by a religious authority. She wasnât giving this money so that she could meet the needs of some law. She wasnât giving sacrificially to achieve her âbest life now,â in response to some prosperity gospel teacher. She gave because she loved God, because she thought that worship of God at the temple was more important than anything else. She realized that everything she had was from God, and she wanted to give back to God what he had given to her. And Jesus commends her.
Last week, I talked about the importance of living life with an eternal perspective. If we think this life is what matters most, we will tend to be greedy and selfish. We will want to experience all of the worldâs pleasures right now. But if we realize that this life is brief, and that the greatest pleasures will be found by spending eternity with God, we can give generously. We can also obey knowing that God isnât withholding anything good from us. Likewise, we can give generously now, knowing weâll be rich in eternity.
Jesus said, earlier in Luke, âBlessed are who you poor, for yours is the kingdom of Godâ (Luke 6:20). Jesus doesnât mean that every poor person is automatically part of Godâs kingdom. That would go against much of what he taught elsewhere. To be part of Godâs kingdom, one must be born again of the Holy Spirit, transformed by God to be a new kind of person (John 3:3â8). One must believe in Jesus, the Son of God, as the worldâs only Savior (John 6:27â29). But poor Christians can be comforted by knowing that in eternity, they will be rich. That doesnât mean that in the new creation, every Christian will have a mansion and a sports car, or whatever your âLifestyles of the Rich and Famousâ or âMTV Cribsâ fantasy is. But in eternity, there will be no suffering for Christians, and all who have put their faith in Jesus will have equal access to the one true God, the greatest treasure there is.
What we do we learn from this? First, we should learn from the negative example of the hypocritical scribes. We shouldnât put on an air of religiosity, appearing holy in order to make a public impression. We should never use religion to manipulate God, because God canât be manipulated. He knows our motivationsâhe knows them better than we do! If we donât truly trust and love God, we shouldnât obey him in order to get what we really want, which is money or health or a nice life. If you do trust and love Jesus, donât make a show of what you do. Donât do things, whether giving or praying or anything else, in order to be seen.
Second, we should learn positively from the example of this widow. She gave generously in faith. Iâm sure that all of us could give more to the church, more to missionaries, more to organizations that translate the Bible. We could all give more to the poor, to charities that help orphans and widows and the homeless. When it comes to giving, we should do so according to our ability to give. The apostle Paul gave instructions to church in Corinth for their giving. In 1 Corinthians, he said, âOn the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.â (1 Cor. 16:2). In other words, give according to how God has prospered you. But giving super-abundantly and sacrificially is commended. In 2 Corinthians, he commended the church in Macedonia, because âtheir abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accordâ (2 Cor. 8:2â3).
Paul goes on to say that our giving shouldnât be done âreluctantly or under compulsionâ (2 Cor. 9:7). Our giving should be done from a heart that has been changed by God, a heart that is thankful, a heart that recognizes how much God has done for us in Jesus.
And we see a hint of that in this passage. Weâre told that this widow âout of her poverty put in all she had to live on.â Literally, the original Greek says that she gave ĎΏνĎÎą Ďὸν βίον, which could mean âher whole life.â âBioâ can mean oneâs living, meaning oneâs possessions, but it refers to life more generally. Biology is the study of life. Biography is something written about a life. This woman gave more than the rich because she gave her whole life to God. And what does that have to do with Jesus? Jesus gave his whole life to bring us back to God.
Thatâs the story of Christianity. God made us to know him, love him, trust him, worship him, serve him, and obey him. But from the beginning, humans havenât done that. Weâve rejected God. We donât treasure him. We donât trust that his words are good for us. So, we shut him up and go our own way. While we donât always do great evils in the worldâs eyes, to ignore the One we are made for is a great evil. We were made to spend our lives for the worthiest cause, which is to know God, to love him, and to live for him. But we donât do that. We sin. And God cannot dwell with sin. He canât have sin tearing apart his creation. He is patient now, but one day he will condemn sinners and cast them out of his creation forever.
But God is merciful and gracious, and he sent his Son to become a man. Jesus left his home in heaven, a home full of glorious riches, to live on Earth. That didnât mean that he stopped being God. It meant that as a human, he had to deal with the things we all experience: hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain. But he endured more: he was rejected and betrayed, laughed at and mocked, tortured, and even killed. He was the only person who ever lived a sinless, perfect life, yet he was executed like a criminal. This was the greatest act of evil. But it was also Godâs plan to punish sin without destroying all sinners. Jesus took the penalty that we deserve, which is death and hell. And he rose from the grave, showing that he paid that penalty in full, and that he has power over sin and death. All who come to him in faith are forgiven of even the worst of their crimes, the greatest of their sins. They will live with Jesus forever in a perfect world. But those who come to faith will be changed. They will live differently.
When the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about giving, he urged them to give generously. The reason why they should give was the example of Jesus. Paul writes this:
8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:8â9).
I think Paul would want us to do more than give financially. After all, Jesus didnât literally give money. By becoming a man and dying for sinners, Jesus became poor. He gave his life for us. What should we give him in return? Our whole lives. That means we will give money generously, but we should also give our time, our minds, our hearts, and our obedience to Jesus.
What would it look like for you to give a bit more to Jesus? Some of us might need to give our lives to him. We havenât put our faith in him. We still think that weâre the king of our worlds, so we refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is the true King. We fail to see how weâve rejected God, so we donât see sin as a big deal. If thatâs you, I urge you to turn to Jesus now.
Some of us might need to make a greater commitment to Jesus. We might need to read our Bibles more and pray more. We might need to commit to a church, becoming membersâcommitting to the church is committing to the body of Christ. Thereâs no such thing as Lone Ranger Christians who do the Christian life on their terms, apart from the authority of the church. Real Christians recognize the church as Godâs plan for his people. Some of us might need to give moreânot just money, but also time and effort. What would it look like for you to give more of your life to Jesus? Jesus paid it all. All to him we owe. Get in the arena and spend your life in the worthiest cause.
Notes
- Theodore Roosevelt, âThe Man in the Arena,â Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson University, https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Encyclopedia/Culture-and-Society/Man-in-the-Arena.aspx. â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Darrell L. Bock, Luke: 9:51â24:53, vol. 2, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), 1643. â
- Ibid. â
- Nicole A. Menzie, âPaula White Joins White House, Asks Ministry Supporters for $3,600 in Return for Godâs Favor,â Medium, November 1, 2019, https://medium.com/@namenzie/paula-white-joins-white-house-asks-ministry-supporters-for-3-600-in-return-for-gods-favor-30242ade0c90. â
- You can see the video of Paula White here: https://paulawhite.org/videos/Suddenly2015_Pgm2_Seg1_EmailVersion.mp4?inf_contact_key=cb4a9a3cf858c34aa45bc7971fc4f85ea61f15688044e0df333a256a7a7fd2ca. â
Beware of the Scribes (Luke 20:45-21:4)
Jesus condemns the hypocritical, supposedly religious scribes and commends a faithful widow. Brian Watson preached this sermon on Luke 20:45-21:4 on November 10, 2019.
God of the Living
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on November 3, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
We donât live in a culture that seeks to understand. We live in a culture of people who think theyâre right and want to shut down anyone opposed to them. Or, thatâs how it seems to me, at least. It appears that many people of different persuasions want to assume that what others believe is incoherent, and, if put to the test, absurd. And the way that people sometimes try to prove this is through what you might call a âgotchaâ question.
Let me give you an example of such a question that some Christians have asked atheists who believe in some form of Darwinian evolution. They ask something like this, âIf humans have evolved from apes, why are there still apes?â The question is supposed to expose how foolish the evolutionists are. Now, I donât believe in some form of Darwinian evolution, or what is called macroevolution. I donât believe that random, undirected mutations of DNA could, against all the odds, produce different species. I donât believe in that for theological reasons, but also scientific ones. I have studied what neo-Darwinians believe and I find errors in their reasoning. And because of that, I recognize that the âgotcha questionâ I posed earlier is a really bad one. Darwinians donât believe that we evolved from apes who, inexplicably, still exist when natural selection should have wiped them out. No, they believe that we and modern apes have a common ancestor, an ape-like species that no longer exists. To quote an atheistic neo-Darwinian, Jerry Coyne, âWe are apes descended from other apes, and our closest cousin is the chimpanzee, whose ancestors diverged from our own several million years ago in Africa.â[1]
Now, Iâm not going to talk a lot more about evolution. My point is that Christians can engage in this âgotchaâ question business. Of course, atheists do it, too. Youâve probably heard someone question your belief in the Bible by asking a question like, âAdam and Eve (at first) had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel, and then weâre told Cain had a wife. Where did she come from?â Or, atheists and Muslims might question the doctrine of the Trinity. âHow can God be one and three? Isnât that a contradiction?â They might question the doctrine of the incarnation: âHow can Jesus be fully God and fully man?â
There are many different answers to those questions. Adam and Eve might have had daughters that weâre not told about, and Cain could have married one of them. God is three persons who share one divine substance, who are so united in their thoughts, will, and purpose that they act as one. Jesus is the only person with two natures, one divine and one human. And there are excellent books written about these subjects.[2]
But my point is not to answer those questions in detail. I bring all of this up because today, in the Gospel of Luke, weâre going to see some of Jesusâ enemies ask him a âgotchaâ question. They donât come to him seeking to understand what he believed. Instead, they try to trap him with what they think is not only a tricky question, but one that canât be answered well at all. And Jesus answers them by showing that theyâre wrong. Then, he asks his own âgotchaâ question, and they canât, or wonât, answer him.
Weâll see all of this in Luke 20:27â44. I invite you to turn there now. If you havenât been with us, the Gospel of Luke is one of four biographies of Jesus that we have in the Bible. Weâre getting closer to the end of the story that Luke tells. Jesus is now in Jerusalem, and itâs three days before he will be crucified. He is facing opposition from all kinds of people, including different groups of Jewish theologians and leaders and politicians. Eventually, heâll face Gentiles, too. None of these people can show that Jesus is in the wrong.
Weâll begin by reading verses 27â33:
27Â There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28Â and they asked him a question, saying, âTeacher, Moses wrote for us that if a manâs brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29Â Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30Â And the second 31Â and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32Â Afterward the woman also died. 33Â In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.â[3]
Weâve met the Pharisees before. They were one group of prominent Jewish religious leaders in Jesusâ time. Now, we meet the Sadducees. They were âthe priestly aristocracy of the Jewish people.â[4] The name âSadduceeâ comes from Zadok, who served as high priest about a thousand years earlier, when Solomon was the king of Israel. Many of the high priests in the first century were Sadducees. But most English speakers learn who they are by this little saying: âThe Sadducees denied life after death, which is why they were sad, you see.â Luke tells us that they denied there is a resurrection. They also didnât believe that all of the Hebrew Bible was binding. They adhered to the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses. And, they thought, since those books donât clearly teach about the afterlife, there must not be any.
These men come up to Jesus to try to show him that the doctrine of life after death is absurd. So, they come up with an outlandish scenario. But first, they quote Moses. What theyâre referring to is part of the law that God gave to Israel through Moses. This is what Deuteronomy 25:5â6 says:
5Â If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husbandâs brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husbandâs brother to her. 6Â And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
This practice is very strange to our modern ears, but the law held that if a man dies, leaving a childless widow, his brother should take the widow as a wife and give her a son. In that day, widows were very vulnerable. They wouldnât or couldnât make much money, and they would have to rely upon the kindness of strangers, as it were, to survive. But perhaps more importantly, if the dead man had no left no children to carry on his name, it would âbe blotted out of Israel.â It would be as if the man never lived. In the Sadduceesâ way of thinking, since there is no afterlife, the only way to have oneâs memory retained is through descendants. Perhaps some atheists today might think something similar: itâs important to leave a legacy.
Assuming that law, and that people are married in the resurrection, the Sadducees then present their absurd scenario, which isnât seven brides for seven brothers, but one bride for seven brothers. A woman is married to one brother who dies, leaving her without a child. Brother two steps in, but he dies before the woman can have a son. The same happens with brothers three, four, five, six, and seven. So, this poor woman has been married to all seven brothers, not one of which has fathered a child.
Now, the Sadducees, ask, perhaps holding back their snickering, âIn the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?â They assume that life in the resurrection will be like this life, only eternal. They assume that people will be married in that life. So, who will this woman be married to? Not one of these brothers has a better claim on her than the others. Will she be married to all seven? That seems absurd. In fact, the Sadducees are employing a tactic called reduction ad absurdum: they think they are reducing a belief in the resurrection to an absurdity. If we are raised from the dead, they think, then absurd situations will result.
Now, using that technique isnât always wrong. Sometimes the best way to test out an idea is to see what consequences would follow from it if it were true. But to use that technique rightly, you have to understand the idea in the first place. And thatâs were these men fail.
Letâs look at Jesusâ answer in verses 34â40:
34Â And Jesus said to them, âThe sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35Â but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36Â for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37Â But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38Â Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.â 39Â Then some of the scribes answered, âTeacher, you have spoken well.â 40Â For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Jesus tells them theyâre wrong. I donât know why, but Luke doesnât include what Matthew and Mark do. In Matthew 22:29, Jesus says, âYou are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.â The Sadducees donât understand the Hebrew Bible, they donât understand the resurrection, and they donât understand that God has the power to raise up people from the dead.
So, Jesus corrects them. He says that people marry in this age, but they wonât do that in the new creation. In the new creation, there is no death, and no need to produce more people. Procreation will no longer be needed. And Godâs purpose for marriage will have an end. Iâll explain why in a moment. But the key thing that Jesus is correcting is their assumption that eternal life is going to be exactly like this life, only infinitely longer. Jesus is implying that things will be dramatically different in the new creation.
Then, to show that the Sadducees are wrong about their denial of the resurrection, Jesus meets them where they are. Itâs like heâs saying, âYou believe in what Moses wrote? I do, too. Now, donât you know in Exodus 3, when God speaks to Moses at the burning bush, he says that he is the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those men were dead for hundreds of years. God didnât say he was their God. No, he still is, because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still exist. They havenât been resurrected yet, but they will be one day. Still, theyâre alive as spirits in heaven. God is the God of the living, not the dead.â
The technique that Jesus uses here is a great one to use. You start by pointing out something that both you and your debate partner agree on. Then, you show how your beliefs better explain that agreed-upon data better than your opponentâs beliefs. Christians, we can do this with human rights. We can say to atheists and agnostics, âYou believe in human rights? I do, too. Now, if thereâs no God and weâre the product of undirected, impersonal forces, why should all humans have rights. If weâre continually evolving, and if natural selection tends to eliminate the least fit members of a species, why shouldnât we treat only those who are healthy, smart, and talented as fully human and ignore the needs of the disabled and people who are less gifted? That really doesnât make sense. But if weâre all created by God and loved by God, then regardless of our abilities, we are all valuable.â
You can do that with other issues, such as rationality, or human intelligence. You could say to the atheist, âYou believe that humans have intelligence and can discover the truth? So do I. But if weâre the products of undirected, impersonal, unintelligent forces, and if evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest, then that means that everything about us is tuned for survival, not truth. If every organ of our body, including our brains, are the product of the survival of the fittest, then that means they are good at surviving. But that doesnât mean our brains will know what is true. Perhaps our brains believe a lot of useful fictions, lies that help us survive longer. But if weâre the products of a super intelligence, God, who has made us in his image and after his likeness, then we are intelligent, too, and can come to know the truth.â
That may sound strange at first, but a number of people, including Darwin himself, have realized that if the universe is the product of a godless process of evolution, then thereâs no reason to trust our brains. Even Darwin had this thought.[5] If our thoughts are just the result of chemical reactions in our brains, then thereâs no reason to trust they are true. But we couldnât get anywhere in our thinking if that were the case. Thatâs why C. S. Lewis once wrote, âA theory which explained everything else in the whole universe but which made it impossible to believe that our thinking was valid, would be utterly out of court.â[6]
Jesusâ answer is brilliant, and even some of his other opponents, the scribes can recognize this. And at this point, no one elseânot the Pharisees, the scribes, the Herodians, or the Sadduceesâdared ask Jesus another âgotchaâ question.
Iâm going to come back to the idea of resurrection in a moment, but first I want to see how Jesus asks his own question. Letâs look at verses 41â44:
41Â But he said to them, âHow can they say that the Christ is Davidâs son? 42Â For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,
ââThe Lord said to my Lord,
âSit at my right hand,
43Â until I make your enemies your footstool.ââ
44Â David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?â
This is a bit tricky to understand if you donât know the Bible. In the Old Testament, God made many promises made that one day, a special person would come who would fix all of the problems of Israel and all of the problems of the world. And, just to give us a more complete picture of the biblical story, in case we donât know it, in the beginning God made the universe to be a theater for his glory, a temple where he and his people would dwell together in harmony. He made us in his image and after his likeness, which means that we were supposed to have a special relationship with God, one marked by our love of God, our worship of God, and our obedience to God. But the first human beings didnât love and trust God, and therefore they disobeyed. Ever since, we have lived apart from Godâs special presence, separated from him by our sin, which is our rebellion against him. God didnât abandon his creation, however. He always had a plan to bring his people back to himself. He even promised that one day he would recreate the universe to be a perfect place once again. Thatâs what I mean when I talk of the resurrection or the new creation. God will recreate the world so that his people live with him forever in a real, physical world, one that doesnât have an evil or death.
God promised that there would be someone who could bring about this new creation, who could fix this mess. We learn that this figure would come from Israel, from one of Abrahamâs descendants. More specifically, he would be of the tribe of Judah. Later, we learn that he will be a descendant of David, the greatest king of Israel who lived and reigned roughly a thousand years before Jesus was on the Earth. This figure would, like kings and priests, be anointed. Thatâs why heâs called Messiah, which is based on a Hebrew word for âanointed,â or Christ, which is based on a Greek word for âanointed.â
So, Jesus quotes the beginning of Psalm 110, which he says was written by David. Again, this would have been written about a thousand years earlier. In the Psalm, David says that âthe Lord,â which we can understand as God or, more specifically, God the Father, said to Davidâs âLord,â âSit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.â The âright handâ isnât a literal description as much as a description of power. Whoever is Godâs âright hand manâ shares his position of power and authority. God says to Davidâs Lord, âCome here until I put all your enemies under your feet.â Now, in Jesusâ day, it was assumed that Davidâs âLordâ would be a king who is his descendant. It could have referred to Solomon, his son. But it doesnât seem to describe Solomon very well. It seems to be talking about the Christ, a descendant of David who would do more than Solomon could ever do.
Now, how could David, the king, refer to his own descendant as âLord.â Fathers donât usually address their sons as their own leaders. In Davidâs case, his son Solomon wouldnât become king until after David died. Who could be Davidâs âLordâ when he wrote this Psalm? Thatâs what Jesus is asking when he says, âDavid thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?â
Jesus doesnât get an answer from his enemies. Luke doesnât tell us that clearly, but Matthew says, âno one was able to answer him a wordâ (Matt. 22:46). What Jesus was getting his audience to consider was that the Christ had to be greater than David, and probably not a mere human being. Because we have the whole Bible, we can answer Jesusâ question. Jesus is Davidâs Lord. As the Son of God, he has always existed. He existed in Davidâs day. And he has all the authority and power of God the Father. In fact, other passages in the New Testament say that Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father (Acts 5:31; 7:55â56; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Pet. 3:22) and that Jesus will reign until all enemies, including death, are âunder his feetâ (1 Cor. 15:25â26). Jesus is both Davidâs son and his God and King, as strange as that may seem, because he is both God and man. The Son of God became a human being over two thousand years ago. He did this without ceasing to be God. He added a second nature to himself, one that coordinates with his divine nature so that he is one person with two natures, fully divine and yet also fully human. And, by the way, Davidâs son can be his Lord only if there is a resurrection, if David is still exists as a spirit and will, one day, be raised in bodily form from the grave.
Jesus is the answer to the riddle that he asks, just as Jesus is the answer to other riddles of the Old Testament. In Mosesâs day, almost fifteen hundred years earlier, God said that he is âThe Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the childrenâs children, to the third and the fourth generationâ (Exod. 34:6â7). How can God be merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and also be a God âwho will by no means clear the guiltyâ? Which is it? Is he going to forgive sin or punish sin? Perhaps itâs both. Godâs plan to fix the problems of the world focuses on the problem of sin, because sin is what corrupted the world. To renew the world, God must remove sin. But how can God remove and even destroy sin without destroying his people? If the penalty for sin is death, which is what the Bible says (Rom. 6:23), then how can God be a righteous judge and punish sin without everyone dying forever?
The answer is Jesus. When the Son of God became man, he came to do what we cannot. He came to live a perfect life, always loving, honoring, and obeying God the Father and loving other people. Though he was perfect, he took the death penalty for his people. He died on the cross, an instrument of torture and execution reserved for the enemies of the Roman Empire. But when Jesus died, he didnât just die a painful deathâa literally excruciating death. He also faced the wrath of God, the spiritual punishment for our sin. The best way to understand this quickly is to think of him enduring hell on Earth so that his people donât have to go to hell. All who trust in Jesus, who put their faith in him and swear their allegiance to him, will be spared that fate.
After Jesus died, he rose from the grave, in a body that cannot die again. He did this to show that the penalty for sin had been paid, that he has power of sin and death, that he is the Son of God, and that his predictions of death and resurrection were true. He also rose from the grave as the first installment of a new creation, a guarantee that someday in the future, all of Godâs people will have a resurrection. Jesus then ascended to heaven, to sit at the right hand of God the Father. But he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Everyone will have a resurrected body, and everyone will live forever. But not everyone will be in the new creation with God. Those who donât put their trust in Jesus will be cast out, into darkness, into torment.
So, this passage teaches us about the identity of Jesus. He has the same authority and power as God, which is why God the Father can say to him that he is his right hand man. He is the Son of God, which doesnât mean he has less power or authority than God the Father. But heâs also Davidâs son because he was born to a descendant of David, Mary, and he lived life as a real, though unique, human being. And from the whole Bible, we know that Jesus is the answer to sin and death. He is the key that unlocks the riddles of the Bible and the gate to the new creation.
We also get a brief glimpse of what life in that new creation will be like. We donât have a lot of specific information about what life in that perfect world will be like, but from what God has revealed to us, we know that there will be continuities and discontinuities. In other words, some things will be the same, and other things will be different. Godâs people will live on Earth, but the Earth will be perfected, with no more sin and evil, no more decay. We will have bodies that are recognizable, but they wonât have the effects of decay and they wonât die. We will worship God, but our worship will be enhanced because will be directly in Godâs presence. And we will have relationships with each other, but they will be different. We will no longer be married to one another. Instead, we will be married to God. That sounds really strange at first, but think about what marriage is. Itâs supposed to be a lifelong, exclusive relationship of love. Weâre told in the Bible that the reason that God created marriage is to provide a picture of the relationship between himself and his people (Eph. 5:32â33). Our marriages right now foreshadow the true marriage. God could have made humans from scratch, instead of having them procreate. He could have made humans that multiply in other ways that donât involve sex. And God didnât need to create the only right context for sex, which is marriage. But he did all of this to provide a picture of the relationship he will have forever with his people. Marriage is one metaphor of the relationship between God and his people. There are others. Christ is the head of his body, which is the church. The Holy Spirit dwells in the temple, which is now the church. God is the King of his royal subjects. He is the Master of his servants. Jesus is also our friend and brother. Each metaphor provides us with a different understanding of our relationship to God. In a similar way, Jesus is our groom and we Christians are his bride. That doesnât mean anything sexual, by the way. That relationship transcends sex and romance. It means that we are bound to one God in an exclusive relationship that includes love and trust. When we make other things more important to our lives, weâre cheating on God. God wants us to be faithful.
Now, the whole idea of no marriage and no sex in eternity sounds very strange to us. We tend to think that sex is one of the most pleasurable experiences that this life provides. But what we donât know is that eternal life will be so pleasurable and so amazing that we wonât miss sex. To understand this, I want to quote again from C. S. Lewis. This passage comes from the book I already quoted, Miracles:
The letter and spirit of scripture, and of all Christianity, forbid us to suppose that life in the New Creation will be a sexual life; and this reduces our imagination to the withering alternative either of bodies which are hardly recognisable as human bodies at all or else of a perpetual fast. As regards the fast, I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer âNo,â he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures donât bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it. We are in the same position. We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it. Hence where fullness awaits us we anticipate fasting.[7]
When we hear about the fact that there wonât be marriage or sex in the new creation, weâre like kids who canât imagine that sex would exclude what we think is the great pleasure. Perhaps today kids would think that would be playing video games. They might say, âIf I canât play video games while doing that, well, I donât want to do that at all.â Thatâs because they canât imagine a greater pleasure. Right now, we canât imagine that life in the new creation with God will be so much better than our experience right now that we wonât lack for anything. But thatâs what God has told us. Life with him will blow our minds. It will be like this life, only far, far, far greater, to such an extent that we really canât understand it now. But the reason life will be so much better is because weâll be with him, and thereâs nothing greater than him.
If you are a Christian, continue to put your hope in Christ and live your life in light of eternity. There are things that are more important than marriage and career and entertainments. Even the suffering of this life will be counted as nothing in light of eternity. In fact, our suffering will make us appreciate eternity even more (2 Cor. 4:16â18).
If you are not a Christian, I will tell you this: The only way to experience real life after death, and the only way to have pleasures so great that even sex will count as nothing, is to trust in Jesus. He is the answer to the riddles of your own life. Humble yourself, confess your sin to him, and follow him as if he is your King. He is the only one who can conquer sin and death and unlock the door to a new, greater, more pleasurable eternal life.
Notes
- Jerry A. Coyne, Why Evolution Is True (New York: Penguin, 2009), 192. He goes on to assert, âThese are indisputable facts.â Well, no they arenât facts. We donât have irrefutable proof of such an evolution. As some have said, the theory is underdetermined by the data. For a fine refutation of Darwinian evolution (in its original and modern forms), see Stephen Meyer, Darwinâs Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (New York: HarperCollins, 2013). See also my review essay on these books: https://wbcommunity.org/two-views-evolution. â
- The books that deal with creation are many. I would recommend books by Hugh Ross as a starting place. For the Trinity, see Michael Reeves (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012) or Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017). For the incarnation, see Thomas V. Morris, The Logic of God Incarnate (1986; reprint, Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2001) or Bruce A. Ware, The Man Jesus Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012). â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Eckhard J. Schnabel, Jesus in Jerusalem: The Last Days (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 71. â
- In a letter to William Graham, written on July 3, 1881, Darwin wrote, âWith me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of manâs mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkeys mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?â In The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Including an Autobiographical Chapter, ed. Francis Darwin (London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, 1887), 1:315â16, quoted in Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 316. â
- C. S. Lewis, Miracles, rev. ed. (1960; New York: HarperOne, 2001), 21. â
- Lewis, Miracles, 260â61. â
God of the Living (Luke 20:27-44)
Jesus’ opponents ask him a “gotcha” question, intended to show that he is wrong. Jesus answers their question by showing that they do not understand what Jesus believes, neither do they know the Bible and the God of the Bible. Then, he asks a question of his own that they cannot answer. Find out why God is the God of the living, who Jesus is, and the hope of eternal, resurrected life that we have in him. Pastor Brian Watson preached this sermon, on Luke 20:27-44, on November 3, 2019.
Render to Caesar
This sermon was preached on October 27, 2019 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
A little over two weeks ago, CNN held a town hall event for Democratic presidential candidates to discuss LGBTQ issues. Beto OâRourke was asked if religious institutions that oppose same-sex marriages should lose their tax-exempt status. He quickly said, âYes. There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.â This comment raised again issues of religious freedom, the First Amendment, and the relationship between government and religion.
Thereâs a lot that I could say about OâRourkeâs comments. I could say that Christians are committed to human rights and civil rights, but that not everything that is claimed to be a right is indeed a right. I donât think anyone has the right to redefine what marriage is. And, really, that was the issue. People were already free to marry. But marriage has a definition, one created by God and one understood by all kinds of people for millennia. But thatâs not the issue I want to address today. I do want to talk about the relationship between the government and religion, between the state and the church, and between civil leaders and God.
The reason why I want to talk about that is that the issue comes up in the Gospel of Luke, which is the book of the Bible that we have been studying on Sunday mornings. At this point in Lukeâs biography of Jesus, it is only three days before Jesus will die on the cross. Jesus has come to Jerusalem to die. He knows that this will happen. And the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders of his time grows day by day. The religious leaders rejected Jesus and his teaching. They didnât believe that he is the Son of God and the Messiah, the anointed King of the house of David. They were jealous of him, they thought he was a nuisance, and they simply wanted him gone. So, they tried to trap him in his words. They tried to get him to say something that would get him in trouble with the Roman Empire so that he would be put to death.
One of the last traps that they have is a question about government. Weâll see that Jesus avoids the trap by answering the question brilliantly. And what he says has ramifications for political and religious history.
Now, letâs turn to Luke 20:19â26:
19Â The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20Â So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21Â So they asked him, âTeacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22Â Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?â 23Â But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24Â âShow me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?â They said, âCaesarâs.â 25Â He said to them, âThen render to Caesar the things that are Caesarâs, and to God the things that are Godâs.â 26Â And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.[1]
Last week, we saw that Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was the central religious and political symbol of Judaism, and Jesus went there to show that its days were numbered, and that the leaders of the Jews had failed to serve God. Over the centuries, they had often rejected the prophets that God sent to them. Now, they were rejecting Godâs own son.
When Jesus taught a parable saying that much, the Jewish leaders knew that he was speaking against them. They wanted to kill Jesus right there and then, but they couldnât do that without starting a riot. Starting a riot would lead to problems with the Roman Empire, the superpower of that time, and the occupying force in Judea since 63 BC. If there was a riot, the Romans would hold the Jewish leaders responsible. They could be killed, and the Romans would appoint a new high priest. So, Luke tells us that the Jewish leaders didnât do anything at that moment, because they feared the people. Thatâs a sad commentary. Instead of fearing God and his Son, they feared the people.
Then, they started some sneaky business. They sent people to spy on Jesus. These people pretended to be sincere, to ask a simple question of Jesus, but what they were trying to do was set a trap. They wanted to catch Jesus in something he might say so that they could deliver him to the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. And thatâs what they do in the end.
So, these falsely sincere people come to Jesus, and they try to flatter him. âTeacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.â Now, they donât believe any of this. But whatâs ironic is that they are telling the truth. Jesus is the only one who always speaks the truth, who doesnât show favor to the rich and powerful, and who gives us the clearest revelation of God. In fact, Jesus doesnât just teach the truth. He is the truth. He famously says elsewhere, âI am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through meâ (John 14:6).
Thereâs one details that Luke doesnât give us thatâs important. Both Matthew and Mark, in their Gospels, say that this group of âspiesâ included Pharisees and Herodians (Matt. 22:15â16; Mark 12:13). Pharisees were a group of Jewish religious leaders who were very serious about applying the law found in the Hebrew Bible to all of life. Herodians were Jews who wanted the Roman Empire to appoint a Jewish king. They get their name from Herod the Great, who was appointed king of Judea by the Roman Senate. Herod died about thirty-five years earlier, and the Herodians hoped that there could be another king like Herod, someone who was Jewish but who ruled under Rome. In short, the Pharisees resented Roman rule, because they believed this land belonged to Israel and there shouldnât be Gentiles ruling over them. The Herodians embraced the political situation and accepted Roman rule. These two groups didnât agree on many issues. They wouldnât have spent time together. But they agreed that Jesus was bad for their business, so they planned to get rid of him. (Mark 3:6 tells us that they had planned this much earlier.) Thereâs an old saying, âThe enemy of my enemy is my friend.â A common enemy can unite two very different parties. This wonât be the last time this happens in the Gospel of Luke.
Now, these spies ask Jesus a question: âIs it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?â Caesar was the Roman emperor, who happened to be Tiberius at this time. What they are asking is if itâs right to pay the poll tax, which every Jewish man was supposed to pay. There were various taxes that Jews had to pay to Rome; this was just one of them. Other taxes included taxes on produce and land. The Jews resented paying taxes to Rome. In the year AD 6, a man named Judas led a revolt against Rome because of this tax. These spies wanted to know if Jesus was a revolutionary or if he was something of a sell-out.
Jesus knows what theyâre up to. He knows that if he says, âYes,â then the Jewish people will think that heâs not the Messiah, because they believed the king of the Jews wouldnât capitulate to Rome. If he says, âNo,â then his enemies would be able to bring him before the Roman governor and tell him that Jesus is a rebel. In fact, thatâs more or less what they will do (Luke 23:1â5). If Jesus is going to avoid their trap, he canât give a simple yes or no answer.
So, he does something brilliant. He says, âShow me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?â A denarius was a Roman coin, the coin used to pay this tax. On one side of the coin, there was an image of Tiberius, the emperor, and words that said: âTiberius Caesar, Son the divine Augustus.â Augustus was the emperor when Jesus was born, and he came to be regarded as a god. Tiberius, his son, was therefore regarded as a son of a god. On the other side of the coin, there was a woman, possibly Augustusâs wife, Livia. The text said, âHigh Priest.â
Jews would have used these coins, but they would have resented using them, because of the religious claims made on them. Jews would regard the coins as bearing graven images of a false god. They knew Caesar wasnât God. They knew that no Roman figure was a high priest. But they also had to use these coins.
Jesusâ question has an obvious answer. These coins bear the image of Tiberius, the emperor, and they belong to him. So, he says, ârender to Caesar the things that are Caesarâs.â Literally, he says, âgive back to Caesar Caesarâs.â Itâs his coin, so thereâs no problem giving it back to him.
But Jesus doesnât stop there. He also says, literally, âof God to God.â In other words, âand also give back to God the things that belong to God.â Caesarâs image was on a coin. What is Godâs image on? Well, God doesnât have a body. Heâs immaterial. Heâs spirit. But the Bible says that we are made in his image and likeness, which means many things. We are made to represent God on Earth, to reflect his greatness. We are supposed to serve God and worship him. And we are supposed to be Godâs children, which means we are supposed to love him and obey him the way perfect children will obey a perfect father.
By using the language of âlikenessâ when talking about the coin, and by talking about what belongs to God, I think Jesus is alluding to the language of Genesis 1:26â28, the passage that says we are made in Godâs image and likeness. Heâs saying that itâs good and right to give back to Caesar what is Caesarâs, but donât forget to give back to God that which is Godâs. And what belongs to God? Well, everything. Because he made the whole universe, everything belongs to him. But, more specifically, we belong to him. Human beings are made in his image. They bear his likeness. And we are supposed to give our whole lives to God. Thereâs a line in a poem by A. E. Housman that says of men who die young, âThey carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man.â We are Godâs coins, you might say.
What Jesus is saying is that human government is legitimate. Jesus will later tell Pontius Pilate that the authority that Pilate has was given to him âfrom above,â from God (John 19:11). Itâs right to pay taxes to the government. But, he quickly adds, donât forget that everything belongs to God. You belong to God, so recognize him as your ultimate King. Recognizing the authority of the state and recognizing the ultimate authority of God are not mutually exclusive. We can obey God by being good citizens in whatever country we find ourselves in. God is ultimate, and he has given authority to the state.
Before I unpack that idea a bit, letâs recognize that Jesus escapes the trap. Luke tells us that these spies âwere not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.â Because Jesus didnât give a simple yes or no answer, and because his answer was brilliant, he disarmed his enemiesâat least for the moment. They marveled at Jesusâ wonderful answer. They had nothing to say.
Now, letâs think more about what Jesus teaches us in this passage. The first thing we should notice is that secular governments are legitimate. They have been ordained by God to perform a certain function. Jesusâ recognition of this truth is very important, because it wasnât something that people of his day believed. In much of human history, governments were tied to one religion. Israel was a theocracy: God was their King, and their whole form of government was established to recognize that fact. In the Old Testament, you canât separate what is religious from what is political. And that was true of other nations in the world. That was true even in the Roman Empire, where many different gods were worshiped. Every city had its own god. Different crafts or trades had their own gods. But Romans were also supposed to recognize that Caesar was a god. Jesus says here that Caesar is not God. Thatâs a significant statement that we take for granted. But he also says that Caesarâs rule is legitimate.
Jesus isnât the only one to say this. Jesusâ greatest messenger was the apostle Paul. In his letter to the church in Rome, he says the following:
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Â Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3Â For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4Â for he is Godâs servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out Godâs wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Â Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid Godâs wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6Â For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7Â Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Think about that for a moment. Paul says that all government has been instituted by God. Even the Roman Empire, which often persecuted Christians in the first three centuries of the church. In fact, the emperor at the time Paul wrote this letter was Nero, a very wicked and godless man who would later put Paul to death. Paul says that even a godless government has authority.
Another apostle, Peter, says pretty much the same thing. In 1 Peter 2:13â17, Peter writes
13Â Be subject for the Lordâs sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14Â or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15Â For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16Â Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17Â Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Peter tells Christians to be subject to the emperor and to governors. Christians should honor such people. They should fear God, not men, but they should recognize the authority of civil leaders.
In Paulâs other letters, he tells Christians to pray for such leaders and to submit to them. In 1 Timothy 2:1â2, he writes,
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2Â for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
And in Titus 3:1â2, Paul writes,
1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2Â to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
So, human government has been instituted by God. Christians should recognize these authorities and submit to them.
Now, Jesus doesnât tell his followers what the role of government is. But in those passages that I just read, Paul and Peter give us some indication of what the state should do. Paul says that rulers are a terror to bad conduct. He says that such a ruler âis the servant of God, an avenger who carries out Godâs wrath on the wrongdoer.â The government does what the church should not, which is punish the wicked. The government exists to restrain evil, whether thatâs through imprisonment or even the death penalty. This can also be through fines. And since there are many different nations in the world, and because there is bound to be conflict between these nations, we can imagine that the sword the government wields includes national defense.
Peter says much the same thing. The government exists âto punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.â What that praise amounts to isnât clear. Praise might be some kind of public recognition.
Whatâs important to see is that neither Jesus nor his apostles never say that government is intended to fix all the problems of the world. In fact, the Bible doesnât say that government is the source of all evil, and neither does it say that itâs the solution to all evil. Jesus never tells his followers that to fix poverty and hunger, they must campaign to get the right emperor and senators in place in the Roman Empire. He never suggests that the answer to such problems is the government. Instead, he commands his followers to take care of the poor.
Additionally, Jesus doesnât say that the government exists to advance the kingdom of God. The government isnât the church. It doesnât evangelize or make disciples. It canât do that. And I would argue that the governmentâs ability to shape virtue and character is quite limited. Government is great at punishing vice but rather bad at instilling virtue.
So, we have seen that secular governments are legitimate, and from the rest of Scripture, we get a sense of what the government is supposed to do. How does the government relate to the church? This isnât spelled out clearly in the passage. But throughout history, Christians have thought carefully about this. Christians have largely agreed that the government has a certain sphere of authority and that the church has a certain sphere of authority. Both have been granted by God.
One of the important documents in the history of the church that relates to this issue is a letter that Pope Gelasius wrote at the end of the fifth century to the emperor. The first half of the letter says this:
There are two powers, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled, namely, the sacred authority of the priests and the royal power. Of these that of the priests is the more weighty, since they have to render an account for even the kings of men in the divine judgment. You are also aware, dear son, that while you are permitted honorably to rule over human kind, yet in things divine you bow your head humbly before the leaders of the clergy and await from their hands the means of your salvation. In the reception and proper disposition of the heavenly mysteries you recognize that you should be subordinate rather than superior to the religious order, and that in these matters you depend on their judgment rather than wish to force them to follow your will.[2]
Gelasius tells the emperor that he is permitted to rule over humans, but not in spiritual matters. He also says that the church is weightier than the state. And that seems to be what Jesus is saying, too. Caesar has some things that we must give back to him, but all things are Godâs.
This division between the state and the church is reflected in our own nationâs Constitution. The First Amendment begins with these words: âCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.â The first clause, the so-called Establishment Clause, says that there should be no state church. Many countries have had an official religion and an official church. Think about the Church of England, for example. The Constitution says that the government should not establish such a church. The government doesnât have the right to decide which religion is true and which religion we should adopt. The Free Exercise Clause says that the government should not prohibit its citizens from freely exercising their religion. And that doesnât just mean that we should be free to do what weâre doing now, gathering in a church. It means that people should be able to live according to the dictates of their religion.
Much more can be said about the relationship between church and state. I donât have time to say all that Iâd like to say, but I do want to respond to Beto OâRourke. If our government decided to remove tax exemptions from certain religious institutes, but not others, then it would essentially be establishing an acceptable religion. It seems that if the government starts to pick which religions are acceptable, then the Establishment Clause is being undermined. Remove tax exemption from all churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples, or donât remove them at all. The second thing I would say to OâRourke is that the history of churches not being taxed is a long one that goes back to Constantine, the Roman emperor in the beginning of the fourth century. This tax exemption is not a reward. Rather, itâs an understanding that the government does not own the church. Itâs a reminder that the governmentâs authority is limited. Itâs a sign that says, âGod is King; the government is not.â The Bible states, in both Daniel and Revelation, that governments that get too large tend to become beasts, oppressing people.
Now, weâve seen that the government has a legitimate authority, a certain role to play in Godâs economy, so to speak, and how it should relate to the church. Thereâs something else that we need to consider. How should Christians relate to the government? In general, we should be the best citizens. We should submit to authorities, pay our taxes, and pray for those in government. But what happens if the demands of government and the demands of God come into conflict with each other?
If the government asks us to do something that God forbids, or if the government forbids us to do something that God commands, we must not obey the government. There is room for civil obedience in the Bibleâs teachings. In the Old Testament, there are two examples from Daniel. The king of Babylon commanded everyone to worship an idol. Danielâs friends didnât obey the kingâs commands, and they were ready to suffer the consequence, the death penalty (Daniel 3). The king of Babylon commanded people not to pray to any god. Daniel went ahead and prayed to the true God, and he also was ready to face the music (Daniel 6). In the New Testament, we have the example of the apostles. The Jewish authorities told them not to teach about Jesus. But they went ahead and did that. They said, âWe must obey God rather than menâ (Acts 5:29). The apostles suffered a consequence; they literally took a beating. And they rejoiced âthat they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the nameâ of Jesus (Acts 5:41). Then they continued to proclaim the message of Christianity.
The Bible says that we should be good citizens of whatever country weâre in. But the Bible also reminds Christians that âour citizenship is in heavenâ (Phil. 3:20). We are citizens of two different cities, the city of man and the city of God. We must obey both the state and God. But if the two come into conflict, we must obey God rather than human rulers. And we must be willing to suffer. Weâre not told that the church should overthrow governments. Paul didnât advocate overthrowing the wicked Nero. Jesus didnât advocate overthrowing Pontius Pilate.
In fact, thatâs another thing that is amazing about Jesus. He tells the Jews that it is right to pay taxes to Caesar. The taxes that the Jews paid would support the Roman Empire. That money would be used to pay Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, and Roman soldiers. And three days later, Jesus was be killed by these people. Jesus knew this would happen (Luke 18:31â33). Yet Jesus says, âPay your taxes, even to people who would do you harm.â Paul says the same thing, even though the Roman emperor would have him killed.
Now, this doesnât mean that we should gladly vote for people who will cause us suffering. I would tell you not to vote for candidates who threaten religious freedom, just as I would tell you not to vote for candidates who are against the things that God has created, whether thatâs marriage or vulnerable human lives. I donât think that either of our political parties is necessarily a godly party. Iâm not impressed by the political leaders that we have, and I often wish we had different choices, and perhaps a different political party. But I canât vote for a political party that celebrates what God forbids, and which threatens to forbid what God commands. Still, if we have a government that is wicked, we must be willing to peacefully disobey the government and be willing to suffer the consequences.
We can suffer because Jesus suffered. Jesus knew he would suffer at the hands of those who received taxes. Jesus wasnât killed simply because certain people hated him. He wasnât killed simply because he was a nuisance, and it was politically expedient to destroy him. He died because his life, death, and resurrection comprised Godâs plan to rescue sinful people. The fact is that though we are made in Godâs image and likeness, we donât accept that role. We rebel against God. We donât want to come under his authority. We donât want to obey him. We donât love him as we should. We ignore him. We donât worship him. Instead, we make lesser things the center of our lives. We donât want God as our King. Thatâs why so many people act as though government is the ultimate authority. Thatâs why people are so very passionate about politics. As rebels against God, we deserve the death penalty. Our rebellion against God destroys his creation, and God cannot put up with that forever. But Jesus, the true image of God, the very likeness of God, lived a perfect life. He died in our place. If we trust in him, his perfect life is credited to us, as though we always did what God wanted us to do. And if we have faith in Jesus, all our sins, all our evil, all our rebellion, is forgiven. Our crimes have already been punished. Our debt to God has already been paid. Jesus laid down his life so that citizens of the kingdom of man could become citizens of the kingdom of God. No president, no governor, no senator, and no representative could do that for you.
So, what do we do? First, trust in Jesus. Indeed, he is. Trust him for your salvation. And come under his leadership in all areas of life, religious and political.
Second, be good citizens. Obey the authoritiesâunless they ask you to do something contrary to the way of Jesus, or if they forbid you to do something that Jesus would have you do. Pay your taxes. Honor your political leaders. Pray for them.
Third, donât expect the government to solve all the worldâs problems. The government canât fix poverty. It canât change hearts. It canât save us. Donât expect the government to proclaim the gospel or make disciples. The government isnât the church.
Fourth, when it comes time to vote, or to do anything political, do so as a Christian. In fact, if youâre a Christian, your faith should influence everything you do. Our Constitution says that the government should not establish a church or keep us from living out our faith. But it does not say there is a âseparation between church and state.â That phrase is based on a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut when he was in the White House. It is not part of the Constitution. Americans should refer to their faith when being political. Religion should influence public policy. The Founding Fathers believed that to be true. Christians, we can speak truth to power. Martin Luther King, Jr., wasnât afraid to quote the Bible when talking about the sin of racism. We canât be afraid to that when talking about other evils, or when promoting other goods. But we must never expect the government to do the job of the church.
So, be good citizens, pay your taxes, pray for your leaders. But most importantly, trust in Jesus and live as if he is King. Because he is. Human governments will all fade away, but Jesus, his word, and his reign will endure forever.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Gelasisus I, Famuli vestrae pietatis, written to the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius in 494. A translation of this letter can be found at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/gelasius1.asp. â
Render to Caesar (Luke 20:19-26)
What is the relationship between God and government, Christianity and kings, Christians and politics? Jesus addresses the issue when his enemies tried to trap with a tricky question. Learn how Jesus evaded that trap and taught about our responsibilities to state and to God. Brian Watson preached this message, based on on Luke 20:19-26, on October 27, 2019.
In the Temple
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on October 20, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or read below).
What is the most important place in America? When I say âplace,â Iâm thinking not of a state or a city, but of something more specific, a site, a piece of land, a building. What do you think is the most important place, a place that Americans regard as sacred?
I had a hard time coming up with just one place. For some, it might be a place that has a lot of symbolic weight, like the State of Liberty. Lady Liberty stands as a symbol of freedom, beckoning the tired, poor huddled masses to a new life in America. The Statue of Liberty is important because of what it stands for. But in another sense, itâs not important. Itâs less than one hundred fifty years old, no historical events took place right where it stands, and nothing important happens thereâwell, other than tourists visiting it.
Perhaps a political building is the most important place. Depending on which branch of government you think is most important, the most important place might be the White Office, the Capitol Building, or the Supreme Court Building. Important things happen in those places.
For some people, the most important place might be a religious site. I have a hard time coming up with one particular church or cathedral in America. But if we were in France, the Notre-Dame would probably be the most important religious building. Thatâs why so many people grieved when the building was on fire earlier this year.
We Americans might not have one site that is the most important symbolic, political, and religious site. There are probably a lot of cultural, political, and religious reasons why that is the case. But for the Jewish people of Jesusâ day, the most important symbolic, political, and religious site was the temple in Jerusalem. Thereâs nothing in America that we can compare it to. Imagine if the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, the White House, the US Capitol, the Supreme Court Building, and the most important church buildings were all combined. Thatâs kind of like what the temple was for Judaism.
Today, as we continue to study the life of Jesus, weâre going to see Jesus go to the temple in Jerusalem and challenge the authority of the templeâs leaders. It would be like taking a tour of the White House, then sneaking past Secret Service and going to the Oval Office and telling the President what to do. Now, there are a lot of people who tell the President what to do and where to go on Twitter, but it would be something else to go right into the Oval Office and act like youâre the real President. But thatâs more or less what Jesus does. And, as you can imagine, that gets him into trouble with the religious leaders of his day.
Weâve been working our way through the Gospel of Luke for some time. The Gospel of Luke is one of four biographies of Jesus that we find in the Bible. Today, weâre going to read the very end of chapter 19 and the beginning of chapter 20. Weâll start by reading Luke 19:45â48:
45Â And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46Â saying to them, âIt is written, âMy house shall be a house of prayer,â but you have made it a den of robbers.â
47Â And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48Â but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.[1]
This story is Jesusâ so-called cleansing of the temple. Both Matthew and Mark have longer accounts of this event (Matt. 21:12â16; Mark 11:15â18). Luke focuses on the essential details. Jesus goes into the temple, kicks some people out, and quotes two different passages from the Old Testament. Then he starts teaching at the temple daily during the last week of his life. This is most likely Monday. He will be crucified four days later.
As I said earlier, the temple was the most important symbolic, political, and religious place for Jews. The temple represented where God dwelled among the Jews. Specifically, he was supposed to reside in the Most Holy Place, the inner part of the temple building. The temple was also the place where priests offered up animal sacrifices which were supposed to pay for the sins of the people. The priest would touch the heads of animals that were sacrificed, symbolically transferring the sin of the people to the animals, who would then be slaughtered in place of sinful people. This taught Israel that the penalty for sin was death, but that this penalty could be taken by another, a substitute. The temple was also a place where priests taught people, and where prayers were made.
Jesus goes into this most important place and acts like he owns it. At the beginning of Lukeâs Gospel, thereâs a brief story of how Jesus, at age 12, was sitting among teachers at the temple and asking them questions. When his parents, who didnât know where he was, found him there and rebuked him , Jesus said, âDid you not know that I must be in my Fatherâs house?â (Luke 12:41â49). God the Father owns the temple, and what belongs to the Father belongs to the Son of God, Jesus.
At the temple, people were supposed to offer animal sacrifices. People who traveled to the temple from a distance could buy animals at the temple instead of traveling with animals. They also had to pay a tax to the temple, and the tax had to be paid in a particular currency, a coin made in the city of Tyre. So, there were people who sold animals, and there were money changers, people who exchanged currency. The people who sold animals and changed money did so for a profit.
Why did Jesus drive out people who sold things? There are at least two different possible interpretations, understandings of this passage that arenât mutually exclusive. One is that people were selling animals and exchanging currency at high rates, making money off the poor and the pious. Perhaps Jesus drove them out because they were capitalizing on religious practices. That would make sense of Jesusâ quotation of Jeremiah 7:11, the bit that calls the temple a âden of robbers.â
Another interpretation is that Jesusâ action of driving out these sellers is a symbolic and prophetic action. Heâs announcing that the days of the temple building are coming to an end.[2] There will be a new temple, a true temple, one where no animal sacrifices are needed, one that all of Godâs people can access directly, wherever they are. There will be no more pilgrimages to one holy site. Jesus is the true temple of God. He is the âplaceâ where God and his people meet. His body will be the true sacrifice for sin. The blood of animals cannot pay for human sin. If someone is going to take the penalty for my sin, it must be a human. In the animal sacrificial system, only unblemished animals could be sacrificed. They had to be perfect. This meant that something valuable was sacrificed. Jesus is the only unblemished human. And he can take the penalty of sin away from many people because heâs not just a man. No, heâs the God-man, truly God and truly human. He is infinite, and his sacrifice on the cross can take away the sins of every single person who comes to Jesus in faith, who trusts that he is divine, that heâs the worldâs only Savior, and that he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Anyone who trusts Jesus personally, knowing that he is the only way to be made right with God, and that is the ultimate authority, becomes part of the true temple of God. When you come to Christ, you become a dwelling place for God. God the Holy Spirit lives in you. You have 24/7 access to God, wherever you are.
Jesus came to the temple to show that the leadership of the people had become corrupt. If you look at Jeremiah 7, which Jesus quotes here, you can see that about six hundred years earlier, the people of Judah were corrupt. They oppressed and killed other people. They put their trust in false gods, in idols. They even made the temple into an idol, trusting that as long as they had the temple building, they could not go wrong. God warned the people that because they had not listened to him, he would destroy the temple.
But Jesus also came to announce that the temple was no longer going to be needed. The true sacrifice for sin was about to be offered to God. And Jesus knew that many people would come to the true temple, his body, and become part of Godâs people. Thatâs why he quotes Isaiah 56:7, which refers to the temple as âa house of prayer for all peoples.â Isaiah, over seven hundred years earlier, foresaw a day when foreigners, Gentiles, would âjoin themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servantsâ (Isa. 56:6). And that same passage in Isaiah 56 speaks of the leaders of Israel as âwatchmen [who] are blindâ and âshepherds who have no understandingâ (Isa. 56:10â11). Jesus seems to indicate that the leaders of his day didnât really know God. They were blind. They didnât recognize Godâs own Son when he was right in front of them.
Jesus acts like he owns the temple. He seems to say that the current leadership of Israel is wrong. And thatâs why the leadersâthe chief priests, the scribes, and other leading menâwanted to destroy Jesus. But they couldnât destroy him right then and there. There were too many people âhanging on his words.â Many people were attracted to Jesus because there was never anyone like him, someone who taught with complete authority. If the Jewish leaders killed Jesus in front of these people, there would be a riot. The Jewish leaders couldnât afford a riot, because that would lead the Roman Empire, which controlled the land, to punish the Jewish leaders. The high priest was a political appointment. The Roman governor of Judea had the authority to remove a high priest and replace him with another. The chief priests didnât want to lose political power, so they had to find some other way to get rid of Jesus.
Since Jesus comes to the temple and acts like he owns the place, the Jewish leaders want to know what kind of authority Jesus has. So, they ask him. Letâs read Luke 20:1â8 to see what happens:
1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2Â and said to him, âTell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.â 3Â He answered them, âI also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4Â was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?â 5Â And they discussed it with one another, saying, âIf we say, âFrom heaven,â he will say, âWhy did you not believe him?â 6Â But if we say, âFrom man,â all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.â 7Â So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8Â And Jesus said to them, âNeither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.â
The Jewish leaders ask Jesus two questions that are related. Really, they want to know where he gets such authority. Jesus didnât have political power. And he wasnât an official religious leader. He wasnât a priest. So, how can he act like he owns the place. Again, if you were to confront the President in the Oval Office, e hmight say, âWho gives you the right to tell me what to do?â
Jesus answers by asking his own question. He asks them if John the Baptist had authority from God or if Johnâs ministry was simply manmade. John the Baptist was a relative of Jesus who preached in the wilderness. He told people that the Messiah, the anointed King of Israel, was coming. He told people to prepare for this event by repenting of their sins. And he baptized people as a sign that they needed to be made clean. He told them that being biologically related to Abraham, the father of all Israelites, didnât guarantee them a place in Godâs kingdom. He told them to âbear fruits in keeping with repentanceâ (Luke 3:8). He also told people, âI baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fireâ (Luke 3:16). He was referring to Jesus. Many people responded to Johnâs message, but most people ignored him, including the leaders of the Jews.
So, Jesus is asking them if Johnâs message was from God. If so, then they should have responded to him. And they should have known that Jesus was the one greater than John, the one that John promised would come. If John came from God, then the leaders should have known that Jesus came from God, and that he is âthe Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!â (John 1:29). But if Johnâs message wasnât from God, then itâs possible that he was wrong, and that Jesus wasnât from God.
The Jewish leaders then huddle up and discuss how they will answer Jesusâ question. If they say that John was from God, then they should have believed John. And that means they should recognize who Jesus is. If Johnâs ministry wasnât from God, then they can simply reject Jesus. But the crowds thought that John was a true prophet, so if they say that John wasnât from God, theyâll get into political trouble. The Jewish leaders donât believe that John was a prophet, but they donât want to get into hot water with the people, so they give a very political answer: âWe donât know.â Thatâs like a politician saying, âI donât recall,â or, âIâm not allowed to speak to that,â or, âThatâs above my pay grade.â Weâve heard these political answers before, and weâve come to expect that kind of dishonesty from politicians. Itâs sad that these men, who were supposed to speak for God, are mere politicians.
Jesus therefore says that he wonât answer them. But, in fact, Jesus does answer themâjust not directly. He tells them where his authority comes from. Jesus also tells them who they are. He does this in a parable. Letâs read Luke 20:9â18:
9Â And he began to tell the people this parable: âA man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10Â When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11Â And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12Â And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13Â Then the owner of the vineyard said, âWhat shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.â 14Â But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, âThis is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.â 15Â And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16Â He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.â When they heard this, they said, âSurely not!â 17Â But he looked directly at them and said, âWhat then is this that is written:
ââThe stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstoneâ?
18Â Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.â
This parable is almost like an allegory. In an allegory, every character in the story stands in for someone in real life. The man who plants a vineyard is God. The vineyard represents the place of Godâs people. In this story, it could represent the temple or Jerusalem, or possibly all the land of Israel. The tenants are the leaders of the people. The servants of the owner are prophets. And the son is the Son of God.
In the Old Testament, Israel is often called a vine (Ps. 80:8; Jer. 2:21; 12:10; Ezek. 17:6; 19:10â14; Hos. 10:1). And God planted his âvineâ in his âvineyard,â the land of Israel. In Isaiah 5, thereâs a famous passage that speaks of God carefully making a vineyard. He expects the vineyard to produce good fruit. Instead, it produces âwild grapes.â And God says that he will then destroy the vineyard (see Isa. 5:1â6). That passage ends with these words:
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry! (Isa. 5:7)
God expects good fruit from his people. God is our Creator, and therefore he owns us. God canât have a bunch of rotten fruit spoiling his creation. Heâs very patient, and he puts up with our bad fruit for a long time. But his patience has limits. There will be a day when all the rotten fruit will be removed from his vineyard, so to speak, and destroyed. We refer to that as Judgement Day. But even before that final day of judgment, there are times when God brings things to an end. These are lesser acts of judgment. Israelâs temple had already been destroyed about six hundred years earlier, in 586 BC. And this second temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed in forty years, in AD 70.
Jesus is telling the Jewish leaders that they are like those wicked tenant farmers of the story. They were supposed to manage Godâs possessions and produce good fruit. But they didnât. God sent them many servants: the prophets. But the people rejected the prophets, and even killed them. There are stories in the Old Testament of prophets being killed (Jer. 26:20â23; 2 Chron. 24:20â22) and Jewish tradition says that many of the prominent prophets, like Isaiah, were martyred. Hebrews 11:36â38 says that many were killed. At then end of the book of Chronicles, which chronicles a long portion of Israelâs history, weâre told this:
14Â All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15Â The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16Â But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy (2 Chron. 36:14â16).
And right after that passage, weâre told about the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, the act of judgment that God brought upon Jewish people because of their idolatry and sin (2 Chron. 36:17â21).
So, in this story, the servants are the prophets, and they are treated worse and worse. Finally, the owner of the vineyard sends his own son, thinking that the tenant farmers will treat him with respect. But these wicked tenants kill him, thinking that, somehow, they can keep the vineyard that way. This is the ownerâs only son. He is thrown out of the vineyard and put to death. But because of that death, the owner will destroy those evil tenants and give the vineyard to others. Those who reject Godâs Son will be judged, and other people, those who embrace the Son, will become part of Godâs people.
When Jesus tells this story, the crowds say, âSurely not!â They understand what Jesus is saying about Israel. They donât want God to judge them and replace them with others. But Jesus says that the Son who is rejected will be the foundation of a new people of God, anyone who comes to the Son. He quotes Psalm 118:22: âThe stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.â I talked about Psalm 118 a bit a couple of weeks ago, when we looked at Jesusâ entry into Jerusalem and how people quoted another part of that Psalm: âBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!â (Ps. 118:26). Jesus is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. But heâs also the one who is rejected, the one who will be taken outside of the city walls and crucified, even though he was an innocent man. Yet even though he is killed, he rises from the grave, and he becomes the cornerstone of the church. The church is built on Jesus, the one who is rejected by sinful humans but who is precious and chosen in Godâs sight (1 Pet. 2:4).
Jesus is saying that he is the one sent from God. He is the Son of God. But he also knows that he will be treated like the prophets. He will be rejected and killed. Yet this is all part of Godâs plan. Godâs uses evil and turns it for good. The people will kill the Son of God because they donât believe him. But Godâs plan was always for the Son to become human and die, so that the sins of his people could be punished without the people themselves being destroyed. This was the Sonâs plan as well as the Fatherâs. Jesus lays down his life for his people.
So, the irony is that while these wicked, faithless leaders think they can stop Jesus, by arranging to have him killed, they are actually making sure that the Sonâs plan comes to pass. Jesus cannot be stopped or thwarted. He is the ultimate authority. If people try to kill him, he will rise from the grave. And when people try to kill Christianity by persecuting Christians, more people come to Christ. God uses evil for good. In fact, Godâs plans include using evil for good. So, evil cannot stop God. It is no match for him. These Jewish leaders conspired to kill the King of the Jews. And Jesus was killed. But that was his plan all along. He was crucified so that sinners could have their sin punished. He was exiled from the vineyard so more people could enter into it. And that vineyard is given to people who trust in Jesus, whether they are Jewish or Gentile. No one is born into the vineyard. But we can be born into Godâs vineyard if God transforms us, gives us the Holy Spirit, and leads us to turn away from our sins and to trust in Jesus.
What does this passage have to do with us? Letâs think through what Jesus is doing in this passage. He comes to the temple and acts like he owns it. As the Son of God, he owns everything. He owns us, because he made us. What would it look like for Jesus to show up in our lives right now? What would Jesus find if he were to investigate our lives? Would he find us trusting in him and living life on his terms? Would he see that we believe he is the ultimate authority because he is God? Would he see us obeying his commandments? Or would he find us faithless? To put it another way, how would Jesus cleanse our lives? What from our lives would he drive out? Or, to look at the situation from another perspective, what good things would Jesus drive into our lives?
Those are personal questions. I canât answer them for you. I imagine that what he would see would vary from person to person. But Iâm sure that all of us have things in our lives that need to be driven out. All of us live in ways that donât completely line up with the way of Jesus. We are often like those Jewish leadersâwe want to be the ones in control, we want to be the ultimate authority. To quote that popular song from the â80s: âEverybody wants to rule the world.â
If you are a Christian, I ask you to pray to God something like this: âFather in heaven, please reveal to me the ways in which Iâm being rebellious. Please show me where Iâm not following Jesus. Please show me the things in my life that need to be removed. Give me the strength the follow Jesus the way that I should.â
If youâre not a Christian, I urge to trust in Jesus. You can fight against his authority. You can deny him and ignore him. But you canât avoid him forever. You will have to deal with him, either now or on that great day of judgment. And you will either be part of his vineyard because youâve come to embrace him in this life, or you will be removed from his vineyard, where there is nothing but a joyless and painful existence for all eternity. Turn to Jesus now. There is no greater authority, because he is God. To reject Jesus is to reject your Maker. And there will be consequences for that. But know that Jesus is not just some harsh preacher of judgment. Heâs also the one who lays down his life for sinners. His death can pay for all the sins youâve ever committed. Thereâs no sin that Jesusâ sacrifice canât atone for. But to have your sins forgiven, you need to trust in Jesus. And that will lead to a change in your life. You will live as if he is King. I would love to talk to you about following Jesus if youâre not doing that now.
Thereâs still another thing for us to think about. What if Jesus came to all churches that bear his name? What would he find? Many churches donât worship the way the Bible tells us to. Churches ignore what the Bible says about church leadership. They ignore what the Bible says about preaching. They ignore what the Bible says about evangelism, about telling people the good news of Jesus. They ignore what the Bible says about making disciples, teaching them all Jesus commandedâeither directly or through his prophets and apostles. They ignore what the Bible says about money and generosity, or about church discipline, or about all kinds of things. No church is perfect. This church is certainly not. Churches contain people who strive for positions of power, like the Jewish leaders of Jesusâ day. It is often the case that people who arenât godly try to gain control of a church. And they donât want to give up that control, even if that would lead to following the Bibleâs instructions more closely. Struggles for power often make people do very ungodly things. Itâs happened in this church, and I can assure that it has happened or is happening right now in just about every church there is.
What would Jesus say about this church? What would he drive out? Let us think about that and pray about it. May God give us the wisdom and the grace to make any changes that are necessary.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- I must give credit for this interpretation to Eckhard J. Schnabel, Jesus in Jerusalem: The Last Days (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 161â164. â
In the Temple (Luke 19:45-20:18)
Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem and challenged the religious leaders of his day. He indicated that he is the true temple, the One sent by God. This sermon, on Luke 19:45-20:18, was preached on October 20, 2019 by Brian Watson.
Blessed Is the King
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on October 6, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
Itâs October 6 today, which means itâs only twenty-five days from Halloween. It also means itâs less than thirteen months away from the next presidential election. Frankly, Iâm not sure which one is scarier. On Halloween, weâll see kids dressed up as all kinds of characters, and we have all kinds of characters running for president.
If youâre like me, you would like to have some different options for who is running for president. Who do you think would be an ideal leader? Some people want a leader who is able to maintain composure under pressure. Weâve had some presidents who have been military leaders, like George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower. Maybe your ideal leader is the most educated, the most intelligent. John Quincy Adams, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson were professors; Barack Obama was a lecturer. Perhaps you would like an entertaining president. Ronald Reagan was an actor, and Donald Trump wasâand still isâa reality show star.
Whatever you think of the presidents weâve had, they have had different strengths and many different weaknesses. But not one of them could ever compare to Jesus. There has never been a leader like Jesus, and there never will be. He is rightfully called the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).
We have been studying the life of Jesus for some time by carefully examining the Gospel of Luke, one of four biographies of Jesus that we have in the Bible. Today, as we continue our study, weâre going to see that Jesus is the King who approaches the capital city of Jerusalem. Weâre going to see that Jesus has a number of paradoxical properties. Jesus is a King who is in complete control, yet he knows what will happen in Jerusalemâhe will be killed because of an angry mob and leaders who refused to take responsibility. Weâll see that Jesus comes not as a typical king, proud and full of himself. And yet he says that he deserves praise, that if people stopped showering him with accolades, even the stones would cry out. Jesus was a King that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Yet when he came to Jerusalem, the people who knew the Old Testament didnât recognize him. Jesus is a King who was received by some and rejected by many others. And Jesus is a King who prophesies destruction for those who reject him, yet who also weeps over that rejection.
Weâll see all of this and more in todayâs passage, Luke 19:28â44. Weâll begin by reading verses 28â40:
28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, âGo into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, âWhy are you untying it?â you shall say this: âThe Lord has need of it.â â 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, âWhy are you untying the colt?â 34 And they said, âThe Lord has need of it.â 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing nearâalready on the way down the Mount of Olivesâthe whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, âBlessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!â 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, âTeacher, rebuke your disciples.â 40 He answered, âI tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.â[1]
Jesus and his disciples have been making their way to Jerusalem for quite some time now. Jesus has told his disciples that he will be killed in Jerusalem (Luke 18:31â33). Yet as he approaches the city, he prepares a royal entrance, fit for a king.
As I said, Jesus is a King who is in complete control. He tells his disciples to do something specific, to arrange for him to ride into Jerusalem on a colt. He knows exactly where the colt is, he tells them what to say to its owners, and the disciples do exactly as he tells them. We should notice that even as Jesus approaches his own betrayal, arrest, and execution, he is in complete control. We have no reason to think that he had somehow secretly arranged for his disciplesâ conscription of this colt. So, how does he know where it is and what they should say? Because heâs not just a man; heâs also God. As strange as it is to think about, Jesus has a divine nature and a human nature. That means that he has a divine mind, a mind that is omniscient. He knows all things. He knows what is going to happen to him. He is arranging everything, including his own death. What happens to Jesus is not an accident. He will lay down his life, but heâs no victim. Everything must happen as it does to fulfill Godâs plan.
So, Jesus tells two of his disciples to take a colt, a donkey, for him to ride on. In all that weâve read about Jesus, we have never read that he rode on anything. He has always traveled by foot. So, why does he need to ride on a donkey? Well, there are two reasons. Iâll deal with one right now. His entrance in Jerusalem on a donkey might have reminded some people of events in Old Testament history. When Israelâs great king, David, was dying, there was some political intrigue in his kingdom. One of his sons, Adonijah, claimed that he would be the next king (1 Kgs. 1:5). But David chose his son Solomon to be the next king (1 Kgs. 1:28â30). David ordered that Solomon should ride into Jerusalem on his own mule and be anointed as the next king (1 Kgs. 1:32â35). And that is what happened, and when Solomon was proclaimed the next king of Israel, the people rejoiced (1 Kgs. 1:38â40). Also, the fact that people here spread their cloaks on the ground, giving Jesus something like the red-carpet treatment, is reminiscent of when another king of Israel, Jehu, was anointed (2 Kgs. 9:13).
Jesus, like Solomon, rides not a war horse or a chariot, but a more humble animal, a donkey. As in the case of Jehu, people spread their garments before him. And a large group of disciples praise God for the mighty works he has done through Jesus, and they quote Psalm 118:26. The original says, âBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.â But here, the disciples say, âBlessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.â They make it clear that Jesus is the King of Israel. That Psalm was one of several that was sung at Passover, the feast that remembered Godâs great salvation of Israel when they were in Egypt. The Psalm is all about God saving his people: âThe Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvationâ (Ps. 118:14). âI thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvationâ (Ps. 118:21). âSave us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!â (Ps. 118:25). The people realize that God has come in the person of Jesus. âThe Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon usâ (Ps. 118:27).
That same Psalm says this:
8Â It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in man.
9Â It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes (Ps. 118:8â9).
The disciples realize that Jesus is no mere man, no ordinary king. He is the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6â7), the one who has come to reconcile rebellious sinners to their Maker. He is the one you can put your trust in. And weâll see why we can trust him as we continue to look at this passage.
Part of the reason why Jesus is trustworthy is that he isnât like a typical king. He doesnât come on a war horse, or on a chariot, with a great show of power. Heâs riding a donkey, accompanied by a rag-tag group of ex-fisherman and other oddballs. Jesus could have arrived in a chariot of gold. He could have ridden into Jerusalem with a great army. But he didnât. Heâs a humble king, born in humble circumstances, living in a small town and working as a carpenter. Imagine how a political leader travels today: in a private plane, and in armored, black SUVs, with bodyguards. Jesus comes into Jerusalem in a minivan with a bunch of nobodies.
But even though Jesus is humble, and doesnât show off, he knows who he is. Heâs not falsely humble or modest. Heâs self-assured. When his disciples call him the King, some Pharisees, an important group of religious leaders, tell Jesus to rebuke his disciples. They want him to correct them. But Jesus doesnât. He knows that heâs the King. He knows that he is worthy of praise. He says that if the disciples were quiet, even the stones would cry out. If no humans praised the Son of God, then creation itself would cry out. Jesusâ humility and his self-confidence seem to be paradoxical, but truly great people donât need to show off or draw attention to themselves.
Hereâs another thing that is paradoxical about Jesus: He was the King that the Old Testament promised would come, but many didnât recognize him. There are many prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled by Jesus. Here, Jesus fulfills perhaps two prophecies. Both come from the prophet Zechariah. The more obvious passage is Zechariah 9:9:
9Â Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
It seems that Jesus ordered the disciples to get a colt for him to ride so that he could fulfill this prophecy. Jesus is the righteous king who comes to bring salvation. The very next verse in Zechariah says that this king will bring weapons of war to an end, and that he will âspeak peace to the nationsâ and rule âfrom sea to sea.â Jesus didnât bring an end to all wars the first time he came, but he did come to bring peace to those who had been enemies of God. And his rule does extend to the whole world, even though many people donât recognize that he is the true King.
Another passage in Zechariah, this time in chapter 14, speaks of a day when the Lord will come to Jerusalem to fight for his people. It says, âOn that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southwardâ (Zech. 14:4). When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he came from the Mount of Olives, and I donât think thatâs an accident. When Jesus came, obviously the mountain wasnât split in two. But the language of the prophets isnât always literal. Itâs often symbolic. The idea of the mountain being split in two is that a path has been opened, and itâs an earth-shattering event. Jesus will later be in the Mount of Olives on the night before he is died. It is where he will be arrested. Jesus knew he had to die. He knew he had to face Godâs righteous judgment against sin. He had to drink the cup of Godâs wrath, poured out against those who destroy his creation, who rebel against him. Jesusâ grief at that moment is so great at that moment, that âhis sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the groundâ (Luke 22:44). We might say that Jesus was being split into two as the moment of his sacrifice was approaching.
The prophet Zechariah says, at the end of chapter 14, that all of Jerusalem will be made holy. It ends with this comment: âthere shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that dayâ (Zech. 14:21). Jesus will soon go to the house of the Lord, the temple in Jerusalem, and he will cleanse it of traders (Luke 19:45â46). In time, Jesus will replace the temple. There will no longer be a need to offer up animal sacrifices for sin, which couldnât really pay for the sins of human beings anyway. Jesus himself will be the true sacrifice, the only one need to pay for all the sins of his people, and he will offer himself up on the altar of the cross. All who put their trust in Jesus, instead of putting their trust in themselves or politicians or in anything else, have all their sins removed, wiped out, completely forgiven, and they have access to God. Christians donât need to go to a special place in order to pray or worship. We do need to come together to worship, to encourage one another, but we donât need to make a pilgrimage to a holy city. We already have access to the city of God, wherever we are. What Jesus did was earth-shattering.
So, Jesus fulfills prophecy. The Jewish people should have seen this. There are so many ways that Jesus fulfills the promises of the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. He is the one born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2), the son of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), the one of the tribe of Judah who has a donkeyâs colt (Gen. 49:10â11), the son of David anointed by the Holy Spirit (Isa. 11:1â2), the suffering servant who âwas despised and rejected by menâ (Isa. 53:3âsee Isa. 52:13â53:12). Yet so many of the Jewish people who knew the Scriptures best didnât recognize Jesus. The Pharisees, who took the Old Testament very seriously, couldnât connect the dots of Scripture to Jesus. They had eyes that couldnât see the truth when it was standing right in front of them. And nothing has really changed. So many people today canât see who Jesus is, even when all the evidence points to his true identity.
And this leads us to the next several verses in Luke. Jesus knew he would be rejected, and he knew that judgment would come to those who reject Godâs anointed King. Yet the same King who promises judgment also weeps over the fact that judgment is coming. Letâs read Luke 19:41â44:
41Â And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42Â saying, âWould that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43Â For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44Â and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.â
Jesus is a King who was gladly received by some but who was rejected by many others. Jesus is a King who prophesies destruction for those who reject him. This is something he has done several times in this Gospel. If you read any of the Gospels, this becomes very clear. Those who reject Jesus reject God. You cannot have a right relationship with God without having a right relationship with Jesus. Those who reject Jesus will be condemned for their sin. There is no forgiveness for them.
Yet Jesus isnât just a tough preacher of hell. Jesus also also weeps over the fact that people reject him. Itâs amazing to think that the eternal Son of God, who is all powerful, would weep about anything. But this shows us that God has emotions. He is not cold and impersonal. And even though his eternal plan includes the condemnation of many, itâs not because he doesnât care.
I want to point out something here in case we come to a wrong conclusion about why Jesus is weeping. Some people would say that Jesus is sobbing because he canât make people love him, as if he were an unrequited lover. Jesus desperately wants people to believe in him, but he canât violate their free will, and they donât believe in him, so heâs really sad. Thatâs what some people think. But thatâs not the case. And the reason we know that is because of what the whole Bible says. For reasons that arenât entirely clear, God has predestined some to salvation, which means all others will be condemned. And God crafted a plan that, for reasons that only he knows fully, includes sin, and all the works of Jesus, including his becoming human and dying on the cross and, later, rising from the grave. And all of this brings God glory. But even in this passage, we see that this is Godâs plan. Jesus says, âWould that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.â The unbelieving Jews should have seen that Jesus came to do âthings that make for peace.â But they couldnât see those things. Why? Because ânow they are hidden from your eyes.â Who hid these things from their eyes? When the passive voice is used this way in the Bible, it means that the actor is God. Why God would do this is something of a mystery. But all of this is part of Godâs plan. And yet Jesus weeps.
This is all very similar to what happens when Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the grave (John 11). Jesus knew that Lazarus was going to die. He says that this is all part of Godâs plan to glorify himself (John 11:4). Lazarus had to die so that Jesus could raise him. Jesus knew all of this. Yet when Lazarus died, and his sisters were mourning, Jesus wept (John 11:35). And then Jesus rose Lazarus back to life (John 11:38â45). The Son of God, who is in complete control, weeps that some things must happen.
Jesus is like the prophet Jeremiah. (Weâve been studying Jeremiah on Sunday evenings, and you all are welcome to join us.) Jeremiah was given the difficult task of prophesying to Judah shortly before Judah was destroyed by the Babylonian empire. That destruction came because the people didnât believe in God. They didnât respond rightly to his words. Instead of trusting in God, they trusted in the words of false prophets, other messages that said things they wanted to hear. They worshiped false gods, gods they could manipulate. Jeremiah was told he would âpluck upâ and âbreak down,â he would âdestroyâ and âoverthrow,â he would âbuildâ and âplantâ (Jer. 1:10). And Jeremiah spoke Godâs words to unbelieving people. Like Jesus, he promised destruction to those who didnât trust God. Like Jesus, he wept (Jer. 9:1; 13:17; 14:17). And, like Jesus, Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.
Here in Luke, Jesus says that enemies will come to Jerusalem and set up barricades to surround the city on every side. These enemies will destroy the people, the city, and the temple. Why? âBecause you did not know the time of your visitation.â That means that they didnât know that God had visited them in the person of Jesus. They didnât know that Jesus was a man of God. They didnât realize that Jesus is God.
What Jesus says here comes to pass forty years later. Because the Jewish people will rebel against the Roman Empire, the Romans will retaliate. They will surround the walled city of Jerusalem. And they will then destroy the city and its temple, killing many people in the process. This finally happened in the year 70. This destruction came because of the peopleâs rejection of Jesus, which was a rejection of God. And the stones of the temple were destroyed because the temple was no longer needed. The true temple, where God meets with his people, where people pray to God, and where sacrifices were offered to God, is Jesusâ body. And Jesusâ body on Earth is the church.
Jesus didnât just come to tear down and to destroy. He also came to build up. He came to build the kingdom of God on Earth. To build a kingdom, you need citizens of that kingdom. In order for people to become citizens of the kingdom of God, they need to come under Godâs rule. But the human condition is that we donât want that. We donât want God to be our ultimate authority. We like calling on God when weâre in trouble, but we donât want Godâs words to dictate how we live. That was true of the first human beings. Because they didnât love God and trust him, they rejected his words. And because of that, God rejected them. He removed them from his special presence, from paradise, where there was no evil and no death. And ever since, humanity has been living in a wilderness, struggling with all kinds of evil, and dying. To get back into Godâs good graces, we need someone who provides a way back.
We need someone who will take the punishment for our sin that we deserve so that we can be forgiven. We need someone to be exiled so that we can go back home. To be built up as Godâs people, we need our sin to be torn down and destroyed. How can God destroy sin without destroying us?
The answer is Jesus. As a human, he can sacrifice his life for other humans, paying their penalty in full. As the God-man, he is infinite, and can pay not just for one personâs sins, but for the sins of the world. Jesusâ disciples quoted part of Psalm 118, the part that says, âBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.â Earlier in that Psalm, it says,
22Â The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
23Â This is the Lordâs doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24Â This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:22â24).
Jesus is the stone rejected by humans, but who becomes the cornerstone of a new temple. Jesus said that if the Jews didnât praise him, the rocks would. Earlier, John the Baptist said that âGod is able from these stones to raise up children for Abrahamâ (Luke 3:8). In other words, God can make his people out of nothing. It doesnât matter where you were born, who your parents were, how much sin youâve committed. What matters is if God takes you and brings you to faith. And if he does that, you have a place in Godâs kingdom. In fact, you are a living stone who is part of the true temple of God.
Consider what the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:4â5:
4Â As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5Â you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Why does John the Baptist say that God can make rocks into his people? Why does Jesus say that the stones would cry out? Perhaps they had in mind what Peter would write later. God takes people like us, nobodies, and makes them into his people. God takes people like us, undeserving, not particularly powerful or smart or even lovable, and uses us to make his temple. And if weâre part of Godâs people, we are a holy priesthood. Weâre priests of the King! We donât have to offer up sacrifices for our sin. That sacrifice was offered when Jesus died on the cross. But we offer up spiritual sacrifices of praise and of doing good works (Heb. 13:15â16). We offer up our very lives as living sacrifices to God (Rom. 12:1). Or, as Peter says a few verses later, Godâs people have been rescued from sin and condemnation so âthat you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous lightâ (1 Pet. 2:9). We are supposed to âabstain from the passions of the flesh,â from our sinful urges. We are supposed to âKeep [our] conduct . . . honorable,â so that when other people see us, âthey may see [our] good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitationâ (1 Pet. 2:10â11), that day when Jesus comes again in glory.
The question for us today is, Which king are we following? We will follow some authority. We will put our trust in the âprincesâ of politics or in ourselves, or perhaps in our money or entertainment or in our spouses or other loved ones. But they will all fail us. The one who never fails is Jesus. There has never been a king like him, one who is in complete control yet who would lay down his life, one who is humble yet perfectly self-assured, one who speaks tough words but who also weeps. âBlessed is the Kingâ and blessed are those who come under his authority.
If you are not a Christian, I strongly urge you to consider the claims of Christ Jesus. Do not reject him. No politician will die for you. And theyâre certainly not in complete control. No other person can remove your sins and bring you to peace with God. No one else and nothing else will give you eternal life, in a restored world where there is no suffering and no deathâthatâs another promise that Jesus makes. If you donât know a lot about Jesus or if you have questions, please talk to me. I would love to help you know more about Jesus. If you are ready to follow Jesus but donât know how or what that would look like in your life, I would love to help you get started.
If you are a Christian, live like Jesus is your King. Praise him. Donât be afraid of what others say, the ones who reject Jesus. Some of them may come to âglorify God on the day of visitation.â And let us imitate Jesus as far as we are able. We arenât in complete control. We arenât the rulers of the universe. We canât pay for the sins of others. But we can be humble and do Godâs will. We can be tough-minded and tender-hearted, speaking truth with tears in our eyes to people who may not listen. Let us tell others about our King. Perhaps one way to start a conversation with people is to ask who or what they put their trust in. Ask people who their ultimate authority is. They may never have thought about that before. Then tell them about who your ultimate authority is.
âBlessed is the Kingâ and blessed are his people. May the Lord bless us.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
Blessed Is the King (Luke 19:28-44)
Who is your ultimate authority? Who is your king? There has never been a king like Jesus, in complete control, yet laying down his life, prophesied yet not recognized, accepted by some and rejected by others, who promises judgment to those who reject him yet who weeps over that fact. Pastor Brian Watson preached this sermon on Luke 19:28-44 on October 6, 2019.
Engage in Business until I Come
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on September 29, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
âYouâre on the wrong side of history!â Have you heard that before? That line was being said a few years ago against anyone that would dare say that marriage has a fixed definition: it is a complementary union of a man and a woman, a relationship that is meant to last a lifetime. People who wanted to redefine the institution of marriage assumed that they were âprogressiveâ and âon the right side of history.â Anyone who stood in their way, who held to the definition of marriage that the Bible states clearly, the one that God created and Jesus affirmed (Matt. 19:4â6), was somehow on âthe wrong side of history.â They were likened to people who tried to stop the abolition of slavery (or desegregation in schools or in any other public place).
âYouâre on the wrong side of history!â is a nice bit of rhetoric. Itâs a threat, really. After all, who wants to be on the wrong side of things? And who wants to be viewed as some regressive, backwards bigot? I doubt that any of us want to be viewed that way.
But think about that argument for a moment. What does it even mean to be on the wrong side of history? Does it mean weâll be viewed as on the wrong side in a year or two? What does that matter? Imagine that Adolf Hitler had said, at the beginning of World War II in 1939, that all who opposed the Third Reich were on the wrong side of history. That might have appeared the case for a year or two. But it certainly wasnât the case after D-Day, in 1944. At that time, people might have said, âHitler, youâre on the wrong side of history!â Less than a year later, he committed suicide and Allied forces celebrated victory in Europe. And it would be hard to imagine how Hitler could possibly be vindicated at any later date. So, it seems that at any point in history after 1945, Hitler will be on the wrong side of history.
But there are many cases that arenât so clear cut. How do we know when to judge people as being on the wrong side? Do we pronounce such judgments twenty years later? Fifty years later? One hundred years later? Even then, we could be mistaken.[1]
Take the case of Christianity. Obviously, when Jesus died, many people probably thought he was on the wrong side of history. But Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, so itâs hard to say that heâs on the wrong side of history or even death. Still, many people donât believe that Jesus rose from the grave. Christians were persecuted at different times in the Roman Empire. It would have been easy for unbelieving Jewish leaders to say of the first group of Christians, who were also Jews, that they were on the wrong side of history. Gentile pagans could have said that Christians were on the wrong side of history. A little over thirty years after Jesus died on the cross, Christians faced persecution under Emperor Nero. There was another wave of persecution in the late first century under Emperor Domitian. As late as the early fourth century, almost three hundred years after Jesus died, there was another outbreak of persecution under Emperor Diocletian. At any point in time during those years, Romans could have said that Christians were on the wrong side of history, and that might have seemed plausible.
But history is a funny thing. Fast-forward a couple of millennia, and there are supposedly two billion Christians in the world. I think the number of true Christians is significantly less, but the point is that there are a lot of Christians in the world. And, last time I checked, there is no Roman Empire.
My point is that you canât really know whatâs going to happen in history. How do we know what will happen throughout history? How do we know where history is going?
Different worldviews say different things about history. It used to be that many people thought that history was cyclical. The Stoics, a group of people who held to a certain Greek philosophy, believed that the world was destroyed in a series of fires. History goes in cycles, round and round again. Their view of history has been summarized this way: âOnce upon a time, there was nothing but fire; gradually there emerged the other elements and the familiar furniture of the universe. Later, the world will return to fire in a universal conflagration, and then the whole cycle of its history will be repeated over and over again.â[2] Itâs hard to see how anything would matter in such a view of the world. There could be no lasting progress or achievement. You just go round and round on historyâs carousel.
That may seem like an odd view, but itâs not totally different from the view that some people have today. Those who believe in reincarnation believe in some form of cyclical history. Some believe we are in the midst of a countless number of big bangs and big crunches of our universe. These people believe that there is no god, and no purpose to life. While not all atheists share that view of an endless series of big bangs and big crunches, all atheists believe weâre here because of some accident. Somehow, the universe got started, without a creator or a designer, and it has developed throughout a long period of time, improbably leading to all the complexity of life we find today. But it will all end, at least in our solar system, when the sun dies, billions of years from now. Whatever weâve accomplished ultimately wonât matter. A famous atheist, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell believed that the world is âpurposelessâ and âvoid of meaning.â[3] He says that we are âthe outcome of accidental collocations of atoms,â that nothing âcan preserve an individual life beyond the grave,â that âall the labors of the agesâ and âthe whole temple of manâs achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.â[4] In an equally cheery passage, Russell writes, âThe life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain . . . . One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death.â[5]
Strangely, Russell didnât seem to be bothered by this. He thought it was noble to carve out some meaning for oneâs life, even if there really is no ultimate point. He wrote, âBrief and powerless is manâs life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for man, condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only . . . to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance, to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyranny that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forcesâ that will trample over him one day.[6] Itâs hard to see how self-made shrine bound for destruction is worthy of worship.
If thereâs no purpose to life, there is no goal of history. If history has no goal, no final day of reckoning, thereâs no wrong side of history. Thereâs no right side of history, either.
So, is history just an accident? Perhaps Macbeth was right when he said:
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. Â [7]
Or perhaps history is not an accident, and not an endless cycle, but perhaps itâs going somewhere. Perhaps history has a certain beginning and a certain ending. Perhaps it has meaning and purpose.
But how can we know that? How can know where itâs all going? We would need God to tell us. And God has told us. When we look to the pages of the Bible, we see that God has given us a broad outline of all of human history. It has a certain shape, marked by significant events. It has a definite beginning: God created the universe to be his temple, a theater to display his glory, and the great actors in that theater are human beings, made in Godâs image and after his likeness (Gen. 1:26â28). We were made to worship God, love him, serve him, represent him on Earth, reflect his greatness, and obey him. But after Creation, the first act of the great drama of the Bible, comes the second act, the Fall. The first human beings decided that they didnât want to follow Godâs script. They didnât want to obey God. They didnât trust that God was good. They wanted to be like God. And as a result, everything in this world has become polluted, cracked, broken, tainted. Once there was no hate and war, and not even a hint of death. But now, when sin entered the world, everything changed. When humans turned away from God, the source of light, love, beauty, truth, and life itself, God gave them over to their desires. He said, more or less, âYou donât want me? Fine. Go your way.â And when we turned from God, we found the opposite of light, love, beauty, truth, and life. We found darkness, hate, ugliness, lies, and death.
The whole story of the Bible is basically a rescue mission, an adventure story of how humanity can get back to God. The path back to God truly opens up again with the third act, Redemption. God sends his Son into the world to fulfill his design for humanity. Only God the Son, who is truly God and also becomes truly a man, lives the perfect life. He is the perfect image of God. And though he lived a perfect life, he dies in place of his people. He takes their punishment so they can be forgiven. He is sealed in a tomb so that they can go free. He is exiled so that they can come back home.
Itâs a wonderful story, and itâs potentially a sad one. It would be a tragedy it not for the fact that Jesus rises from the grave on the third day, triumphing over sin and death. His resurrection shows that he defeated sin on the cross. Death canât stop him. And all who are united to Jesus by faith will rise from the dead in bodies that can never be destroyed. But that great day of resurrection is in the future, in the final act of the Bibleâs story, Consummation. We only get glimpses of what life will be like when all is restored, when Godâs plans are consummated. But what we understand is that all Godâs people will live with God forever in a world that has been remade, purged of all evil, cleansed of all sin, recreated so that there is only peace and life, not conflict and death.
But thereâs a long period of history between Jesusâ resurrection and the resurrection of his people. Thereâs a long period of time between the coming of the King of kings to inaugurate his kingdom, and the return of that King, to establish his kingdom fully. We live in those in-between times. And what do we do during that time? We use what Jesus has given us for his purposes, to the glory of God.
Weâve been studying the Gospel of Luke, one of four biographies of Jesus found in the Bible. Today, weâll look at one parable that Jesus told, a story that tells us some important truths about the kingdom of God. Jesus was about to go Jerusalem, and his followers thought that he was the Messiah, the descendant of the great king of Israel, David. The Messiah was the one who was going to make everything right. He was going to defeat all powers that were against God and his people. He would overthrow all opposing forces, which in their minds included the Roman Empire. Jesus tells this story to correct their expectations.
Letâs now take a look at todayâs passage, Luke 19:11â27:
11Â As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. 12Â He said therefore, âA nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13Â Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, âEngage in business until I come.â 14Â But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, âWe do not want this man to reign over us.â 15Â When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. 16Â The first came before him, saying, âLord, your mina has made ten minas more.â 17Â And he said to him, âWell done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.â 18Â And the second came, saying, âLord, your mina has made five minas.â 19Â And he said to him, âAnd you are to be over five cities.â 20Â Then another came, saying, âLord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; 21Â for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.â 22Â He said to him, âI will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23Â Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?â 24Â And he said to those who stood by, âTake the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.â 25Â And they said to him, âLord, he has ten minas!â 26Â âI tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 27Â But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.ââ[8]
Most of that passage is a long parable about a king and his servants. That story could be interpreted in many different ways. The only clue that Luke gives us is verse 11. He says that Jesus tells this parable âbecause he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.â Jesus had already said, âthe kingdom of God is in the midst of youâ (Luke 17:21). Godâs kingdom is wherever Godâs people are under Godâs rule and blessing, where God is present with them. The God-man, the King of kings, was there in their midst, so he could rightly say the kingdom of God had come. But it wasnât going to arrive in its fullest form when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. He wasnât going to receive a golden crown, sit on a glorious throne in a palace, and command an army to defeat all his enemies. Instead, he was going to go away. And while heâs gone, he expects his followers to be engaged in a certain kind of business.
The story itself isnât too hard to understand. Thereâs a nobleman who leaves to go to a âfar country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.â Before he leaves, he gives ten servants one mina each. A mina was a coin worth about three or four months of wages. So, the nobleman left them all a very significant amount, but not a massive amount, perhaps equivalent to $10,000 to $15,000. Then, the nobleman tells his servants to âengage in business until I come.â Weâre not told how long the nobleman is gone, but he expects his servants to use that money to make more money.
Before continuing with the story, letâs think about how this relates to Jesus. Jesus is the nobleman who, after dying on the cross and rising from the grave, will go to a âfar country,â heaven, to receive his Fatherâs kingdom. In a sense, the Son of God always possessed this kingdom, but the New Testament says that upon Jesus ascending into heaven he is exalted. As God, Jesus has always possessed the kingdom. As a man, the Davidic King, he sits on his throne when he goes to heaven. His work has been accomplished.
While away, Jesus has given his servants a task to do. He has given all Christians different callings and different spiritual gifts. We may not all do the exact same thing for Jesus, but we are all expected to engage in Jesusâ business while he is away. We have no idea how long heâll be gone. He might return in a few years or in a millennium or more. But while heâs gone, he expects us to use what he has given us.
Now, back to the details of the parable. After the nobleman leaves on his journey, his citizens get together a delegation and they go to the authority who is going to give this nobleman his kingdom. This delegation expresses what the citizens are thinking: âWe do not want this man to reign over us.â The story has some parallels to something that happened in history about thirty years earlier. After Herod the Great diedâhe was the ruler of Judea when Jesus was born, and he was the one who had the infant boys of Bethlehem killedâhis kingdom was divided among his three sons. His sons had to have their rule confirmed by the Roman Empire. So, Archelaus, one of the sons, went to Augustus, the Roman Emperor at the time. Before he left for Rome, Archelaus entrusted his castle and his wealth to his officers. After leaving, the Jews revolted. They didnât want Archelaus as their king. They sent a delegation of fifty men to Rome to oppose Archelaus. Augustus decided that Archelaus wouldnât be called a king, but instead he would be an ethnarch, a ruler of his people, until he could prove himself to be worthy of the title of king. When Archelaus returned, he removed the high priest and replaced him.
What does this have to do with Jesus? Well, perhaps Jesus is saying, âYou know what happened with Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great? Thatâs kind of what will happen with me.â The details of the Archelaus story, and the details of this parable, canât be mapped onto Jesusâ story exactly. Thatâs not how parables work. But there are certainly many people who donât want Jesus to be their king. Of course, they canât send a delegation to God the Father to complain. And they wouldnât want to do that, anyway. But they rebel against God and his Son all the same.
Well, what happens when this nobleman returns? He checks the work of his servants. Did they engage in business while he was away? One servant was able to take his mina and make ten minas in profit. And he receives a commendation: âWell done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.â He took his relatively modest sum of money and made a ten-fold profit. And as a reward, he has authority over ten cities. He has proven that he is responsible, and he is given more responsibility. Something similar happens with another servant. He has made five minas, and he then is rewarded with authority over five cities.
Then, there is a third servant. When called to account, he says that he hid his coin. He didnât put it in a bank, or even bury it in the ground, but wrapped it in a cloth. Thatâs not the best kind of safekeeping. And he offers a lame excuse as to why he didnât do anything with that coin. Then he says that did this because he was afraid of the nobleman. He calls him a âsevere manâ who takes what he didnât deposit and reaps what he didnât sow. Think about his: if this servant really was afraid of the nobleman, he would have worked hard to make something with the money he had been given. Also, the nobleman has just rewarded two servants with positions that far outweigh what they had made for him. So, it doesnât appear that he is harsh or greedy. So, it seems this servant is making a very poor excuse. In reality, he doesnât know, trust, and love the nobleman. And, as a result, the coin he had is taken and given to the one who had made ten minas.
What does this have to do with Jesus? When Jesus returns in glory, he will judge everyone who has ever lived. And we will have to give an account for our lives. As Iâve said before, I donât know exactly how this will work. Weâre not given all the details. But what weâve done in this life will be examined. As the apostle Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 4:5, when âthe Lord comes,â he âwill bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.â Those who have served Jesus will be given some kind of reward. But that reward isnât probably what most people think. We tend to think in terms of money. But notice that the servants who made money werenât given money. They were given authority. The truth is that all Christians will receive the greatest reward possible: God himself. There is nothing greater than God. All Christians will be in the direct presence of God for eternity. You canât top that. But weâre given some hints that Christians will have different positions in eternity, perhaps some who have been particularly faithful in this life will have greater responsibilities.
Perhaps we can think of an analogy in sports. Those who work hard in practice will be rewarded with more playing time. The quarterback who learns the playbook thoroughly and works hard to execute the plays exactly as the coach imagined them will be rewarded with a starting position. The one who is lazy and doesnât do what the coach wants will be but cut from the team. In that way, âto everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.â
What does this have to do with us? If youâre truly a servant of Jesus, youâll do what he wants during this time in history when he is âaway,â in the âfar countryâ of heaven. And when he returns, he will reward your work. The reward may simply be, âWell done, good and faithful servant.â It might mean that you will have some wonderful things to do in eternity in the new creation. Whatever it is, Jesus will acknowledge your work. What you have done will not be have been done in vain.
In this parable, the third servant showed he wasnât a servant at all. He made a lame excuse. And what he had been given was taken away. There are some people who think theyâre Christians. They think theyâre Christians because they believe some statements about Jesus are true. But Satan knows those truths even better than Christians do (James 2:19), and he wonât be with God for eternity. Just because someone has said they believe in Jesus doesnât mean theyâre truly a Christian. Just because someone has been baptized doesnât mean theyâre truly a Christian.
Salvation is a gift. It is not something earned. But, salvation is a work of God, and itâs not just about having sins forgiven. Thatâs a huge thing, but thatâs just one facet of salvation. Salvation also includes being regenerated by the Holy Spirit, being a new person. When God saves a person, he starts to transform that person. So, a real Christian should, over the course of his or her Christian life, have some works to demonstrate that change. The apostle Paul said weâre saved by grace through faith, and this is not our work. But he says weâre saved to do good works (Eph. 2:8â10). James, the brother of Jesus, says that a so-called âfaithâ without works is a dead faith. Itâs not real at all (James 2:17). Faith is demonstrated by works (James 2:18). Works are not the root of our salvation, but they are fruit of our salvation.
So, on judgment day, I expect that there will be many who thought that they were Christians who are surprised to learn that they never really trusted Christ. If they truly loved him, they would obey him (John 14:15, 21, 23).
And, speaking of judgment day, in this parable, the noble man will punish those who were opposed to him, the ones who said, âWe do not want this man to reign over us.â And weâre told Jesus will do the same. Now, some people think Jesus would never do such a thing. But the Bible doesnât flinch away from punishment. In the Old Testament, several men of God slaughtered Godâs enemies. Joshua killed five Amorite kings (Josh.10:16â27). Samuel killed Agag, the king of the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:32â33). Elijah slaughtered hundreds of prophets of Baal (1 Kgs. 18:40). Donât think that this is just some Old Testament violence. The book of Revelation portrays Jesus as a greater Joshua, slaying those who refuse to repent (Rev. 19:11â21). Thatâs just one picture of condemnation (similar to 2 Thess. 1:5â10). Another is sending people into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). Another picture is the damned being thrown into a lake of fire (Rev. 20:14â15). These are all images of a reality that is too awful for us to fully appreciate. Itâs what we deserve. We are all like those people who say, âWe donât want this man to be our king!â If God hadnât changed our hearts, we would reject him still.
If you think all of this is too harsh, you need to understand how serious our sin is, how great a rejection of God it is. And you need to remember that Jesus himself subjected himself to violence. He volunteered to become a man, to be hated, rejected, betrayed, arrested, tortured, and killed in a gruesome way. His death wasnât an accident. It was the triune Godâs plan, so that sin could be crushed without having to crush all sinners.
Jesus isnât a harsh King. Heâs a king who sacrifices himself so that we can live. Heâs a King who will richly reward us for our service to him. He has given us a modest amount of time, a modest amount of money, a modest amount of talents, a small amount of opportunities and spiritual gifts. He expects us not to receive those things and hide them. He wants us to put them to use. We may not all do massive things for the kingdom of God. Living a quiet life of humble obedience to Jesus may not look great in the worldâs eyes. But doing that is huge in Godâs eyes. And he will reward us.
Our reward will be to live with him forever, and to have even greater responsibilities in the new creation. What will that be like? I donât know. But this life is a shadow, and the substance is eternity, a never-ending existence. Will we serve God in his kingdom or will we be cast out into darkness forever? If you want to serve in Godâs kingdom forever, you will serve in it now. Your refusal to serve now is an indication that you wonât be with God forever. Jesus is warning us not to be like that third servant, the one who truly didnât love, trust, and even know the king. That servant was no servant at all, and what he thought he had, he lost.
Let us use the gifts that Jesus gives us now, because all of history is pointing to him. Several people, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have said, âthe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.â[9] The idea is that justice will certainly come, even if it takes a long time to get there. More recently, one Christian author corrected this line: âThe arc of history is long, but it bends toward Jesus.â[10] Let us get ready for that day when we stand before Jesus by using what he has given us.
Letâs be on the right side of history by being on the right side of Jesus.
Notes
- For an assessment of the âwrong side of historyâ argument, see Kevin DeYoung, âWhatâs Wrong with the âWrong Side of Historyâ Argument?â The Gospel Coalition, August 5, 2014, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/whats-wrong-with-the-wrong-side-of-history-argument. â
- Anthony Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 81â82. â
- Bertrand Russell, âA Free Manâs Worship,â in Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects (New York: Touchstone, 1957), 106. â
- Ibid., 107. â
- Ibid., 115. â
- Ibid., 117â18. â
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth V.v. â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/15/arc-of-universe. â
- Russell Moore, Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel (Nashville: B&H, 2015), 204. â
Engage in Business until I Come (Luke 19:11-27)
Where is history going? Does it have an intended goal? Christianity says that it does, and history’s end is Jesus. We will all have to give an account of our lives to him. What will we do with the time and other resources that he has entrusted to us? Find out how Jesus responds to different people by listening to this sermon, based on Luke 19:11-27, preached on September 29, 2019 by Brian Watson.
Recover Your Sight
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on September 22, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
Though my children are young, they often have homework to do. The other night, Simon had a math sheet with some basic addition problems. Then, he had a sheet with words that he had to place in categories based on their vowel sounds. Simple stuff. As he was working on them, I could see the answers immediately. But he couldnât. And thatâs the way it is for many areas of life. Some of us can see things that others canât. Some people can look at a broken machine, like a car, and immediately see whatâs wrong with it, while others of us wouldnât have a clue. Some people can look at whatâs in the fridge and in the cupboards and immediately see the ingredients of a meal, while some of us have a hard time boiling water. Some can see in their mindâs eye how a room could be repainted and redecorated, with the furniture rearranged, to renovate a living space. Some of us can see groupings of letters and see a foreign language that we understand, while others see only gibberish.
Some of us can see what others canât see. Some us could see those things with a bit of help. Others of us could never see those things.
And thatâs how it is with spiritual realities. Some people will immediately apprehend the things of God. They see the light, so to speak. Other people have an interest in those realities but need help seeing. Many will never see those things. Some of those people will be indifferent and apathetic. Others will try to keep other people from seeing what they cannot.
We will see this in two passages in the Gospel of Luke that are back-to-back. Weâll begin by looking at how Jesus heals a blind man who cries out for mercy. Thatâs in Luke 18:35â43. Then weâll look at how Zacchaeus comes to faith in Jesus in Luke 19:1â10. I think Luke means for us to see these two episodes together, juxtaposing them to show how two different men come to see Jesus, and how both faith and repentance are necessary for salvation. We might miss this juxtaposition because of the way one chapter number ends and another begins. But keep in mind that chapter numbers were added to the biblical text in the thirteenth century and verse numbers in the sixteenth century. They help us find passages, but theyâre not part of the original biblical text, and sometimes they create divisions where divisions shouldnât be.
With that being said, letâs begin by reading Luke 18:35â43:
35Â As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36Â And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37Â They told him, âJesus of Nazareth is passing by.â 38Â And he cried out, âJesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!â 39Â And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, âSon of David, have mercy on me!â 40Â And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41Â âWhat do you want me to do for you?â He said, âLord, let me recover my sight.â 42Â And Jesus said to him, âRecover your sight; your faith has made you well.â 43Â And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.[1]
For some time, Jesus has been approaching Jerusalem (since Luke 9:51). That is where he will die by crucifixion. Here, he approaches Jericho, the only specific location mentioned in this section of Luke. Heâs getting close to his last days before dying. He knows his death is coming, but he isnât hiding. Heâs not running away from it. He will perform one last miracle outside of Jerusalem to show who he is and what he came to do.
As Jesus approaches, he passes a blind man. This man is begging. He is completely relying upon the mercy of others to help him. The man hears a crowd, and since he canât see whatâs happening, he asks others. They tell him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Clearly, Jesus has a public reputation. People have heard about his miraculous healings and his teachings. I suppose the mention of Nazareth is important. This is where Jesus grew up, but itâs also where he was earlier in Luke, when he began his public ministry. He famously read a portion of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, which says:
18Â âThe Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19Â to proclaim the year of the Lordâs favorâ (Luke 4:18â19, citing Isa. 61:1â2).
Jesus said he came to fulfill that Scripture (Luke 4:21). He came to do all those things, including bringing sight to the blind.
The blind man canât see Jesus, but when he hears that Jesus is coming, he can see something that no one else could. He sees that Jesus is the âSon of David.â Heâs the only one in Lukeâs Gospel to call Jesus that. David was the great King of Israel who reigned roughly a thousand years earlier. David was told that one of his offspring would reign forever (2 Sam. 7:12â16). This Son of David would be born, but he would also be called âMighty Godâ and âPrince of Peace,â and he would establish peace forever as he ruled with justice and righteousness (Isa. 9:6â7). He would be anointed by the Holy Spirit and would bring about an era in which there is more death. The nations would come to him (Isa. 11:1â10). At least, thatâs what passages in the Old Testament promised. The blind man could see that Jesus was the one to fulfill these promises. Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed King in Davidâs lineage. He was the one who can fix the brokenness of the world.
So, the blind man calls out to Jesus, âSon of David, have mercy on me!â But the crowd rebukes him, telling him to be quiet, just the way that Jesusâ disciples rebuked people who brought infants to Jesus (Luke 18:15). They thought Jesus was too important to be bothered. But the blind man wonât be shut up. He continues to call on Jesus. He perseveres in faith, because he knows Jesus is his only hope of seeing again.
Jesus isnât too important for the blind man. Jesus hears him. Jesus stops and asks the man what he wants. Of course, the blind man wants to see again. At the beginning of Lukeâs Gospel, Zechariah, John the Baptistâs father, said that God was going to âto give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of deathâ (Luke 1:79). That is what Jesus does here. He realizes that this blind man has put his faith in him, and he heals the man. He simply says, âRecover your sight; your faith has made you well.â
And with that, the blind man sees. And what does he do? He follows Jesus, something that all people who respond rightly to Jesus do (Luke 5:11, 27â28; 9:23, 59, 61; 18:22, 28). He also glorifies God, giving God the credit for his healing and praising him. Again, in Luke, Jesusâ miracles lead to people glorifying God (Luke 1:64; 2:20; 5:25â26; 7:16; 13:13; 17:15; 19:37). Other people also praise God for what Jesus has done for this blind man.
This blind man is a model of faith. He realizes his poor condition. He knows he canât fix his own blindness. He realizes that others canât, either. And he sees that Jesus is the only one who can. He recognizes who Jesus is and he calls out to him for mercy. Faith is the instrument through which this man is healed. He could already see the truth, and the truth set him free.
The fact is that this man could see much better than many others. Many people donât see who Jesus really is. That is because they are spiritually blind. The apostle Paul, Jesusâ great messenger, once wrote that the message about Jesus, the gospel (which means âgood newsâ) is âveiledâ to people who canât see its truth. But then he wrote this:
3Â And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4Â In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:3â4).
Those who canât see âthe light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of Godâ are blind. They canât see whatâs really there. This good news is good in light of some other news we find in the Bible. God made us in his image and likeness (Gen. 1:26â28), which means we are supposed to represent him on Earth, ruling over the world by first coming under his rule and blessing. We are supposed to reflect his glory; when other people look at us, they should get some idea of what God is like. But we donât represent and reflect God well. God is perfect in every way. He is love (1 John 4:8, 16). We are often not loving. He is righteous. We often do what is wrong. God made us to love him, worship him, serve him, and obey him. We donât do that. He made us to love each other, and we often fail there, too. And the bad news for all of us is that God demands righteous people. He canât have unrighteous people making a mess of his creation. So, God gave us a partial punishment for sin. He removed us from his special presence, which means living in a fallen world, in which there are bad things like natural disasters, diseases and disabilities, including blindness, and death. And if we continue to reject God through our lives, even until we die, we would be condemned after that to live an eternal life apart from Godâs presence and blessing. We call that hell. Thatâs what we deserve.
Yet the good news is that God sent his Son, who took on a human nature, becoming more than just God, but also a human. And Jesus of Nazareth is that Son of David who will bring about peace and justice and who will rule forever. He is the only human who has ever been perfectly righteous, always doing what is right, always obeying, honoring, and worshiping God the Father, always loving other people. He is the true image of God. When we look at Jesus, we can see what God is really like. Jesus came to fulfill Godâs designs for humanity. If we would only turn to him, we would find healing. Perhaps not in this lifeâJesus never promised that he would heal every disease or fix all the worldâs problems when he came that first time. But, in the end, Jesus will fix all those problems. And that is great news.
Not everyone can see this. But the blind man could. God must have given him that ability to recognize who Jesus is. I already quoted the apostle Paulâs words about our spiritual blindness. Right after what I read earlier, in 2 Corinthians 4, he writes this: âFor God, who said, âLet light shine out of darkness,â has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christâ (2 Cor. 4:6). Just as God created the universe, he can recreate us to be the people he wants us to be. He can shine light into our darkness, revealing the truth, showing that his glory is on display in the person of Jesus. If see our sad condition, as people who have sinned against God, and we see who Jesus truly is, and we come to trust Jesus as our only hope and help in this life and the next, then we can be healed.
That is what faith looks like. But faith is one side of the coin of salvation. The other side is repentance. And we get a model of repentance is the next episode in Lukeâs Gospel. Letâs read Luke 19:1â10:
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2Â And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3Â And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4Â So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5Â And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, âZacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.â 6Â So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7Â And when they saw it, they all grumbled, âHe has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.â 8Â And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, âBehold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.â 9Â And Jesus said to him, âToday salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10Â For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.â
Jesus now enters Jericho, and again he is attracting attention. A crowd has come to see him. Among the people is a man named Zacchaeus, who isnât just a tax collector, but a chief tax collector. As Iâve said before, tax collectors had bad reputations in first century Israel. They were known for collecting more taxes than they needed to and for pocketing the excess taxes. In other words, they were dishonest and greedy. But far worse than that, they were viewed as traitors. They helped the Roman Empire, the superpower of the world at that time and the occupying force in Palestine, collect taxes. They were aiding and abetting the enemy. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. This meant that he had paid the Roman Empire for his position. The Romans farmed out tax collection to people like Zacchaeus, who would pay the Romans what they needed once a year, and then had taxes collected in his area. He was free to charge more than what he needed, and he pocketed the excess funds. Thatâs how he became rich.
I used to deliver The Salem Evening News, a local newspaper, for about two years when I was a boy. I had about twenty-five papers delivered to me, and I had to deliver those papers and collect money from the customers. I think the price was something like $1.60 per week at that time. I had to pay the newspaper company each week, and I was allowed to keep whatever was left over. If I told the customers that the price was $2.50 or $3.00, and then I pocketed the rest, I would be like a tax collector. If I was the guy who delivered the papers and collected from the paperboys, telling them to pay more than they needed to, I would be like Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector.
Zacchaeus wasnât just a tax collector who was rich. He was also short. He had a problem seeing over the taller people in the crowd. Earlier this year, I attended the Patriotsâ Super Bowl parade in Boston. I had to go into the city for something, so I decided I would watch the parade, too. The city was packed, and when I arrived there, it was hard to find a space along the parade route. I did manage to find a spot on Tremont Street, and though there were some people on the sidewalk in front of me, I could see the parade because Iâm fairly tall. But there were others who couldnât. I was across the street from the Granary Burying Ground, right next to Park Street Church, on the edge of Boston Common. There was a man who went through that cemetery and climbed onto a large stone pillar or column in order to get a better view. The police kindly invited that man to come down.
Thatâs like what Zacchaeus does here. Since he canât see well, and since he really wants to see Jesus, he climbs a tree. Other people probably thought he looked foolish, but he didnât care about their opinion. After all, they already hated him for being a tax collector.
When Jesus passes by, he calls out to Zacchaeus. He calls the tax collector by name. How did Jesus know his name? Itâs probably because he doesnât just have a human mind, but he also has a divine mind, and God is omniscient. (See John 1:47â48 for a similar event.) Jesus knows this man.
Jesus asks Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and he gives him a reason: âI must stay at your house today.â This is odd. Why must Jesus stay at this manâs house, this man with whom he hasnât had a relationship yet? Luke often uses the language of âmustâ to describe things that Jesus had to do, or things that had to happen (Luke 1:49; 4:43; 9:22; 13:16, 33; 15:32; 17:25; 22:37; 24:7, 26, 44). Theologians call this âdivine necessityââthese things have to happen because they are part of Godâs eternal plan. Jesus had to spend time with Zacchaeus because Jesus came to save people like Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus responds to Jesus eagerly. He comes down from the tree with joy. If one of the Patriots asked me to come out of the crowd and get on one of their duck boats, I would have been full of joy, too. But Jesus is far more important than a star football player. And Zacchaeus seems to know this.
Though Zacchaeus is excited about Jesus, the crowd isnât excited about what Jesus is doing. They grumble. They complain that Jesus is going to go the tax collectorâs house. The Jewish religious leaders have already grumbled that Jesus would spend time with tax collectors and other sinners, and that he would even dare to eat with them (Luke 5:30; 15:2). In their eyes, such sinners were too unrighteous, too unclean to spend time with. How could Jesus be a teacher and even a prophet, much less the Messiah and the Son of God, if heâs hanging out with deplorables like Zacchaeus?
But the grumbling crowd doesnât seem to affect Zacchaeus and Jesus. When Zacchaeus is in Jesusâ presence, he announces a change in his life. He is now going to give half of his belongings to the poor. On top of that, he is going to give back four times as much as he defrauded from others. In the Old Testament Law, the Israelites were required to give away about 20 percent of their earnings. This was considered generous. Zacchaeus went far above and beyond what Israelites were supposed to give away. And the harshest penalty for stealing, in terms of paying back what one took, was to give four or five times the amount taken (Exod. 22:1; 2 Sam. 12:6). But Zacchaeus does this, and he seems to do this voluntarily. Thatâs because he has come to see how he has been greedy and dishonest, and he has come to see who Jesus is. If he wants to follow Jesus, he must renounce his old ways. He must straighten up and fly right.
This is what repentance looks like. When we put our trust in Jesus, we realize that we cannot fix ourselves and that only Jesus can make us whole. Salvation is a gift, but itâs a gift that is meant to change us. We canât have real faith in Jesus if thereâs no change in our lives. We must repent of our sins, turning away from our old ways of doing things. Zacchaeus repented of taking too much in taxes. Thatâs exactly what John the Baptist had told tax collectors to do in Luke 3:12â13. And he freely gave away what he didnât need. He must have realized that Jesus came, not to collect taxes from him, but to pay his debt. And if Jesus gave Zacchaeus everything, the least that Zacchaeus could do was share his wealth with others. He is the opposite of the rich man that we met last week (Luke 18:18â23). That rich man refused to part with his wealth in order to follow Jesus. Zacchaeus is that rare camel who fit through the eye of the needle, all because of the grace of God. God had opened up his eyes to see the glorious face of Jesus. When Zacchaeus could see rightly, he gave away what he didnât need, and he tried to make up for his dishonesty. That is repentance.
When Jesus hears what Zacchaeus resolves to do, he declares that salvation has come to Zacchaeus. And he says that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham. As a Jewish man, Zacchaeus could already trace his ancestry back to Abraham, the great father of the Israelites who lived about two thousand years earlier. When Jesus says that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham, I think heâs saying that he is a true son of Abraham. That means he, like Abraham, is trusting God. Abraham trusted Godâs great promises to him, and that faith was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Zacchaeus trusts Jesus and he is declared righteous. The apostle Paul says that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 4:16â17; Gal. 3:7â9, 29).
Jesus also states why he came. In verse 10, he says, âFor the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.â Jesus is the âSon of Man,â a divine figure prophesied by Daniel (Dan. 7:13â14). He came to find the lost and to save them, the way a shepherd looks after lost sheep. Jesus knows who his sheep are. In this case, he came to find a particular sheep named Zacchaeus.
Jesus doesnât say here how he saves the lost. As I said earlier, part of how he saves the lost is by living the perfect life that we should but do not live. But thatâs only one side of the coin. Just like faith canât be separated from repentance, Jesusâ righteous life canât be separated from his atoning death. When he died on the cross, he paid the penalty of sin that we should pay. He didnât just die a terribly painful physical death. That would be bad enough. But on the cross, he experienced the wrath of God, Godâs righteous judgment against sin. And that is something we canât fully appreciate. Basically, Jesus experienced hell on the cross. He did this so that all his people could be set free from condemnation and eternal death. All who come to Jesus are credited with his righteousness, his moral perfection, and their sins were credited to him. When he died on the cross, he was regarded as sin itself, and he was crushed. Because God is a holy judge who canât have sin exist forever in his creation, and because he desires to save lost people like you and me, he took our sin, put it on his Son, and crushed him. And the Son, Jesus, took this on voluntarily.
Itâs interesting to compare the blind man and Zacchaeus. Both men were outcasts from society, though for different reasons. The blind man was poor and had to beg. His disability separated him from society. Though he was rich, Zacchaeus wasnât respected. He was sort of like Martin Shkreli, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that jacked up the price of their antiparasitic drug from $13.50 to $750 per pill. You might have seen the smug Shkreli in front of members of Congress. He was called âthe most hated man in Americaâ and was eventually sent to prison. He was rich, but hated. Zacchaeus was a bit like that.
Both men needed healing. Zacchaeus needed salvation just as much as the blind man. We have a tendency to think that the poor and the sick need salvation more than the prosperous. But the fact is that all have sinned and all are in need of salvation. This includes poor and rich, drug addicts and the clean and sober, people with disabilities and pro athletes.
Both men had a problem with physical vision. The blind man was obviously blind, and Zacchaeus had a hard time seeing over the crowd. But both men pursued Jesus.
Both men were opposed by crowds. But they didnât listen to the crowds. They persevered in their pursuit of Jesus.
Both men received salvation, and their lives were changed. Both followed Jesus. Both experienced Joy. Both glorified God. They werenât saved in order to do have easy lives, or to live for themselves. They were saved so that they would follow Jesus and glorify God.
The question for us today is, are we like these men? Do we have the faith of the blind man, seeing what only the eyes of faith can see? Are we repenting like Zacchaeus, not only putting an end to our sinful ways, but also trying to do what is right?
If we have truly come to Jesus, we will trust in him. We will see things that not everyone can see. We will see that God is the Creator of the universe and everything exists for him. The whole point of life is to live for our Maker. We will see that we have failed to do that. And we will see that Jesus is Godâs lifeline, the only means we have of coming back to God, of getting into a right relationship with him. We will trust Jesus and we will start living as we should.
If we have the faith and repentance of these men, there may be obstacles in our way, things that might stop us from following Jesus. But we wonât let those obstacles keep us away. A lot of people say they are interested in Jesus, but they let other things stop them from pursuing a relationship with him. I think that being part of a local church is one important part of following Jesus. The church is Jesusâ design for his followers to worship together, live together, declare the gospel together, and teach together. Yet many people make lame excuses for not even showing up when the church meets. The blind man wouldnât let his blindness stop him from calling upon Jesus. He wouldnât listen to the crowds who tried to tell him to be quiet, to tell him that he wasnât important enough for Jesus. Zacchaeus also wouldnât let the crowds stop him. He didnât care if he looked foolish climbing a tree. He didnât care that the crowds grumbled, saying that he was too sinful to spend time with Jesus.
The fact is that Jesus came for people who are unimportant in the worldâs eyes. Jesus came for the worst of sinners. He has come. Weâre hearing about Jesus right now. Are we responding to him the way that these men did? Are we pursuing him, not letting obstacles stop us? Are we ignoring the crowds, the ones who canât see who Jesus really is? Are we trusting in Jesus and repenting of our sins? Are we following him and joyfully praising God? If not, salvation has not come to us, and we are not true children of Abraham, true children of God.
If that is where we are, then we need to run to Jesus. I canât make this happen for you. But if you are starting to see who Jesus is, I would love to tell you more about him. I would love to talk to you about what it would look like for you to follow Jesus. Iâd like to talk to you about how you could serve God in this church and help us glorify God together.
But if you are a Christian, keep this in mind. Part of our goal is to tell other people about Jesus so that they, too, can follow him. We want other people to enter Godâs kingdom, to be freed from sin and condemnation, and to live forever with God. There will be a lot of people around us who canât see the truth. Some of them will oppose us. Many simply wonât care. But there will be a few who see. Some might see the truth instantly, like the blind man. Some people might need a little help to see the truth. The world has crowded the truth from their sight, and they need you to tell them the truth, to explain it to them in ways that they can understand. We have to be willing to look for those people and help them.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. And all his sheep will be saved. We can save no one. We canât pay for anyoneâs sins. But we can seek out the lost and tell them how they can be saved. We should do this. Yes, many people wonât see the truth. But some will. And they will follow Jesus joyfully, praising God and living lives that glorify him. Let us go out and find those people.
Notes
- All biblical quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
Recover Your Sight (Luke 18:35-19:10)
Those who have faith in Jesus see what others can’t. Those who have faith in Jesus live changed lives, following him and praising God. Hear about two men who could see who Jesus was and what he came to do. Brian Watson preached this sermon, based on Luke 18:35-19:10, on September 22, 2019.
To Such Belongs the Kingdom of God
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on September 15, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
Many of the worldâs greatest athletes have had setbacks in their careers. Theyâve had injuries that have required them to have surgery. This is true of many of the greatest players in Bostonâs sports history, from Larry Bird to Tom Brady. When an athlete is seriously injured and requires surgery, we realize that itâs wise for them to have that surgery so their bodies can heal properly and they can continue their careers in time. Eleven years ago, Tom Brady had a serious knee injury during the first game of the year, one that required knee construction surgery. He missed the rest of that 2008 season. But he returned the next year and has been playing very well ever since.
I doubt that when Brady had surgery, anyone thought that he made the decision to have surgery because he was weak. I donât think there were critics who said, âTom, youâre going to have surgery? Thatâs such a crutch!â Right after surgery, I suppose there was a time when Brady had to use actual crutches, and I doubt people were heckling him by saying, âCrutches? Thatâs such a crutch!â Yet, strangely, when it comes to the topic of religion, some people think that way. They think that religion is a âcrutchâ for people who arenât strong enough to face the world on their own. They think that believing in God, particularly the God of the Bible, is something that comforts people who are too weak to live in a world that is cold and threatening. Itâs a far braver thing, in their eyes, to be oneâs own lord. Such people gladly quote the famous poem by William Ernest Henley, âInvictus,â which ends with these words:
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Itâs interesting how no one seems to do that with surgeries. What would we think of Tom Brady if, eleven years ago, he refused to have a doctor repairs the ligaments in his knee? Imagine the team doctor is urging Brady to have the surgery, and so are Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft. And Tom Brady says, âIâm not going to have a doctor knock me out and then cut into my body. I am the master of my career, I am the captain of my body.â We would think he was being foolish. Now imagine that Brady says that he realizes he needs surgery, but heâs going to do it on his own. Heâll study a little and then fix himself. There have been player-coaches in the past, players who coached their own team at the same time. Bill Russell and Pete Rose did this at the end of their careers. But Iâve never heard of a player-surgeon.
We realize in some areas of life that when we have a problem, the wisest thing to do is to have someone else fix it. When we have a serious injury or a disease like cancer, the wisest thing is to have a surgeon repair a part of our bodies or remove a tumor. Agreeing to surgery is a recognition that there are problems that we canât solve on our own. We must let someone else take control of our bodies. We must trust that they can fix us.
The same thing is true when it comes to our human condition. The reality is that we have problems we canât face. The biggest one is death. Everyone who is thoughtful thinks about the inevitability of death and wants to know how to live triumphantly in the face of that brutal reality. Iâm reminded of the work of a French philosopher, who happens to be an atheist, named Luc Ferry. In his book, A Brief History of Thought, he says that all philosophies and religions deal with the reality of death. He says that âMan knows that he will die, and that his near ones, those he loves, will also die. Consequently he cannot prevent himself from thinking about this state of affairs, which is disturbing and absurd, almost unimaginable.â[1] Of course, we donât always think of literal death itself. But we do think of the many faces of death: death of a career (perhaps due to an injury), death of a relationship, death of a season of life, death of our favorite restaurant or TV show, death of a loved one. How do we deal with all this decay and death? Ferry says that âthe irreversibility of things is a kind of death at the heart of life.â[2] âTo live well, therefore, to live freely, capable of joy, generosity and love, we must first and foremost conquer our fearâor, more accurately, our fears of the irreversible.â[3]
So, what promises us real life in a world of irreversibles? What promises us hope in a world of death? Or, setting aside death for a moment, what can fix this world that is broken by greed, selfishness, war, and corruption? What can fix my broken soul? Is there a doctor who can perform a surgery on the human condition, removing the bad parts, healing whatever good remains?
Christianity promises us that there is a Great Physician who can and will make everything right. It offers us salvation from death and decay. It offers an ultimate healing of our souls and of the whole world.
Since Christianity promises such wonderful things, why arenât more people Christians? I suppose there are many reasons, all of which can be called unbelief. People donât believe itâs true. And there many reasons why people donât believe. One is that they really donât know what Christianity is and theyâve never been given good reasons to believe. In our society, that happens frequently. People simply donât know the evidence for Christianity. A second reason is pride: Christianity says there is a King who reigns over the universe and that King is not you. Or, to put it differently, it says that you canât fix yourself. Christianity requires humility, and the people who think Christianity is simply a crutch are often people who are quite proud. A third reason why people donât believe is that they already have a god in their lives that they worship. We call this idolatry. Of course, most people donât think they are worshiping a god or an idol. But whatever is most important to us, whatever we trust in for security and peace and meaning and comfort, whatever we love the most, whatever dictates our behavior, that thing is our true god, the true object of our worship. Christianity says that we must worship the true God and forsake all false gods. Many people donât want to do that, so they donât come to Christ in faith.
The reason I bring all this up is because today weâre going to look at a passage from one of the Gospels, one of the biographies of Jesus, that contrasts two types of people. There are children, who can be quite trusting in others. And then there is a proud man whose real god is his wealth. Jesus tells us that to enter into Godâs kingdom, to be one of Godâs people, to be forgiven of all the wrong weâve ever done, and to have life eternal, we must have the faith of a child. Jesus also says that those who put their trust in other things will not enter the kingdom of God.
Weâll see all of this in Luke 18:15â34. Weâll start by reading the first three verses. Here is Luke 18:15â17:
15Â Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16Â But Jesus called them to him, saying, âLet the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17Â Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.â[4]
People were bringing infants to Jesus, probably so that he could bless them. The word used here of them, βĎÎĎÎżĎ, is used of babies, including unborn babies (Luke 1:41, 44). In a world of high infant mortality, perhaps they wanted Jesus to heal them, even preemptively. But when Jesusâ followers see this, they rebuke these people. They probably thought that Jesus was too busy to bother with babies. They were not viewed as important people. But Jesus says, âLet the children come to me, . . . for to such belongs the kingdom of God.â Jesus isnât saying that all babies and toddlers are automatically part of the kingdom of God. Heâs not saying anything about infant baptism. Heâs making a point about faith. So, he says, âwhoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.â
Young children rely on parents and other adults for many things. An infant is totally reliant upon a parent for food, clothing, protection, and just about everything short of breathing. A toddler relies on parents for those same things, even though they are a bit older and can walk. Even young children trust their parents to do many things for them. It wasnât all that long ago that my children were asking us to help them brush their teeth. The point that Jesus is making is not that we should be childish in every way. There are many ways in which we shouldnât be childish. Children arenât well educated or wise. They donât know how to handle the complexities of this world. But Jesus says that we must rely upon God the way that a child relies upon a parent. We must trust that God and God alone can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
God alone can open the wide the gates of his kingdom for us. God alone can remove our problem, our tumor, our disease, the incurable wound of our soul. We call that sin. Sin is all the wrong actions we do. But itâs more than that. Itâs a power at work in us, one that distorts our desires. It takes us away from God and causes us to think that we are gods. Itâs a failure to love God, to trust him, to worship him, and to obey him. God made us for those things. He made us to have a right relationship with him. But sin destroys that relationship. Sin is what causes decay and death in this world. And the one thing that we canât do on our own is remove sin and its effects. We cannot uproot it and kill it. It kills us. So, we must trust that God can do this. Such faith honors God.
Luke, the author of this Gospel, contrasts the faith of a child with the faith of a proud man. We see this in the next passage, verses 18â30:
18 And a ruler asked him, âGood Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?â 19 And Jesus said to him, âWhy do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: âDo not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.â â 21 And he said, âAll these I have kept from my youth.â 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, âOne thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.â 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, âHow difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.â 26 Those who heard it said, âThen who can be saved?â 27 But he said, âWhat is impossible with man is possible with God.â 28 And Peter said, âSee, we have left our homes and followed you.â 29 And he said to them, âTruly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.â
Now, someone else comes to Jesus. Itâs a ruler, probably a man who had some position of civic or political authority. He was a man of good standing, probably someone very respected, someone very successful and, in the eyes of the world, a good man. He addresses Jesus as a âGood Teacher,â and he asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. In other words, how can I be part of Godâs kingdom? The Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, promised that there is life after death for Godâs people. Death is not the final word. There will be a resurrection of the dead (Dan. 12:2). Those who are part of Godâs kingdom will rise to âeverlasting life.â They will live with God in a new world, a physical world much like this one but cleansed of all sin. There will be nothing evil, nothing bad. It will be a beautiful and bountiful world in which there is no death (Isa. 25:6â8; 65:17â25).
Itâs a bit strange that the ruler would ask, âwhat must I do to inherit eternal life?â You donât do something to inherit something. You inherit something as a gift, usually because you just so happen to be related to someone else who died. But Jesus doesnât focus on that. First, he asks, âWhy do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.â That is true. The Bible says that all mere human beings are not good (Rom. 3:10â12). In fact, Jesus has already called his disciples evil in this Gospel (Luke 11:13). I think the reason why Jesus says this is not just to claim that he is God. Jesus is not a mere man. He is the God-man. As the Son of God, he has always existed. He is not a created being. But over two thousand years ago, he also became a human being. And he alone lived a perfect life. He never did anything wrong. He didnât sin because he wasnât tainted by the power of sin. So, Jesus might be saying something like this: âYou have called me good, but only God is good. So, if Iâm truly good, I must be truly God.â I think what Jesus is really doing is getting this man to see that he, the ruler, is not good. He is also getting the ruler to focus on God, and not on himself.
Then, Jesus says, more or less, âObey the commandments to inherit eternal life.â Then, he mentions five of the Ten Commandments: donât commit adultery, donât murder, donât steal, donât lie, honor your parents. The Ten Commandments were at the heart of the covenant made with Israel in the Old Testament. Basically, God said to Israel, âIf you want to remain my people, this is how youâre supposed to live.â The logic of the Bible when it comes to sin is that if it were possible for us never to sin, we would live forever with God. But our obedience must be perfect. Our righteousness must not be relative to others. We canât say, âWell, Iâm better than most people, so that must be good enough for God.â God demands perfection. Jesus is trying to get the ruler to think about whether he has been perfectly obedient, perfectly righteous.
Amazingly, the ruler says, âOh, Iâve always kept those commands, even from my youth.â Perhaps itâs not too hard to avoid breaking those five commandments, at least in fairly literal ways. However, elsewhere, Jesus says that if we have lust for someone who is not our spouse, weâre committing adultery, and if we hate someone else, weâre committing murder (Matt. 5:21â30). But the ruler didnât understand that. He sincerely thought he had a perfect record when it comes to those commandments.
But Jesus knows this manâs heart. Jesus left out some other commandments. The first is not to have any other âgodsâ before the true God. The second is not to make any idols. Jesus knows what this manâs true god is and he asks this man to forsake that god. So, he says, âOne thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.â Jesus does not command everyone to sell everything. This is the only time he says that. Next week, weâll meet Zacchaeus, a wealthy man who leaves his old life to follow Jesus. Zacchaeus gave away half of his wealth, not all of it, and thereâs no hint that he failed to do what Jesus required of him.
One thing thatâs important to see about Jesus is that he treated people as individuals. He knows the hearts of people. He doesnât automatically put everyone in groups. He doesnât say that all rich people are bad and must give away all their wealth. He doesnât say that all poor people are good and have been unfairly oppressed. In short, he doesnât play identity politics. He doesnât lump people together into stereotyped or generalized groups. He is the Great Physician, and part of what makes a doctor great is the ability to accurately diagnose a personâs health. Jesus peers into the soul of this rich man and sees that his true god is money. So, he asks this man to get rid of that god. The best way to remove the grip of greed in your life is to give your wealth away.
But this ruler wonât do it. He wonât part ways with his wealth. Instead, he is âvery sad.â The same Greek word is used of Jesus on the night before he died. In that case, itâs translated as âvery sorrowfulâ (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:26). Jesus has promised him eternal life, a heavenly treasure that can never be taken away from him, and the man wonât make that deal. He was grieved at the thought of it. Jesus then says that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Itâs easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, which is simply an impossible thing.
Why does Jesus say that? Is it that being rich means one is a particularly bad sinner? No. The Bible doesnât say that the wealthy are worse sinners. The Bible doesnât say that money itself is the root of all evil. The Bible says that âthe love of money is a root of all kinds of evilâ (1 Tim. 6:10). Money is a powerful idol, one that promises comfort and security.
I saw a powerful illustration of this in the recent movie called All the Money in the World. Itâs based on a real story. The grandson of J. Paul Getty, an oil magnate, was kidnapped by Italians in Rome when he was a teenager. This was in 1973. Getty was recently known as the richest man in the world. The kidnappers demanded a $17 million ransom for the teenagerâs release, but Getty refused to pay. At first, he believed that his grandson, Paul, and the boyâs mother, Gettyâs daughter-in-law, concocted the kidnapping story as a way of bilking Getty. Later, he finds out Paul has actually been kidnapped, but he still refuses to pay.
In a scene with Mark Wahlberg (who plays a fictional security agent and former CIA agent, Fletcher Chace), Christopher Plummer (who plays Getty) says he canât pay the ransom because his financial position has never been more vulnerable. There is news of an oil embargo, which has raised the price of oil. However, he fears that the embargo will be lifted and that the price of oil will crash. The two characters then have this exchange:
Chace: We have to pay.
Getty: This simply isnât possible. My financial situation has changed. . . .
Chace: Mr. Getty, with all due respect, nobody has ever been richer than you are at this moment.
Getty: I have no money to spare.
Chace: What would it take? What would it take for you to feel secure?
Getty: More.
A little over three minutes later in the movie, thereâs a scene that teases the audience. Getty is called into a room by a secretary to meet with a man who asks if heâs serious about making payment. Getty says he wouldnât be meeting with the man if he were not. The man says there can be no more games; payment must be made in cash on that day. Getty asks for proof first. âAfter you,â says the man. Getty asks a man to give proof of his money; his assistant opens a briefcase containing cash. Then Getty walks to a small painting, which has been under a veil. It is a painting of a mother with a child. The man says, âBecause of the paintingâs disputed provenance, it can never be publicly displayed.â In other words, this is probably a stolen painting. Getty says heâs disappointed about the paintingâs condition and isnât sure if itâs worth the $1.5 million price. The other man says that true masterpieces rarely go on sale. If Getty is unwilling to pay, he will never own one. So, Getty pays.
Getty was willing to pay $1.5 million for a painting he could never display outside his home, even though he just said he had no money to spare to free his grandson. That is the power of greed. That is a picture of idolatry. He was so attached to his money and the things it could buy that he couldnât part with it.
But if âthe love of moneyâ is an idol, you donât have to be rich to worship that false god. Poor people can love money just the same. And idols arenât limited to money. The most important thing in your life could be a relationship, or sex. Some people wonât come to faith in Jesus because it means not having sex outside the bounds of marriage. Some people wonât become Christians because their boyfriend or girlfriend, or their husband or wife, isnât a Christian. Other people put their careers, or their entertainment, or their devotion to the great god of the gridiron, ahead of Jesus. If Jesus were standing here, looking into your eyes and peering into the depths of your soul, what would he ask you to give up? What would he tell you to forsake?
Earlier in Lukeâs Gospel, we read this:
23Â And he said to all, âIf anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24Â For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25Â For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?â (Luke 9:23â25)
Inheriting the kingdom is a gift. Itâs free. But following Jesus is costly. It requires giving things up. But we gain far more by losing than we could ever gain by keeping. By giving up, we gain God and the whole world. By keeping, we retain our pride and our idol, but we lose everything in the end. Jesus gives us the best of deals. It may appear that we are losing, but when we come to him, we can only gain. Thatâs why Jesus tells his disciples that though they had left their homes and their careers, they have gained. He says that everyone who is willing to leave their old lives âwill . . . receive many more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.â We may leave old relationships behind, but we gain new ones in this life. We also gain peace and purpose by becoming Christians. And, in the life to come, we gain a perfect world, real life unending. We will live in a beautiful, joyful world, one full of the deepest pleasures, because we will live with the great being there is, God himself. So, becoming a Christian is not losing. Itâs gaining. The missionary Jim Elliot once said, âHe is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.â
The disciples, who had given up so much to follow Jesus, wondered how anyone could be saved. How can we be saved from death? How can we be saved from the punishment that we deserve for our sins? How can anyone gain admission to the kingdom of God? If an upright man like this rich ruler couldnât gain entry, how can anyone else?
Jesus answered the disciplesâ question of who can be saved by stating that those who follow him, those who are willing to forsake everyone else, those who trust Jesus the way a young child trusts a loving parent, can be saved. Jesus said that this is impossible for us to achieve. âWhat is impossible with man is possible with God.â But Jesus didnât say exactly how God could bring about this impossible state of affairs. How can God save those who canât merit salvation on their own?
Letâs look quickly at the next four verses in Luke, Luke 18:31â34:
31Â And taking the twelve, he said to them, âSee, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32Â For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33Â And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.â 34Â But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.
Jesus had already predicted his upcoming death before (Luke 9:22, 44). But this prediction gives us more information. He says that in Jerusalem, where they will soon be, all the things written about âthe Son of Man,â a title Jesus uses of himself, will be fulfilled. He will be handed over by the Jewish leaders to the Gentiles, the Romans. He will be mocked and spat upon. He will be flogged. He will then be killed on a cross, a Roman instrument of torture and execution. But on the third day, he will rise from the grave, in a body that can never die again.
The disciples couldnât understand this. They understood the words Jesus said, but they didnât believe it was possible. They couldnât see how Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Messiah, could possibly be treated this way. God hid this understanding from them until Jesus rose from the grave.
But we live on this side of the cross and resurrection, and we have the rest of the Bible. We know that Jesus was killed because of many factors: unbelieving Jews, unbelieving Romans, and even Satan, the devil himself. But ultimately, his death was Godâs plan (Acts 2:21â24; 4:27â28). The way that God could do the impossible, saving sinners, is by having someone live a righteous life in their place, die an atoning death in their place, and rise from the grave to show the penalty of sin had been paid in full and that all who are united to Jesus by faith will rise from the grave, never to die again. All who have a childlike faith in Jesus are credited with his righteousness. Itâs as if we never sinned. God doesnât just overlook our sin. No, the sins of all Christians were punished when Jesus died on the cross. And weâre told that all who trust in Jesus will rise from the dead and live with God in paradise forever.
The question for all of us today is, do we believe this is true? Are we willing to trust Jesus? Do we trust that he is the Great Physician, the only one who can heal us? Are we willing to follow him?
If not, perhaps our pride is holding us back. We want to be in charge of our lives. But doing that is foolish. Itâs like wanting to be in charge of your own surgery. Perhaps we donât want to follow Jesus because it means changing our lives, giving up things we know are wrong, or things that we love and cherish too much. Think about this: someone or something will separate you from what you love. If youâre not separated from that idol by something in this life, then death will separate you from it. What youâre clinging to wonât last. And it canât rescue you from death and from condemnation. What do you love more than God? What do you trust more than God? What dictates your behavior more than God? That is your idol. Give it up and follow Jesus. âHe is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.â
If youâre not a Christian, I urge you to do this now. I would be glad to talk to you personally to help you follow Jesus and to answer your questions. But, Christians, we also must hear the words of Jesus today. We have a tendency to go back to our idols. We have a tendency to not want to follow Jesus, because that path can very well lead to suffering. If the world hated our Master, it will hate us, too (John 15:18â19). But at the end of that path, beyond suffering and beyond persecution, is glory. Beyond even death is the risen Jesus, who will receive Godâs children into his kingdom. Let us follow him on that path.
Notes
- Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living, trans. Theo Cuffe (New York: Harper, 2011), 2â3. â
- Ibid., 7. â
- Ibid., 5. â
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
To Such Belongs the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:15-34)
How can one be part of God’s kingdom? What can one do to inherit eternal life? We must have a child-like faith in Jesus, trusting that he can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. But pride and false gods get in the way of such faith. Pastor Brian Watson preached this message on Luke 18:15-34 on September 15, 2019.
God, Be Merciful to Me
This sermon was preached on September 8, 2019 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
Letâs imagine something for a moment. Imagine you have a job. For some of you, this isnât all that hard to do. Imagine that your company was recently purchased by a new owner, who has brought in new management. The new management announces that they are going to interview everyone who works for the company. They present this as a âgetting-to-know-youâ exercise. They schedule interviews with every single employee, including you. At beginning of your interview, they ask you simple questions about you, such as what your role in the company is, how long youâve worked there, where you went to school, what other kinds of experience you haveâthat sort of thing. Then they ask you what you do at the company. As they start to ask more specific questions, it dawns on you that theyâre not just trying to get to know you. Theyâre trying to see if they want to continue to employ you. In short, theyâre asking you to justify your position with the company. So, you start to give answers that you would give when you interview for a job. You tell them how you work hard, how much experience you have doing your job, how productive you are, how well you get along with your coworkers, and anything else you can think of to convince them that they should keep you on the payroll.
Thatâs a bit of what âjustificationâ looks like. It means something like an acquittal. Being justified means being viewed as not guilty, as innocent, as in the right, as acceptable. Justification is a big word in Christianity, and we donât always hear about it in other contexts. But the fact is that we all try to justify ourselves in some way or another. We try to demonstrate that weâre in the right, that weâre good people, that we have the right beliefs and the right behaviors, that weâre people who should be accepted and embraced.
The key question that we all should ask is, How can I be acceptable to God? What sort of justification can I offer to him? We should think along those lines, but there are many people who donât even realize that we need to be justified in the presence of God. But we do need justification. We need something that makes up for our sin, that reconciles us to God, that shows that weâre acceptable to him, that weâre worthy. What are you relying upon for justification?
Today, as we continue our study of the Gospel of Luke, weâre going to see a famous parable that Jesus tells, a story about two people who come to the temple to pray to God. These two people have very different attitudes, and they make two very different speeches. Jesus tells us that only one of them is justified.
Letâs now read todayâs passage, Luke 18:9â14:
9Â He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10Â âTwo men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11Â The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: âGod, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12Â I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.â 13Â But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, âGod, be merciful to me, a sinner!â 14Â I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.â[1]
Luke tells us up front why Jesus tells this story: Jesus has in mind people âwho trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.â That kind of mindset is opposed to the way of Jesus for two reasons. One, Jesus repeatedly says in different ways that no one is righteous. So, to believe that one is righteous, without sin, not in need of mercy, is to be deceived. Two, those who treat others with contempt fail to see that other people are made in Godâs image and likeness. We have no right to act as if we are superior to others, particularly if we realize our own unrighteousness. Jesus probably is addressing this story to the Pharisees, a group of religious leaders who were known for their strict adherence to the Hebrew Bible.
The story itself has a setting and two characters. The setting is the temple in Jerusalem. This is where God was worshiped, where sacrifices for sin were offered, and where people prayed. We donât know if this was one of the twice-daily times of prayer at the temple (at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.) or if the men just happened to go to the temple at the same time to pray individually. The point is that both were going to meet with God.
Then, we are told about the two characters of the story. The first is a Pharisee. There were a few groups of Jewish religious leaders at this time. There was the high priest, as well as the many priests who served at the temple. Then there were two groups of influential Jews. One was the Sadducees, who had more political power but who had unorthodox beliefs. Famously, they didnât believe in the resurrection of the dead. The other group was the Pharisees, who were lay leaders known for taking the Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament, very seriously. They were very disciplined in their approach. They tried to apply the whole Bible to all of life in very specific, rigorous ways. The apostle Paul, before becoming a Christian, was a Pharisee, and he had previously boasted of his adherence to the law (Phil. 3:4â6).
But Jesus has criticized the Pharisees repeatedly for being hypocrites, for not seeing their own lack of righteousness, and for using their positions of privilege to earn money. In short, the Pharisees donât come out looking good in this Gospel.
The Pharisees have grumbled that Jesus would spend time eating and drinking with obviously sinful people. In Luke 5:30â32, we read this:
30Â And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, âWhy do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?â 31Â And Jesus answered them, âThose who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32Â I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.â
Jesus came to save people from their sin. Sin is a sickness, a rebellion against God but also a powerful, evil force that finds its way into everything we do. The only people who go to a doctor for healing are those who are willing to admit they are sick and need help. The Pharisees still wrestled with sin, but they had lost sight of that fact. They acted as if they were truly righteous and everyone else was not.
Weâre told that this Pharisee stood by himself when he prayed. We donât want to read much into that. There are times when people stand while praying in the Bible (1 Sam. 1:26; 1 Kgs. 8:22). But perhaps he was by himself because he thought he was above everyone else.
At any rate, we are given his prayer. It consists of twenty-eight words in the original Greek. He begins well: âGod, I thank you.â Itâs good to begin prayers by thanking God. But look what he thanks God for: âGod, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.â Heâs basically praying, âGod, I thank you that you made me so great. When you made me, you did an excellent job. Iâm not like those other sinners. Iâm nailing it when it comes to all the religious things.â
The Pharisee thanks God for not making him like sinners. He even is so bold as to point out the tax collector, the other character in this story. âI thank you that Iâm not like that poor slob over there.â Tax collectors had a bad reputation for two reasons: one, they often took more than they needed to take. In an era before computers or advanced paperwork, it was easy to tell people they owed more than they actually did. But, perhaps more importantly, tax collectors worked for the Roman Empire. They were Jewish people working for the enemy, the superpower of the day, the occupying force that oppressed Jews. Tax collectors were not only dishonest, but they were traitors. Thatâs what this Pharisee surely thought.
What the Pharisee is doing is comparing himself to other people. As he thinks about other people, he is evaluating his own moral performance against theirs. By that standard, the Pharisee comes out well. Heâs thinking, âIâm not as sinful as them.â He also boasts about his good deeds. He fasted twice a week. Fasting might mean consuming only water and bread (Shepherd of Hermas 5.3.7). The Jews were only commanded to fast on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur (Lev. 16:29; Num. 29:7). They might also fast when mourning or repenting. Pharisees were known to fast on Mondays and Thursdays. They went above and beyond what the law required.
The Pharisee also claims to tithe everything he gets. Israel was supposed to over various tithes of their produce (Num. 18:21â24; Deut. 14:22â27). A tithe literally means a tenth, though if you added Israelâs tithes, they were supposed to give something like 23.3 percent of their crops. Perhaps the Pharisee is saying that he tithes all his income, or perhaps he means that for everything he spendsâfor all the stuff that he âgetsââhe gives ten percent away. At any rate, heâs bragging about how much he gives to the temple.
Though the Pharisee begins by praying to God, the âprayerâ is really all about him. Heâs the subject: I thank you, Iâm not like other men, I fast twice a week, I tithe everything. I, me, mine.
The other character in this story is the tax collector. Iâve already explained their reputation. It was not good. The Pharisees complained that Jesus ate with such sinners (Luke 5:30) and would spend time with them (Luke 15:1â2). Yet this tax collector humbly makes his way to the temple. Given their reputation, itâs not unreasonable to think that tax collectors didnât go to the temple often, perhaps because they wouldnât want to go, perhaps because they knew how they would be viewed by others.
Like the Pharisee, the tax collector stands. But he stands at a distance. The Pharisee might have gone right into the courtyard of the temple. This tax collector was standing âfar off,â perhaps on just the edge of the temple complex. Though some people prayed while looking up to God (Ps. 123:1; Mark 6:41; 7:34; John 11:41; 17:1), this tax collector canât do that. He feels unworthy to look directly toward God. He beats his breast, a sign of mourning. And he simply says, âGod, be merciful to me, a sinner!â In the original Greek, his prayer is only six words (compared with the twenty-eight words of the Pharisee).
Now, I donât often play the âin the Greek . . .â card, but I will here, because itâs important. The way that the tax collectorâs prayer is translated hides a couple of important details. First, he literally says, âGod, make atonement for me.â He knows he needs Godâs mercy. But the way to get mercy from God is if atonement is made. The Greek word used here is also used in Hebrews 2:17, where weâre told that Jesus made âpropitiation for the sins of the people.â To be right in Godâs eyes, to be acceptable to God, to be forgiven by him, he needs someone who can make God propitious towards him. In other words, he needs someone who can make God look favorably upon him. This man knows that he has nothing to bring to God that can turn away Godâs judgment against his sin. He confesses that heâs a sinner. He doesnât brag about who he is or what heâs done. He simply knows that he needs atonement for his sin, and he knows that God must be the one to atone for his sin. No amount of good works can make up for the sin that heâs committed.
The other interesting detail that is found in the original Greek text is that this man says, âGod, make atonement for me, the sinner.â He doesnât say âa sinner.â Instead, he says, âthe sinner,â using the definite article. Why does that matter? Itâs like heâs saying, âIâm not comparing myself to other people. Iâm not saying that Iâm just another sinner, like everyone else around me. I am the sinner who needs atonement for his sins.â The Pharisee compared himself to others and did so favorably: âIâm better than everyone else.â But this tax collector isnât comparing. Heâs not judging himself by that standard. Instead, heâs judging himself against Godâs standard. Itâs like when the apostle Paul called himself âthe foremostâ sinner (1 Tim. 1:15).
These two men couldnât be any more different in their stature in society and in their attitudes. Yet in verse 14, Jesus provides the twist: the tax collector and not the Pharisee went back home justified. The tax collector found favor in Godâs eyes. The Pharisee did not. Jesus gives the reason why: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.â This is like so many of the twists that we see in Jesusâ parables: the Samaritan, not the priest or the Levite, was the one who loved his neighbor (Luke 10:25â37); the younger sinful brother came back home and was embraced by his father while the older righteous brother stayed outside (Luke 15:11â32); the rich men went to hades while the poor men went to paradise (Luke 16:19â31).
There are three truths that I want us to see from this parable. The first truth concerns the attitude we should take in approaching God. The tax collector had it right. He humbly approaches God and seeks forgiveness that only God can give. He seeks a solution to his sin that he cannot possibly provide, but that God can. He acknowledges heâs a sinner. He doesnât compare himself to anyone else. He knows that he stands in need of Godâs mercy.
The Pharisee isnât really praying to God at all. His prayer is really a boast. He compares himself with others and, since heâs relatively obedient to the law, he thinks heâs superior to others. He looks down at âthis one,â this tax collector. He brags about all the good things he has done. Thereâs no awareness that he, too, is a sinner standing in need of atonement. He is justifying himself, assuming that all his good works have put him in the right before God.
The right attitude before God is captured in King Davidâs famous confession of sin, which we find in Psalm 51. King David had committed adultery, then when he found out the woman was pregnant, he tried to cover up his sin by arranging for her husband to sleep with her. When that didnât work out, he had the husband killed. (See 2 Samuel 11 for the story). When the prophet Nathan called him out for his sin, David confessed that he had done what was wrong, and he asked God for forgiveness (2 Sam. 12:1â13). Look at Psalm 51:1â4:
1Â Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2Â Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3Â For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4Â Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
David knew that he had ultimately sinned against God, and that he needed Godâs mercy. God would be justified in condemning David, but David appealed to God for mercy. He confessed his sin and he found healing and forgiveness.
Later in the same Psalm, David says (in verse 17):
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
He knew that what God wanted was a sign of repentance, a broken spirit and a contrite heart, a godly remorse over sin. God doesnât want pride and boasting. He wants people to realize what they have done, and to come to him humbly and in faith.
That is the attitude a sinful person should have before God. And the fact is that all of us have sinned. We have all failed to love God as we should. We have failed to obey his commandments. We have failed to love other people as we should. We have even failed our own moral standards and moral codes. We have done wrong, and God knows it. He would be justified to condemn us. We must seek the atonement that only he gives.
Of course, not everyone realizes this. Just this past week, I happened to catch a bit of a video clip from an interview between Ben Shapiro and Bishop Robert Barron. If you donât know who Ben Shapiro is, heâs a relatively young man who is a significant conservative figure. Heâs a lawyer, an author, a writer, and a host of a very popular podcast. Heâs made appearances on CNN and other television channels. Heâs also an Orthodox Jew. So, he had this interview with a Catholic bishop, and at one point, Shapiro asks this question: âWhatâs the Catholic view on who gets into heaven and who doesnât?â Then, he immediately adds, âI feel like I lead a pretty good life, a very religiously based life in which I try to keep not just the Ten Commandments, but a solid 603 other commandments as well. And I spend an awful lot of my time promulgating what I would consider to be Judeo-Christian virtues, particularly in Western societies. So, whatâs the Catholic view of me? Am I basically screwed here?â[2]
I like Ben Shapiro. I agree with many things that he says. But what heâs doing there is very similar to what the Pharisee does in the parable. Heâs claiming that he lives a good life. Actually, Shapiro hedges that a bit to say he lives âa pretty good life.â He claims that he tries to keep the 613 commandments of the Old Testament. (Iâm not sure how he keeps all the commandments related to worshiping at the temple in Jerusalem and offering animal sacrifices.) But I doubt that he does well even with the Ten Commandments. Who has not coveted (Exod. 20:17)? Who hasnât put something before God in their lives (Exod. 20:3)? Who has always loved God with all oneâs heart, soul, and might (Deut. 6:5)? Who has always loved oneâs neighbor as oneâs self (Lev. 19:18)? Shapiro doesnât seem to think he has sins that he canât make up for.
The Bishop says that Shapiro is not âscrewed.â He says that the Catholic Church has taught since Vatican II that people other than Christians can be saved if they follow their conscience. Jesus is the privileged path to salvation, and he must be followed, but the Bishop waters down what that means. He says that the atheist who follows his conscience is actually following Christ, though he doesnât know it.
Then, Shapiro asks the Bishop if Catholicism is faith-based or acts-based. Shapiro acknowledges that Judaism is an acts-based religious, âwhere itâs all about what you do in this life, and that earns you points in heaven.â The Bishop says that Catholicism is âloved-based,â which is a nice answer. He does say that Catholicism requires faith, but it is perfected by works. He rightly acknowledges that a relationship with God begins with grace, and that it requires a response that includes obedience, but he suggests that human effort contributes to salvation.
Those are two wrong ways of looking at salvation. This leads me to what Jesus didnât teach clearly in this parable, and this is the second truth that we should know this morning. How is one saved? What is the basis of salvation? If itâs true what the Bible says, that all of us have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and that even our best acts of righteousness are tainted by sin (Isa. 64:6), how can we be saved? The parable makes it clear that we must go to God humbly and ask for mercy. But how does that work?
God is a righteous judge who must punish sin. He promised punishment and exile for sinners. How can God punish sin without destroying all sinners?
God also desires righteous members of his covenant. He demands a righteous people. How can we be declared in the right, innocent, as if we had never sinned but had only done what he wants us to do?
The answer is Jesus. He is the only truly righteous person who has ever walked the face of the earth. He is the God-man, forever the Son of God, yet who added a human nature over two thousand years ago. He alone loved God the Father (and God the Spirit) with his whole being. He alone has never failed to love his neighbor. He alone has obeyed all the commandments.
Yet Jesus died a sinnerâs death, bearing the wrath of God when he died on the cross. He was treated like the worst of criminals though he never did anything wrong. He then rose from the grave on the third day, to show that he paid the penalty for sin in full and to demonstrate that all his people will rise from the grave on day when he comes again in glory. If we trust in him, our sins have already been punished. The apostle wrote to the Colossians that âyou, who were dead in your trespasses . . . God has made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the crossâ (Col. 2:13â15). If we have faith in Jesus, if we trust that he is who the Bible says he is and he has done what the Bible says he has done, our sin is paid for, and we are credited with his righteousness.
This can only be accessed by faith, not works. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes,
15Â We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16Â yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Gal. 2:15â16).
Paul makes this abundantly clear in Romans, as well as in Galatians and Philippians and his other letters. In Ephesians, he famously writes,
8Â For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9Â not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8â9).
Paul also says that we should do the good works that God has prepared in advance for us (Eph. 2:10), but those good works are not the basis for our salvation. They are not the root of our salvation, but the fruit that naturally comes out of life changed by Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
If we have a right relationship with Jesus, one marked by trust, love, and obedience, we will know who he is. We might not know everything, but we do need to know some things. Importantly, we will know that he is God. In John 8:24, Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders of his day, âI told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sinsâ (John 8:24). âI am heâ is a reference to the God of the Old Testament. It is how God referred to himself when he first spoke to Moses (Exod. 3:14). It is how God refers to himself in the book of Isaiah (Isa. 41:4; 43:10, 25; 45:18; 46:4).
The Bible pictures salvation as being united to Jesus. The Bible also says that Jesus is our bride. If you are married to someone you will know it, and you will know important things about your spouse. So, if youâre married to Jesus, youâll know that heâs the Son of God, the worldâs only Savior, and the King of kings and Lord of lords. Youâll know that he died on the cross for your sins and that he rose from the grave.
The third truth I want us to think about is that we will stand before God on judgment day. We will have to give an account for what we have done. I donât know the mechanics of how this will work out. I donât know that weâll be given a chance to speak to God and present a case for our justification. But letâs say we will. What will you say to God? Will you say, âGod, I deserve to be with you for eternity because Iâve done all these good things. Iâve prepared a PowerPoint presentation to show you all the good things that Iâve done.â Or will you humbly say something like this? âGod, I know that you would be right to condemn me. I know that I have failed to love you and to obey you. Have mercy on me, the sinner. Please forgive me. My only hope is your Son, Jesus. I trust that his righteousness and his atonement are enough to save me from sin. My faith is set upon Christ. He is my only hope for salvation.â If that is the posture of your heart, you have faith in Jesus. The good news is that he can save us from any sin weâve committed. We can be acceptable to God because of Jesus. But we must first acknowledge our sin and humbly seek forgiveness. We must repent, turning away from sin, and turn to our only hope, who is Christ.
Christians, we must not look down at other people as though we were better than them, or more deserving of Godâs grace. We must not say, âGod, I thank you that Iâm not a Democrat,â or, âGod, I thank you that Iâm not a Republican.â We canât even say, âGod, I thank you that Iâm not like that Pharisee.â We must not boast in ourselves, but we must boast in Christ. Paul wrote, âLet the one who boasts, boast in the Lordâ (1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10:17; quoting Jer. 9:24). He then wrote, âFor it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commendsâ (2 Cor. 10:18).
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- The interview can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oDt8wWQsiA&feature=youtu.be. The relevant portion of the interview begins at about 16:20. â
God, Be Merciful to Me (Luke 18:9-14)
What is our justification before God? What are we relying upon to make us right with God? Jesus taught this parable to those who trusted in themselves. Brian Watson preached this sermon on Luke 18:9-14 on September 8, 2019.
Cry to Him Day and Night
Brian Watson preached this sermon on September 1, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
When something is wrong, to whom do you appeal? In our house, we have two boys, and they play together wellâfor the most part. But they can also be rough with each other. And if they play long enough, someone will take anotherâs toy, or someone will call someone a name, or someone will hurt someone else. Usually, they try to sort out their differencesâoften with a bit of âstreet justice.â That is, if tempers flare long enough, one will hit the other. But sometimes, theyâll appeal to a higher authority. Theyâll call to one of their parents. âMom, Simon took my Lego.â âDad, Caleb called me a name.â In fact, I wish they appealed to a higher authority before they started hitting each other. But, eventually, they will appeal to a higher authority.
We all want to do be able to do that at times. When thereâs an injustice, and we donât see that injustice being righted, we want to call upon someone who can fix the problem. Thatâs why we have that all powerful line, âCan I speak to your supervisor?â When youâve reached that point, something isnât going your way, and so you play the âI want to talk to the bossâ card. Thatâs why we have a Supreme Court. When it seems that the Constitution is being violated, we can appeal to a higher authority, and the Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in our country.
But what if the Supreme Court gets it wrong? To what higher authority can we appeal? What if there are injustices in other lands, ones to which our nationâs laws donât apply? To whom do we appeal?
The good news is that there is an ultimate authority, one to whom we can always appeal. And that authority is God. And he stands ready, listening to his children. As someone said Wednesday night at our prayer meeting, âWith God, thereâs never a busy signal. The line is always open.â There are no waiting lines to talk to God. Thereâs no admission ticket that we need to pay to speak God. He is the ultimate judge, and we can appeal to him for justice at any time. And God has told us that he will bring about final justice, in his own time. And he calls upon us to pray that his kingdom would come, that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Today, weâre continuing our study of the Gospel of Luke, one of four biographies of Jesus found in the Bible. Today, we begin chapter 18. Last week, as we looked at the end of chapter 17, we heard Jesus talking about how the kingdom of God is here already, though not in its fullest. Itâs already, but not yet. That means that people can come to the King of kings, Jesus, and bow down before him in faith. When people turn away from living as if they are kings, or as if other people are kings, and put their trust in the true King, they can be part of Godâs kingdom. Yet look around the world. It doesnât take much to see that many people donât live as if God is their king. If Godâs kingdom is like this, we may wonder if a better kingdom is coming! So, even though the kingdom of God is present, itâs not completed or perfected here. But Jesus promised that it will come in its fullest one day. So, Jesus said, âthe kingdom of God is in the midst of youâ (Luke 17:21).[1] But he also said that his disciples would âdesire to see on of the days of the Son of Man [thatâs a reference to Jesus], and you will not see itâ (Luke 17:22). Jesus suggested that things would be difficult for Christians in the in-between times, the time between his first and second appearances on earth.
Itâs important to remember that, because what we see at the beginning of chapter 18 should be read in that context. As we wait for Jesus to return, as we long to see âthe days of the Son of Man,â we will see injustice. As another day without Jesus returning appears, we may become discouraged. And here, in this passage, Jesus tells us to keep praying for that day of justice.
Without further ado, letâs read todayâs passage. Here is Luke 18:1â8:
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, âIn a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, âGive me justice against my adversary.â 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, âThough I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.â â 6 And the Lord said, âHear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?â
This passage itself isnât very difficult to understand, but I did want to remind us of the context. This passage isnât about prayer in general. Itâs certainly not about praying for just anything. Itâs about praying for God to make things right.
Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable, this little story, to his disciples so that they should always pray and not lose heart. The story concerns âa judge who neither feared God nor respected man.â Earlier in the Gospel, weâre told that the greatest command is to love God with everything we have and also to love our neighborâour fellow manâas we love ourselves (Luke 10:27). Apparently, this judge didnât do either of those things. Weâre told he was an unrighteous judge. In Israel, judges were supposed to fear God and to care about justice, particularly for those who were vulnerable, people like widows. In fact, thereâs a passage in the Old Testament, in 2 Chronicles 19, when one of the kings, Jehoshaphat, appoints judges and he explicitly tells the judges, âNow then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribesâ (2 Chron. 19:7). So, we get the sense that this judge was far from an ideal judge.
Yet this judge had power. He had authority. He could correct some injustices. And so weâre told that a widow comes to him. She says, âGive me justice against my adversary.â We donât know who her adversary is or what injustice she was suffering. It was probably something financial. At that time, widows were particularly vulnerable. A widow, especially one without children, had no men to provide for her and protect her. The injustice might have concerned her late husbandâs estate. Women generally were not heirs of an estate. When a man died, his wife could receive financial support from the estate, but she depended on the male heir to do the right thing.[2] Perhaps her adversary here was that heir. We canât be sure, but itâs as good a guess as any.
So, this woman comes to this judge looking for justice. We get the sense that she came repeatedly to him. At first, the unrighteous judge doesnât give this woman the time of the day, even though the Old Testament explicitly talks about how Israel should care for widows (Exod. 22:22â24; Deut. 10:17â18; 24:17; 27:19; Pss. 68:5; 146:9; Prov. 15:25; also James 1:27). Yet the widow keeps coming to him, demanding justice. Even though he doesnât fear God or respect humans, he doesnât like being bothered by this woman. She is wearing him out with her demands for justice. So, he gives her justice to avoid being bothered any more by her.
Then âthe Lord,â Jesus, gives his disciples the point of this story. He says, even an unrighteous judge will grant justice if heâs bothered enough. How much more, then, will the perfect judge give justice to âhis elect, who cry to him day and night?â The point is not that God is an unrighteous judge. The point is not that if we bother God enough for what we want, heâll get sick of hearing our prayers, and to shut us up, heâll grant our wishes. Jesus is making an argument from the lesser to the greater. If an unrighteous judge will grant justice from bad motives, then the perfect Judge will certainly grant justice to his children.
Jesus says three very important things in verse 7. One, Jesus calls Godâs people âelect.â That means they are chosen by God. One of the amazing truths that the Bible teaches is that God has elected certain people to be his people. He has predestined them to be adopted as his children, not because they are so lovable or so good, but simply because he loves them (see Rom. 8:28â30; Eph. 1:3â14). If youâre a Christian, God wanted you even before you existed. He wanted you knowing all the sins that you would commit, all the wrongs that you would do, all the times you have failed to love God and to love others as you should. God knew all these things, and he still chose you. And that should give us confidence that when we pray to God, he will answer. He knows weâre prayingâhe knows all things. But because we are his chosen children, he will answer.
The second important thing Jesus says in verse 7 is that Godâs elect âcry to him day and night.â I donât think Jesus means that only if we pray to God at literally every moment, then he will listen to us. But we are told in the Bible to pray regularly. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul tells Christian to âpray without ceasing.â In Romans 12:12, he says, âbe constant in prayer.â In Ephesians 6:18, Paul says that we should be âpraying at all times in the Spirit.â In Colossians 4:2, he says, âContinue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.â As a church, we should be praying regularly, and we have confidence that some Christian somewhere on earth is always praying to God for justice. Individually, we should do this regularly.
The third important thing that Jesus tells us in verse 7 is that God will not delay in granting us justice. He asks a rhetorical question: âWill he delay long over them?â The answer is âno.â However, God will do this on his own timing. Godâs answers to our prayers are always perfect. He always answers our prayers, even if the answer is âno.â But we donât always know how or when he answers our prayers. Sometimes the answer is âyes,â but it comes later than we want or expect. But Godâs timing is always right.
In another part of the Bible, in the apostle Peterâs second letter, Peter talks about how some donât believe that Jesus will come a second time. If you stop and think about it, the claim that Jesus will come again is hard to believe. Itâs hard to believe because, first of all, the Christian claim is that Jesus is no mere human, but heâs also the Son of God. Heâs the God-man, truly God and truly human. Second of all, weâre told that when he comes again, it will be in power and glory, and he will right every wrong. Weâre told that he will remove all evil, all sin, from the world, he will judge everyone that has ever lived, and that he will recreate the world to be a paradise, a perfect place where God dwells with his people in peace and harmony. There will no longer be pain, disease, wars, and death. Itâs hard to imagine all of that. And itâs no wonder that people who arenât Christians would think this is just a fairy tale.
But Peter says itâs not. Jesus will come, but he will come according to Godâs timing. Peter writes this:
8Â But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9Â The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10Â But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed (2 Pet. 3:8â10).
The point is that an eternal God has a different time scale than we have. We want things done now. But for God, who always existed, a day is a blink of an eye. A thousand years in our experience are like a day in his. Weâre told to be patient and to wait. The reason why Jesus has not returned is because God has given us more time for people to turn from their sinsâto repentâand to turn to Jesus in faith. There is a day when Jesus will come, and God knows when that is (Acts 17:31). But if Jesus returned a hundred years ago, none of us would exist, and none of us would ever have the opportunity to be part of Godâs kingdom.
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John is given an image of all the people who died for their faith in Jesus. We read this in chapter 6:
10Â They cried out with a loud voice, âO Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?â 11Â Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been (Rev. 6:10â11).
That cry, âHow long, O Lord?â appears throughout the Bible. It is a cry for justice. How long, God, until you set things right? How long until Jesus comes to remove all sin from the world, and all sin from our own hearts? How long do we have to live like this? The answer to those questions is, âNot long.â It may seem like an eternity to us, but not to God. God will not delay. His timing is right. Wait for it. In verse 8, Jesus says that God âwill give justice . . . speedilyâ to his people.
But then Jesus turns the tables. He asks his own question. He says that when he, the Son of Man returns, âwill he find faith on earth?â We ask that question, âHow long?â and Jesus says, âNot long.â But then Jesus asks us what he will find when he returns. Will he find faithful people who are doing what has commanded us to do? Will he find people who are praying day and night for justice? Will he find people who trust that Jesus alone is King, that he alone is our Savior, that he alone is the perfect Judge who will right every wrong? Or will he find us putting our trust in lesser things?
This brings us to an important question that we should ask: What is the point of prayer? Earlier, I said that God is all knowing. God is omniscient. He has always known all true things. Itâs not as though when we pray, we tell God anything new. Itâs not as if we can say, âGod, I have this great idea that you might not have considered yet. Maybe you should try this.â God already knows everything, including the content of our prayers. So, in that sense, we donât need to pray.
But God has called us to pray. Why is that? Itâs not to give him new information, or new plans. Itâs not to inform him of our heartâs desire, because he knows that already. Why did God come up with the very concept of prayer? Why are we commanded to pray?
I believe the answer is that prayer keeps us connected to God. Prayer is simply talking to God. We donât always have to request something of him when we pray. We can praise him. We can tell God weâre thankful for what heâs done for us. We can simply acknowledge who God is. We can think about his attributes and praise him for being almighty, all-knowing, holy, good, just, perfectly wise, and the creator of all things. We can tell God how weâre feeling and we can share with him our joys and sorrows. We can ask God for things. But whatever we say, he already knows it.
So, the real value of prayer is that it helps us focus on God. Itâs a means of grace, something that keeps us in the faith and helps us grow in our faith. Itâs a reminder of who is on the throne. God is all-powerful; we are not. God is in control; we are not. God is a perfect judge who will determine what is right and what is wrong; we lack the wisdom, the knowledge of all evidence, and the moral character to perfectly judge situations.
Our problem is that we want to be the judge. We want to be the decider, the one in control. To see this, all you need to do is think about how people react to the idea that God is judge. A lot of people are turned off by that idea. I have actually heard some people who claim to be Christians say that God wouldnât judge anyone. Obviously, they havenât read the Bible. God is repeatedly called a judge. Heâs also a king. And, you might say, heâs the legislative branch, too. He makes the rules, which are a reflection of his moral perfection, his righteousness. He commands us to follow his rules. And he will judge us for how we have done.
And this, believe it or not, is a good thing. One reason itâs good that God is a judge is that itâs a guarantee that all wrongs will be righted. All crimes will be punished. If we didnât have the assurance that God would do this some day, we would despair. We would look at this world, which has so much injustice, and think that justice is impossible. We would give up. We would become cynical and jaded. Or, we would try to bring about justice ourselves. How often do we see someone get away with a crime? Perhaps we donât see this in our own lives, but we see it in the news. There are many times where a man rapes or sexually abuses a woman and he gets away with it, or he gets some ridiculously light sentencing. There are times when evil people donât seem to be punished for their crimes. Hitler is a great example. He committed all kinds of atrocities and the committed suicide, never facing a judge and jury for what he did. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the USSR, is responsible for the deaths of millions of people who starved or who were sent to the Gulag. He died of a brain hemorrhage at age 74. He doesnât seem to have paid for his abuses. The list could go on and on. If there is no God who judges, these men will never be punished appropriately for what theyâve done. If thereâs no God, we may be tempted to seek our own âstreet justice,â to become vigilantes who take the law into our own hands. And that would go very badly.
But because God is a judge who will punish every crime, we can rest assured that though evil people seem to get away with crimes, no evil will go unpunished by God. He will deal with everyoneâs sin. In the end, God will punish every sin, every evil. Nothing escapes his knowledge, and no one will escape his judgment. So, we have the promise that all injustices will be addressed. And that is a good thing.
Thereâs another good thing about God being a judge. Everything will be evaluated. That means that everything has meaning. This past week, I happened to listen to a few sermons online. Thatâs not something I actually do very frequently. But I happened to listen to a sermon by Tim Keller, who pastored a church in Manhattan for over twenty-five years. In the sermon, he referenced something he wrote about in his great book, The Reason for God. Keller mentions a play written by Arthur Miller called After the Fall. In that play, thereâs a character named Quentin, who looks back over his life. He says that when he was younger, he thought of life as a series of proofs. You try to prove that youâre brave and smart, that youâre a good lover and father, that youâre wise, that your life has meaning. He said he expected that his life would receive some kind of judgment, some kind of verdict. He would be justified or condemned. But then he says this: âI think now my disaster really began when I looked up one day . . . and the bench was empty. No judge in sight. And all that remained was the endless argument with oneself, this pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench. . . . Which, of course, is another way of sayingâdespair.â[3] What is he saying? This character apparently is an atheist. He doesnât believe thereâs a cosmic judge. And what he realizes is that if thereâs no God, no great judge who gives a verdict, then thereâs no evaluation of oneâs life. And that means that everything is ultimately meaningless.
Imagine you are in school, and you work very hard to get good grades. You want some validation for the work youâre doing. You want not only to be rewarded with a good grade, but you also want to know that youâre right. You want your work to be recognized. But then, at the end of the semester, the teacher says, âI decided not to give grades.â You would be upset if you worked hard. Now, if you didnât work at all, you might think youâre getting a good deal. But most people want their work to have meaning. They want their lives to have meaning. That means we need to have our lives evaluated, to be judged. And we certainly want other people to be judged. All of us make moral judgments: âHe should have done this; she shouldnât have done that.â Where do you think that comes from? Weâre judgmental because God is a judge. And we need God to be a judge, or else thereâs no moral evaluation, and thereâs no justice.
We all want God to be a judgeâat least a judge of other peopleâs sins. But God will judge us for our sins, too. Earlier, I said that no one will escape Godâs judgment. Thatâs not correct. There are some who will escape Godâs judgment. The only way to escape is to come to Jesus. The fact is that all of us have done wrong. All of us have failed to love God and to love other people. We certainly have failed Godâs standards. If weâre honest, weâve failed to meet our own standards. We know in our hearts that we have done wrong. If we were to stand before God, we would be condemned. He would find us guilty and our crimes would be punished accordingly. And it wouldnât be pretty. Because we have a tendency to be selfish, we would always live as if we were king. We would always sin. And God canât have that. He canât have people in his world destroying everything that he had made good. God will remove sinners from his creation so that he can perfect it. If God didnât intervene, that means that each of us would be cast into hell.
But there is hope. We can escape condemnation if we find refuge in Jesus. If we turn to him, we will not be condemned. That is because he has already taken the judgment for the sins of his people. He has already paid the penalty for their crimes. Though he lived a perfect lifeâand he was the only one to do thatâhe died as a sinner. He bore not only terrible physical pain and suffering, but the wrath of God, something that goes beyond physical pain. This wasnât an accident. It didnât happen just because sinful people put Jesus to death, perhaps the greatest act of injustice ever committed. It was because it was Godâs plan. It was the Fatherâs plan. It was the Sonâs plan. It was the Spiritâs plan. From before the foundation of the world, the Son of God was destined to become man and die so he could save the elect from sin.
The question for us is, when Jesus comes again, will he find us faithful? Do we truly have faith in Jesus? If youâre not a Christian, I urge you to turn to Jesus now. A day of justice is coming. It will be a day of reckoning. If you havenât put your faith in Jesus, whether you die or he returns in your lifetime, you will stand before him and you will be judged for everything youâve ever thought, desired, and done. Jesus knows all the evidence. He knows all the ways you have failed. If you are not âin Christ,â you will be condemned. The good news is that Jesus has done everything you need to be rescued from judgment. But you must trust him. I would love to talk with you personally about what this would look like for you.
One mark of faithfulness is prayer. But we donât pray to manipulate God. The point of this parable is not that if we badger God with personal requests, heâll give in. Itâs not that if I pray every day for money and good health, God will get tired of hearing me, and heâll say, âFine, Iâll give you whatever you want, just stop bothering me!â God isnât like that. Jesusâ point is that if we cry out to our Father for justice, he will answer us positively.
Jesus told us to pray that Godâs kingdom would come and that his will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10; Luke 11:2). We should pray that we would act as if God is our King. We should pray that others would do that also. We should pray continually for God to right wrongs, to fix the injustice that we see around us. God may lead people to do what is just in this life. Injustices like slavery have been addressed, often by Christians. I pray that injustices like abortion, racism, sexual abuse, and other evil practices will come to an end. But all evil will only be ended on that great day when Jesus appears. The apostle Paul has said, âThe God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feetâ (Rom. 16:20). So, with Paul, let us pray, âOur Lord, come!â (1 Cor. 16:22).
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- David E. Garland, Luke, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 709. â
- Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Riverhead, 2008), 163. The quote originally appears in Arthur Miller, After the Fall (New York: Penguin, 1964, 1992), 3. â
Cry to Him Day and Night (Luke 18:1-8)
Jesus tells his followers to cry out to God day and night for justice, and God will faithfully grant that justice, at least on the last day. But on that day, will Jesus find that his followers have been faithful? Brian Watson preached this message on Luke 18:1-8 on September 1, 2019.
Kingdom Come
This sermon was preached on August 25, 2019 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).Â
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are really good at remembering things, and those who . . . wait a minute . . . I canât remember who the other people are.
To be serious, when it comes to matters of faith, it does seem like there are two types of people in the world. There are people who want to know facts before they believe. They want to know what Scripture says. They want to think through good arguments for why they should believe. These want a faith that makes good intellectual sense. They want a religious faith that isnât contradictory, one that makes sense of the basic facts of life. They donât believe based on feelings, but on whether something is true.
Then, there are people who wonât believe it unless they see it or feel it themselves. We might say these people want evidence, but not evidence that can be read in a book. They want to see miracles personally or have certain positive feelings. If youâre familiar with the Bible, you know that one of Jesusâ disciples, Thomas, couldnât believe that Jesus rose from the dead, though that is what the other disciples told him. No, Thomas had to see the risen Jesus for himself in order to believe. When Thomas finally did see Jesus, he fell down at his feet and famously said, âMy Lord and my God!â Jesus said to him, âHave you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believedâ (John 20:28â29).[1]
Iâve been thinking a bit about this recently, because some churches rely on producing feelings. Recently, I saw that another church baptized a large number of people, and they posted a testimony from someone who supposedly came to faith. Maybe this person really does believe. I donât know. But the testimony was all about her feelings. She felt happy. She felt excited. She felt love. But nowhere in her words was there a mention of basic facts of the gospel message. There was no mention of sin, of who Jesus is, what he did to save her, and no mention of trusting Jesus and repentance. There was talk about being devoted to Jesus, but it was more about him helping her than her rather taking up her cross and following him.
I mention this because as we will see in todayâs passage, Luke 17:20â37, Jesus makes a bold claim about the kingdom of God. He says it has come upon the Earth, but âin ways that can be observed.â Jesusâ own coming to Earth was rather quiet. Yes, it came through a miracle: the Son of God took on human form. But most of his life was lived quietly. He was a carpenterâs son. He didnât draw attention to himself. When the time was right, he did have a public ministry. And he did perform some amazing miracles. But he didnât produce what everyone was expecting. And Jesus never said that life in the kingdom of God, at least in this age, will always feel good. He never promised it would be easy. The word âfunâ doesnât appear in the Bible, and generally what we often think of as âhappinessâ or âself-fulfillmentâ doesnât appear in the Bible either. Thatâs not to say that God doesnât give us pleasures. He does, and I trust that he will do more of that in the future. Itâs to say that we follow Jesus because of truth, not feelings. And we need to know what Jesus himself taught in order to follow him.
So, with all that being said, weâre going to start to read todayâs passage. Iâll begin by reading Luke 17:20â21:
20Â Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, âThe kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21Â nor will they say, âLook, here it is!â or âThere!â for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.â
Jesus is once again being questioned by the Pharisees, one group of Jewish men who were influential religious leaders at this time.[2] They ask Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. The idea of the kingdom of God could mean many things, depending on the person. What they probably had in mind were prophecies in the Old Testament that a descendant of David would come and rule Godâs people. This anointed king, the Messiah, would crush the enemies of Godâs people, Israel, and establish a reign that would never end (2 Sam. 7:12â16; Isa. 9:2â7; 11:1â5). The Pharisees probably wanted to know when this king could come and defeat the Roman Empire, the occupying force in Palestine at that time. The Jewish people wanted the freedom, the power, and the land that was theirs during the time of King David and his son, Solomon.
Jesus knew they were expecting this display of power when the Messiah comes. But Jesus, who is the Messiah, the King of kings, says, âThe kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.â He means that it wouldnât come in the way they expected it, with huge demonstrations of national strength, with military victories. Then he says, more or less, âDonât listen to people when they say that itâs here or there. The truth is that the kingdom of God is right in your midst.â
Now, Jesus does not mean something that Iâve heard from others. There are some translations, like the earlier version of the NIV, that says, âthe kingdom of God is within you.â Some people take that to mean that God is already in you, or that you have some divine spark within you. I actually heard this from a man who claimed to be a Christian, yet who also believed in a lot of New Age or eastern religious concepts like reincarnation or the idea that weâre all divine in some way. This man appealed to this verse, in that translationââthe kingdom of God is within youââto prove that Jesus taught this.
In any of you watched the first two debates featuring the approximately 300 Democrats currently running for president, you might know who Marianne Williamson is. She has long been a kind of New Age spiritual teacher. In an interview, she said this about Jesus:
Jesus was a human being who while on earth completely self-actualized and fulfilled in all ways the potential glory that lies within us all. He became one with the Essence and Christ Spirit that is in all of us. In that sense, he is our evolutionary elder brother. He demonstrated our destiny. He displayed for all to see the destination of this journey that we are on. The only thing lacking in any situation is our own awareness of love, and Jesus realized and taught that.
Jesus is a personal symbol of the Holy Spirit. Having been totally healed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus became one with him. Every thought, action, and deed of Jesus was guided by the Holy Spirit instead of ego. He’s not the only face the Holy Spirit takes onâhe is a face. To think about Jesus is to think about and bring forth the perfect love inside us. Jesus actualized the Christ mind, and was then given the power to help the rest of us reach that place within ourselves.
He was sent down by Godâas we all are. We are all extensions of the mind of God. We all contain nuggets of glory.[3]
If you have read the Gospels, you know that this is not what Jesus taught. If youâve read any of Paulâs letters in the New Testament, you canât believe this. Jesus would never say to the Pharisees, who thought they knew God but really didnât, âthe kingdom of God is within you.â Jesus didnât say the kingdom of God is in us. He said that we must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3).
Jesus was that the kingdom of God is right in front of you. Itâs here. The king is in your midst. If they only had the eyes of faith to see the truth, they would know that Jesus is the Messiah. He didnât come the first time to overthrow the Roman Empire, to take political office, to make a lot money. He came to teach people about God, to show that he is the Son of God, the true King, and to save people from their sins, which is their greatest problem.
Our greatest problem isnât that we donât have enough money, or enough political power. Our greatest problem isnât that we feel bad. We feel bad because we are bad. We are all affected by the power of sin, the power of rebellion against God that entered into the world when the first humans turned away from God. Because of this power of sin, we commit sins. We donât love God as we ought. We donât obey him. We donât love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jesus came to fix that problem, not to make us feel better.
In the rest of the chapter, Jesus turns to his disciples and warns them not to think like the Pharisees. The kingdom of God will come in its fullest in the future, but they wonât see it. Before that time, Jesus will have to suffer. And I think he implies that they will suffer, too. But he encourages them, and us, to follow him. There will be a day when Jesus comes a second time. That time, he wonât come quietly and humbly. He will come in glory and power. He will reign on Earth, but not before he judges everyone who has ever lived. Jesus wants us to be on the right side of that judgment.
Letâs now read the rest of the passage. Here is Luke 17:22â37:
22Â And he said to the disciples, âThe days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23Â And they will say to you, âLook, there!â or âLook, here!â Do not go out or follow them. 24Â For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25Â But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26Â Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27Â They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Â Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lotâthey were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29Â but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them allâ 30Â so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31Â On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32Â Remember Lotâs wife. 33Â Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34Â I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35Â There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.â 37Â And they said to him, âWhere, Lord?â He said to them, âWhere the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.â
I want to explain what Jesus says here by highlighting four truths. The first truth of his message to his disciples is that they will not see the day when Jesus returns in glory. At least, they wonât see it before they die. These disciples had the privilege of witnessing Jesus teach and perform miracles for two or three years. There will be a time when Jesus will leave them, and he will not return in their lives on Earth. There will be times in their lives when they will long for the days of the Son of Manâthatâs a reference to Jesus. They will wish Jesus is with them. They will wish it was already the time when the whole world would know who Jesus really is, when he comes to judge the living and the dead and to establish fully his kingdom. (Theologians say the kingdom is already here, but not fully consummated.) The Old Testament often spoke of âthe days are comingâ in terms of Godâs judgment upon his enemies (Isa. 39:6; Jer. 7:32; 16:14; Amos 4:2). The disciples will long to see that. If youâre a Christian, you surely have days when you want to see that. So many people donât believe in the true Jesus. They donât live as if he is their King. We want to see everyone recognize who Jesus is. We want people to turn away from living for themselves, to turn away from their sin, and to turn to Jesus, seeking forgiveness and restoration.
The second promise of Jesusâ message that I want us to see is this: Jesus says that before that time of judgment, before he overthrows all the powers that are hostile to God, he must suffer. Jesus has already predicted his death several times (Luke 9:22, 44; 12:50; 13:22â33). He alludes to it again here. He says he will be rejected by âthis generationâ and that he will suffer. The Jewish people expected a Messianic king who would conquer, not one who would suffer. They didnât connect promises of Davidâs offspring who would reign forever to prophecies about a suffering servant who would die for the sins of his people (Isa. 52:13â53:12).
I think Jesus highlights his upcoming death to indicate that the coming of Godâs kingdom in its fullness canât happen without him first dying on the cross. He will die not because he did anything wrong. He is the only person who never sinned. No, he will die to pay the death penalty that all sinners deserve. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Our sin corrupts, distorts, and ruins Godâs creation. God, who is a righteous judge, canât have that. All crime must be punished. But God graciously sent his Son to die in our place. And Jesus volunteered to do that. It was his will just as much as it was the Fatherâs. Jesus wants his disciples to know that what he is about to do is a key part of establishing Godâs kingdom on Earth.
I also think that Jesus is teaching us that before glory comes suffering. Thatâs certainly true of his ministry. Before he died on the cross, Jesus lived a humble life. His miracles got the attention of many, but he had no money, no political office. At the end of his life he was betrayed, abandoned, rejected, tortured, and killed. He died naked, in shame, nailed to a cross and hung there until he could no longer breathe. In the worldâs eyes, thatâs not glory. But Jesus rose from the grave, showing that he paid the penalty for sin and that he has power over sin and death. He is now exalted in heaven, and he will return in glory.
Jesus probably wanted his disciples to know that the pattern of suffering now and being raised to glory later is the pattern that Christians will experience. Jesus never promised us we would feel a lot of positive feelings. He did promise great things for those who turn to him in faith: forgiveness of sins, the presence of the Holy Spirit, a new family of Christians, a place in Godâs kingdom, peace with God. But those benefits are not something we always feel. We must trust that they are true. And Jesus also promised his followers that they would experience persecution and hate. They would suffer. The apostle Paul said the same thing. In Romans 8:16â17, he writes,
16Â The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17Â and if children, then heirsâheirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Christians suffer because there are times when the world hates them. So, Christians suffer because of what others do. Christians also suffer because they still live in a world that is stained by sin. All that bad things we experience, such as fighting, diseases, and death, are a result of sin in the world. Christians also suffer because they must wrestle with their own sin. They must put their old patterns of sin to death, and this doesnât come quickly or easily. It can be painful. Yet Jesus promises, as we see in verse 33, âWhoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.â
The third truth that Jesus teaches in this passage is that his second coming will be obvious, public, universal, and unmistakable. He knows there will be people who claim that Jesus has secretly returned. People will say, âLook hereâ or âLook there.â Jesus tells us not to bother with people who make those false claims. When Jesus returns, everyone will know. There will be flashes of lightning, which are often associated with an appearance of God (Exod. 19:16; Ps. 77:18; Rev. 4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18). Somehow, everyone on Earth will know that Jesus has returned. It will be as clear as lightning in the sky.
Some people have taught that there is a secret return of Jesus, a secret ârapture.â I have tried in the past to teach against this is subtle ways, but I wonât do that this morning. Let me be clear. The Bible does not teach that Jesus will come quietly or secretly. Every passage dealing with his return talks about either visual signs or a great noise. Now, the Bible has one passage that teaches a rapture. First Thessalonians 4:17 says that when Jesus returns, Christians will be âcaught upâ with Christ in the air. But that passage says nothing about what happens next. The most popular end-times theology taught today isnât what the church has believed for almost two thousand years. It was developed around 1830 by a man named John Nelson Darby, who believed that the church was a failure. Of course, he established his own church, which he believed was the only true church. But he also devised a very fanciful end times theology that teaches things that the Bible really doesnât teach. We see in this passage that Jesus combines his public glorious return with salvation and judgment and the consummation of his kingdom on Earth. Most passages in the New Testament that talk about his return describe those events as happening at the same time.
And that leads me to something else that is very clear in this passage. The fourth truth is that when Jesus returns, there will be a division among all people. Some will be spared Godâs condemnation. They will be saved. Others will be condemned. Jesus gives us two examples from the book of Genesis. In the days of Noah, people were wicked. God sent a flood upon the Earth to judge everyone. The only people who were spared were Noah and his family. Noah was instructed to build a large ship, an ark, to save his family and various species of animals. Now, Noah was prepared for the flood. But everyone outside his family wasnât. They went on living as if their lives would never end. But when the flooding started, it was too late. Noah and his family were safe on the ark, and everyone else would perish. (See Genesis 6â9 for the story about Noah and the flood.)
The other example is of Lot, Abrahamâs nephew, and what happened to the city of Sodom. We are told that Lot and daughters were spared a judgment that came upon Sodom for their sexual immorality and their pride (Gen. 19:1â29; Ezek. 16:49; Jude 7). Lot, like Noah, responded to Godâs word about a coming judgement. Noah found safety in the ark, while Lot was told to flee the city. Everyone else went on living in the city as if nothing was going to happen. Even Lotâs sons-in-law didnât believe that judgment would come. But then judgment came, and it was too late for them to repent.
Those two events in Genesis foreshadow a final judgment, when Jesus returns. All who have failed to trust in Jesus will be condemned. Those who donât believe that he is the Son of God, those who donât repent, those who donât live as if he is King, those who donât trust that he has done everything to make us right with Godâthose people will face something worse than death. They will experience eternity apart from God and from any scrap of goodness. And that is just, because they didnât want God in this life.
Jesus says the division of all people will occur within families. He says there will be two people in a bed. One will be taken, the other left behind. In Matthewâs Gospel, it seems that the one taken is taken in judgment, just as the people in Noahâs day were swept away by the flood (see Matt. 24:37â41). Here, it seems that the one taken is brought to safety, and the one left behind is judged. I donât think the details matter. What matters is that the division will cut right through families. Families in those days all lived in close quarters. The people in bed could be a husband and wife, or a father and his son. Families often worked together. The who women grinding grain at the mill could be a mother and her daughter, or two sisters. Just because one person in a family is a Christian doesnât mean the others are. Each person must personally trust Jesus to be spared condemnation.
I also think those examplesâpeople sleeping in bed, people at workâshow us that we donât know when Jesus will return. It could be at night or it could be in the day. It could be while weâre sleeping or it could be while weâre working. We donât know when Jesus will return. The way to be ready is to put your faith in him now, to admit your sins, confess them to God, repent of your sin, and actively follow Jesus. That is the only way to be prepared.
How do we apply the great truths of this passage to our lives? One way is to know that Godâs kingdom is already here. Yes, many people donât live as if God is King. They donât live as if Jesus is their King. But he is. Godâs kingdom is wherever Godâs people are living under his rule and experiencing his blessings. Godâs kingdom right now doesnât always look very impressive. It looks a lot like what you see right now: some very ordinary people gathering to hear Godâs word, to sing together, to pray together, to encourage one another and correct each other if necessary. Godâs kingdom may look like a married couple faithfully loving each other. It may look like a single person living a quiet life of devotion to his or her true spouse, Jesus. It may be parents teaching their children, or someone at work working hard as if they are working directly for Jesus. It may look like someone quietly and humbly loving other people by doing something kind. It may look like someone having the courage to speak the truth to people who donât want to hear it but who really need to hear it.
The kingdom of God is here now. Itâs not announced with signs and wonders. It doesnât look impressive. Entering into it may not always feel dramatic. But Jesus and his followers urged people to enter the kingdom. And that is still true today. I urge anyone here who is not truly a Christian to turn to Jesus, to bow before him, to confess all sins, to seek the forgiveness that only he provides. You may not feel like doing this. If you do it, I canât guarantee what youâll feel. The only reason to be a Christian is that this message is true. And it takes the eyes of faith to see that. Jesus promises us a return that we havenât seen. He warns of a coming judgment that many people think will never happen. None of us have seen Jesus in the flesh. But we have his words. We have testimony about him that has been given to us by people who saw him, who knew him. And we believe this testimony comes ultimately from God himself. I encourage anyone who may have doubts about Jesus to learn more about him. Understand what the Bible teaches. If you have doubts, I would love to talk personally with you. I can give you many reasons why this message is true, why it makes sense of all of life. But know that the only reason to believe is because itâs true and itâs right to live for Jesus.
If you went to your doctor and were told you have cancer, and if you believed your doctor, and if you didnât want to die an early death, you would begin treatment. If youâre here and you believe this message that you have the wound of sin, a wound that we cannot cure, if you believe that Jesus can alone can cure that wound, and if you believe that unless that wound is cured, you will be condemned, you will turn to Jesus now. Do so before itâs too late.
For those of us who have turned to Jesus, I want to point out what Jesus has said here. Donât believe people who say they know when Jesus is returning. Donât listen to the end-times madness that is out there. Follow Jesus now and you donât have to worry about when he comes. What does following Jesus look like? Jesus tells us. He says, âRemember Lotâs wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.â In the story of Lot, when he and his family left Sodom, they were told not to look back. But his wife looked back at the city. She probably wanted to go back. Perhaps she didnât want to leave her old way of life. Whatever she was thinking, she didnât trust Godâs message. So, she was turned into a pillar of salt. She was made into a statue. She is a warning that when we follow Jesus, we cannot turn back. We must make a commitment to him.
Our old lives can seem very alluring. When we were living for ourselves, we might have had a lot of fun, a lot of pleasure. Itâs tempting to go back and do the things that we used to do. Itâs tempting to do what other people in the world are doing now. But we canât. There are certain actions and attitudes that simply are not compatible with Christianity. We are told to flee these things. We must lose our old lives in order to be saved. Those who refuse to do so, those who seek to preserve their old lives, will lose their lives in the end.
This doesnât mean that there is no joy in following Jesus. There are joys in following him. God has given us many good things that we can experience by living according to his design. Christians can have fun. They can be happy. But we must learn to find our joy in Christ, to make him our greatest treasure. When we do that, we are willing to follow him, no matter what. When we see that Jesus is a greater treasure than anything in the world, we can endure suffering for his sake. When we see that eternity hangs in the balance, that this life is brief, but that where we spend eternity will last forever, we will do what Jesus asks us to do. Whatever suffering we experience now will be brief, but eternity with Jesus will be more pleasurable than anything we can imagine. As David once wrote, âWeeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morningâ (Ps. 30:5). Glory will come to all who enter into Godâs kingdom, but not after some measure of suffering.
Jesusâ kingdom is here, right now. Let us live like he is our King. When the King returns in glory, it will be too late to turn to him in faith.
Notes
- Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- The Pharisees often question Jesus or complain about him, usually to trap in saying something they think will get him in trouble. See Luke 5:21, 30; 6:2, 7; 7:39; 11:38, 45; 13:31; 14:15; 15:2; 16:14; 18:18. â
- William J. Elliott, A Place at the Table: A Journey to Rediscover the Real Jesus with the Guidance of Various Teachers, from Billy Graham to Deepak Chopra (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 238. â
Kingdom Come (Luke 17:20-37)
When is the kingdom of God coming? It’s already here (at least in part). Where is the kingdom? Wherever God’s people are. When will Jesus come again, and how? We don’t know when, but when he comes, there will be no missing it. When he comes, there will be a great division between those who have trusted Jesus and those who have not. Pastor Brian Watson preached this sermon on Luke 17:20-37 on August 25, 2019.
Giving Him Thanks
This sermon was preached on August 18, 2019 by Brian Watson.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
What is most lacking in this country of ours? What does our society need? If you ask ten different people, you will probably get ten different answers. Depending on who you ask, the answers might be love, tolerance, civility, diversity, equality, education, science, faith, peace, or security. I think some of those are good answers. Some of those answers are better than others. But this country would be better off immediately if we had something else: gratitude. We would be better off if more people were truly thankful.
Think about this: how often do we get messages about being thankful? It seems like all the messages that come at us are designed to make us feel anything but grateful. Think about the news stories we hear. They are often about bad things happening. The news makes us feel fearful or outraged. And this is by design. News is a business, and tragic stories sell. We seem to have a whole industry built on grievances, on who is more oppressed. This is true on both sides of the political aisle.
Think about the commercials that we see: they are designed to make us feel that something is lacking in our lives, and if we only had that product, things would be better. A lot of commercials show a common problem that could be solved with a great product. Think about how many detergent commercials youâve seen where the kids are getting their clothes dirty. The mother is frustrated that the kids arenât more careful and that she canât get those grass stains out. Iâm sure the father is frustrated that the family has to keep buying clothes. The kids probably donât care, but theyâre not going to buy the detergent, so who cares about them? But now, if you get this detergent, all those frustrations are gone. Grass stains wash out easily. The kids can play outside without care. Moms and dads can relax. Just about every infomercial and âAs-Seen-on-TVâ product has that formula: it identifies a problem and offers a solution.
A lot of commercials are far more subtle. They donât identify a problem, but they get you to covet something you donât have. They show a beautiful car navigating winding roads along the coast as well as crowded streets through concrete canyons. You may have a car that works perfectly well, but in watching those commercials, youâre led to believe that if you only had a new car, your life would be more adventurous and exciting. You may have a phone that works perfectly well, but you see commercials that show the latest technology, and you imagine that your life would somehow be better if your phoneâs camera had more megapixels or more storage, or whatever. You have clothes that donât have holes in them, that look fine, but you see ads on the glossy pages of a magazine or a catalog that show people wearing stylish clothing, and youâre led to think, in subtle ways, âMy life would be better if I looked like that.â
Notice that cable news doesnât make you feel more thankful. Commercials donât make you feel content. Talk radio doesnât make you feel more peaceful. Social media doesnât make you feel grateful for what you have; instead, it tends to make us feel envious or outraged. Imagine what the world would be like if we could turn these messages off and find reasons to be grateful.
Today, weâre going to look at the importance of being thankful. Weâre going to consider a passage in the Gospel of Luke that shows how true faith in Jesus results in thanks. Weâll also consider how one of the biggest problems of humanity is not being thankful. And weâll consider ways that we can thank God more for all the good things heâs given to us.
Today, weâre looking at Luke 17:11â19. Iâm going to read the whole passage, explain whatâs going on in it, and then think about those issues.
11Â On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12Â And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13Â and lifted up their voices, saying, âJesus, Master, have mercy on us.â 14Â When he saw them he said to them, âGo and show yourselves to the priests.â And as they went they were cleansed. 15Â Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16Â and he fell on his face at Jesusâ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17Â Then Jesus answered, âWere not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18Â Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?â 19Â And he said to him, âRise and go your way; your faith has made you well.â[1]
Luke has already made it clear that Jesus is bound to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). He doesnât mean that Jesus was going on a straight line from Galilee to Jerusalem, in Judea. He means that the time was approaching for Jesus to go to Jerusalem where he would be crucified. But he does some very important things before he gets there, and Luke saw fit to include this passage.
As Jesus was walking between two regions, Samaria and Galilee, he entered a village. There were ten people there who had a terrible skin condition. This is referred to as leprosy in the Bible, though itâs not exactly the equivalent of what is known as leprosy today. Leprosy could refer to any type of ongoing skin condition. Whatâs important is that in the eyes of Jewish people, skin conditions made people âunclean.â
To understand whatâs going on here, we have to know something about what the Bible says about diseases and being clean. And to understand this, we have to understand something about the nature of sin. Last week, I said that sin was not just a way to describe wrong things we do. Itâs a toxic, destructive power that causes to want to do wrong things. Sin is rebellion against God, a turning away from our Creator and turning to value the creation instead. We were made to know, love, and worship God but we have turned away from him. We donât seek a relationship with himâat least not a right relationship with him. We donât love him the way we ought to. We donât worship him all the time. We donât do what he wants us to do. In other words, we donât live according to his design. And because of that turning away from God, we have a broken world. When we turn away from the God who ordered and arranged the world, we find disorder and chaos. When we turn away from the God who is love, we find hate and war. When we turn away from the giver of life, we find death. Part of the penalty of sin is a world full of disease and ultimately death.
So, the ultimate reason there are diseases like leprosy in the world is because of sin. That doesnât mean thereâs a direct connection between a personâs sin and an illness they have. Itâs not that all people who have diseases have done some particularly awful sin. Some very healthy people are great sinners, and some very godly people have a lot of ailments. So, thereâs no one-to-one connection between the amount of sin in a personâs life and their bodily health. But the reason anyone has a disease is because of the presence of sin in the world. And the fact is that all of us have sinned. Thereâs only person who never did, and thatâs Jesus.
Now, in the Old Testament, we find that God calls a people, the Israelites, to himself. He rescued them out of slavery in Egypt and then he gave them his law, which taught them how to live. And when you read through that law, particularly the book of Leviticus, you find a lot of information about skin diseases (Leviticus 13 and 14). Sometimes itâs all a bit baffling to us. But the idea is that in order to be part of Godâs people, you had to be clean. Now, on one level, this makes perfect sense. The Israelites didnât have modern medicine and diseases are contagious. In order to protect the health of the people, those who had diseases had to be removed. They often were placed outside the camp until they became clean, or healthy. So, the idea of keeping the unclean people on the edge of the community made perfect sense.
But the law also addresses issues in a symbolic way. The idea that you get when you read the book of Leviticus is that in order for the Israelites to approach God in worship, they needed to be pure. They needed to be cleansed of their sin. Anything that made the Israelites impure made them unfit to be in the presence of God. And since diseases are ultimately the result of sin, those who were diseased couldnât be part of the community. They were ostracized. That was a visual picture of the contagious nature of sin. Sin needed to be removed from Godâs people. Sin corrupts. Sin has a way of being contagious, spreading throughout one body and on to others.
Because these people had leprosy, they would have been shunned by others. They would have been considered untouchable, for to touch someone with leprosy would make that person unclean. A leper was treated like someone who was less than human. Just listen to these words, found in Leviticus 13:45â46:
45Â âThe leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, âUnclean, unclean.â 46Â He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. (See also Num. 5:1â4.)
So, these lepers were outcasts, people who couldnât live like everyone else. They couldnât go to the temple to worship. They couldnât be touched. Thatâs why they stood at a distance.
Yet these people cry out to Jesus. They call him âMaster,â recognizing that he has authority to heal them. They ask for mercy, to be delivered from something terrible even though they are not worthy.
Whatâs amazing is that Jesus doesnât heal them there. He doesnât touch them. He doesnât pray. What he does is tell them to go to the priests. This is something the law of the Old Testament required. (See Leviticus 14.) The priests were the ones who would make sure a person had been healed of a skin disease, and the priest would offer sacrifices on behalf of that person. After that, the person was ceremonially clean and able to rejoin society. These people who had leprosy apparently left Jesus to go to their priests, and as they did so, they found that they were cleansed. Not only were they healed physically, but they were made clean. The power of sin had been removed. This was a miracle that Jesus performed at a distance. It shows his power: he only has to think the thought to heal people of conditions brought on by sin.
This happened to all ten of these people. Yet only one of them, when he sees that he was healed, goes back to Jesus in awe and wonder and thanksgiving. One man did this. He praised God loudly. He fell down at Jesusâ feet and thanked him. And Luke tells us that he was a Samaritan.
In the eyes of Jewish people, Samaritans were unclean. They were the distant relatives of the Jews, people who could trace their lineage back to the ancient Israelites. But those Israelites had married Gentiles and had children with them. Therefore, Jews thought of Samaritans as not pure, as half-breeds. They also didnât worship in Jerusalem. They had their own place of worship in Samaria, and they didnât accept all of the Old Testament as the word of God. Jews looked down upon Samaritans and tried to avoid them.
Weâre probably safe to assume that the other nine people who were cleansed were Jews and, possibly, Samaritans. It is ironic that the Samaritan is the one who recognizes that what Jesus has done is from God. The Jewish people who were healed didnât stop to praise God. Yes, they probably went to the priests and did as Jesus told them to do. But they didnât seem to have the same faith that this one Samaritan man had.
Thatâs why Jesus asks some rhetorical questions. He asks, âWere not ten cleansed?â Yes, of course. âWhere are the other nine?â Theyâre long gone. âWas no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?â Apparently not. In Jesusâ view, the only one who truly praised God was this one man, the Samaritan. And Jesus commends this man. He tells him that his faith has made him well.
Now, the others who were healed did cry out to Jesus. But apparently they lacked faith. This shows that people will sometimes call upon God when theyâre in trouble. People who are sick sometimes ask for prayer, and they often wonât mind if you pray for them. But God isnât just some cosmic butler who stands waiting at our beck and call when we feel like we need him. Heâs not a genie that grants us our wishes. God is King. He is Lord. He is Master. He made us to serve him and worship him and obey him. Yes, he graciously answers prayer. But he should also be praised and thanked. People who truly have faith in God are people who are thankful. The mark of Godâs children should be praise and thanksgiving.
We see examples of thanks throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, people who lacked faith grumbled, even after God gave them good things. Thatâs often the story of the Israelitesâmany of them were a bunch of stiff-necked ingrates.
But certainly not all. David, the great King of Israel, though certainly not a perfect man, thanked God. When he conquered the city of Jerusalem and made it the center of Israeliteâs worship, the ark of the covenant was brought into the city and into the tabernacle. And then David praised God. This is from 1 Chronicles 16:
8Â Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
9Â Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
10Â Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
11Â Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
12Â Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles and the judgments he uttered,
13Â O offspring of Israel his servant,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones! (1 Chron. 16:8â13)
35Â Say also:
âSave us, O God of our salvation,
and gather and deliver us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in your praise.
36Â Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!â
Then all the people said, âAmen!â and praised the Lord. (1 Chron. 16:35â36)
Before David died and left the kingdom to his son, Solomon, he arranged for materials to be gathered to build the temple in Jerusalem. When people freely gave massive amounts of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as precious stones, he praised God. He said:
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11Â Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12Â Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13Â And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. (1 Chron. 29:10â13)
This is how we should respond to anything that happens in our lives. When we experience any measure of goodness, we should thank God. We can thank God for answered prayers, but also a meal. We can thank God for a new job or a raise or when someone we loved is healed. But we can and should also thank God for a sunrise, for another day to be alive, for clothing and shelter and the bare necessities of life. We should be thankful for all things.
Yet our problem is that we often arenât thankful. In the book of Romans, a letter written by the apostle Paul, he says that the great problem of humanity is our failure to worship God as we ought. And this is true of everyone, whether they are familiar with the Bible or not. He says that everyone stands under Godâs wrath because though we are aware of Godâs existence, we ignore him. We go our own way. We worship someone or something other than God. Thereâs one line in Paulâs description of the plight of humanity that stands out. He says, âFor although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to himâ (Rom. 1:21). If one important mark of Godâs children is that theyâre thankful, one of the most important marks of sinners is that theyâre not thankful.
Yet Paul goes on to say that though all have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and have deserved death, God has given an amazing gift to all who have the faith to receive it. âFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lordâ (Rom. 6:23). Jesus, the Son of God, was sent to the world to save people from sin (Matt. 1:21). He is the only one who never sinned, the perfectly righteous man (who also happens to be God). Though heâs the only who has not earned Godâs punishment for sin, being cast out of the camp forever, so to speak, he died a sinnerâs death, bearing Godâs wrath on the cross. All who trust Jesus have had their sins paid for in full, and they are credited with his perfect standing. They are given the priceless gift of eternal life.
Salvation from sin and eternal death is a gift. It is something we have not deserved or earned. Weâre not entitled to it. Paul knew this. Thatâs why he thanks God in the book of Romans for salvation. After describing how we donât have the power within us to live godly lives, he writes this, in Romans 7:24â25:
24Â Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Â Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
In another letter, 1 Corinthians, Paul talks at length about the reality that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the grave. His resurrection demonstrated that his sacrifice for sin was acceptable, that he is the Son of God, and that he has power of sin and death. After boldly stating that death has no victory over Christians, Paul writes, âthanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christâ (1 Cor. 15:57).
In Paulâs second letter to the Corinthians, he often writes about his own personal suffering. Paul forfeited a comfortable place within Jewish society to be Jesusâ messenger, someone who went to others to tell them about what God has done in and through Jesus. Paul often endured rejection, beatings, difficult travels, and imprisonment in order to tell others about Jesus. Yet even in the midst of suffering, Paul was thankful. He wrote this to those Christians in Corinth: âFor it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of Godâ (2 Cor. 4:15). Paul knew that as more people came to Jesus, it would lead to more thankful people, and this would glorify, or praise, God. Why does God graciously save people from sin? So they would be thankful. But not only that. So that they would praise him. Elsewhere, Paul says that God saves us âto the praise of his glorious graceâ (Eph. 1:6) and âto the praise of his gloryâ (Eph. 1:12, 14).
God wants us to thank him. He wants our thanks to be a large part of our worship of him. He delivers us from bad things not so that we would have easier lives, but so that we would thank him and praise him. Yet so much of our society pushes us in the other direction. Weâre not taught to be thankful. Weâre not led to think about all the good things we have. Paul says, in another letter, âwhatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these thingsâ (Phil. 4:8). Commercials, news, and social media donât lead us to think about the things weâre thankful for.
Remember, our problem is our lack of gratitude to God. Just the other day, I was listening to a new album by a man named Drew Holcomb. Iâm pretty sure heâs a Christian, because his wife, Ellie Holcomb, is a singer who has made explicitly Christian albums. In one of his new songs, he sings:
You want what you can’t have.
Since the Garden of Eden it’s been like that.
You can’t tear down the tree, or pull all the weeds,
Spend your life looking for the greener grass.[2]
Of course, people do spend their whole lives looking for greener grass. But they end up feeling like theyâre missing out, like the good things are âover thereâ somewhere. The pursuit of something better is endless. It causes us not to dwell on all the good things we already have, but to focus on that which we donât have. It doesnât lead us to be thankful, but to feel empty. In the very next song on that same album, Drew Holcomb sings,
Maybe we’re not supposed to try everything.
Maybe we’re lost in what we want, not what we need.
Everything is never enough, takes you away from what you love.
Maybe we’re not supposed to try everything.[3]
So, how should we respond to this message? With faith. Jesus can cleanse us of our uncleanness, which comes through sin. Sin taints everything in our lives. We canât defeat it or root it out of ourselves. Only Jesus can remove our sin. But he does this only for those who turn to him in faith. If youâre not a Christian, cry out to God for mercy. Acknowledge that you have not been thankful. You havenât wanted God and his glory. Youâve wanted what you canât have. You have turned away from God and made other things more important in your life. Youâve not lived life on Godâs terms. Tell God that you donât have an excuse, that youâre sorry for your sin, and that you realize that the only way to be acceptable in his eyes is to turn to his Son, Jesus.
If you are a Christian, be thankful. Thatâs something that Paul tells Christians repeatedly. In the book of Colossians, he tells us to walk in the ways of Jesus, and to be âabounding in thanksgivingâ (Col. 2:6â7). He tells us to live as people who love, people who forgive others because we have been forgiven, people who let âthe peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts.â And then he adds, quite simply, âAnd be thankfulâ (Col. 3:15). Then, he says, âAnd whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through himâ (Col. 3:17). In 1 Thessalonians, he says, âRejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for youâ (1 Thess. 5:16â17). God wants us to be thankful.
Here are some things we can thank God for:
Thank God for simply existing. Thank God for the gift of life.
Thank God for your parents and your upbringing. Thank God for the people who gave you life and who helped shape your life. God saw fit to have you be born and raised in a certain time and place. Stop and think about all the good things that came from that, and thank God.
Thank God for whatever natural abilities and gifts you have. If you have a body thatâs healthy and strong, thank him for that. If you have a good mind, thank him for that. If you have a mind for music, or the ability to work hard, or the ability to be cheerful even in difficult circumstances, thank God for that.
If youâve had education, thank God for that. If you can read and write, thank him for that.
If you have clean water, thank God. Not everyone in the world has that. If you have enough food to eat, thank God. Not everyone in the world has access to healthy food, and enough of it.
Thank God for a place to live, clothes to wear, for transportation.
Thank God for medical care.
Thank God even for difficult things in your life. If you look back over your life and consider times that were painful, what we would often call trials, you can see that in those times, God was doing something. He was teaching you something. Perhaps he was orchestrating something in your life and in the lives of others that wouldnât have happened without that pain. We should be thankful even for trials, even for sufferings. God uses those things for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). Perhaps one of the marks of a Christian is thanking God even when things donât seem to go our way.
Above all, thank God for salvation, for adopting you into his family. Thank him for the gift of eternal life. Thank him now, because thatâs what Christians will be doing throughout eternity. The book of Revelation gives us various images of what people will do in heaven and in the new creation, the perfect world that God will create when heaven and Earth become one. We find this image in Revelation 7:9â12:
9Â After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10Â and crying out with a loud voice, âSalvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!â 11Â And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12Â saying, âAmen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.â
Notes
- All biblical quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV). â
- Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, âYou Want What You Canât Have,â from the 2019 album, Dragons (Magnolia Music). â
- Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, âMaybe,â from the 2019 album, Dragons (Magnolia Music). â
Giving Him Thanks (Luke 17:11-19)
In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus commends a man who gave thanks for healing him. Our problem is that we’re not thankful to God. What Jesus has done for us is a great reason to thank God. Brian Watson preached this message on August 18, 2019.
Increase Our Faith
This sermon was preached by Brian Watson on August 11, 2019.
MP3 recording of the sermon.
PDF of the written sermon (or see below).
I saw an interesting video clip this week.[1] It was of some moments from the national convention held by the Democratic Socialists of America.[2] The video clip was edited to show a few of the more, well, interesting moments of their meeting in Atlanta. At the meeting, a man in attendance raised his hand, was acknowledged by the moderator, and then approached an open microphone to address the crowd. He began, âUh, guys, first of all, James Jackson, Sacramento, he/him. I just want to say, can we please keep the chatter to a minimum. Iâm one of the people whoâs very prone to sensory overload. Thereâs a lot of whispering and chatter going on. Itâs making it very difficult for me to focus. . . . Can we please just keep the chatter to a minimum? Itâs affecting my ability to focus. Thank you.â Right when James said, âGuys,â a man in a red dress started to get agitated. He got up to the microphone next and said, with no little amount of passion, âPlease do not use gendered language to address everyone.â He obviously was offended that the previous speaker would address everyone as a âguy.â The next scene in this clip was once again of James Jackson, who addressed the crowd a second time, with quite a bit of annoyance audible in the tone of his voice. âI have already asked people to be mindful of the chatter of their comrades who are sensitive to sensory overload, and that goes double for the heckling and hissing. It is also triggering to my anxiety. . . . Your need to express yourself is important but your need to express yourself should not trump . . .â That moment got cut off, but he was apparently trying to say that the need for someone people to make noise shouldnât trump his need not to hear such noises, which were triggering his anxiety.
The next moment in the video clip featured a speaker from the podium, who encouraged people not to clap but to raise their ends and wiggle their fingers. Because, you know, all that noise was triggering the people who have sensory overload. This leader acknowledged that there were many âdisabled comradesâ at the convention, and that many of these comrades had âinvisibleâ disabilities, which make it hard for them to ânavigateâ the space they were in. For example, those people given to sensory overload. To accommodate such disabled comrades, this speaker let the audience know that there were quiet rooms available. He also urged people not to go into those spaces with âanything thatâs like an aggressive scent.â After all, he said, âwe donât want to put people in stressful situations that they donât consent to.â
Now, it would be easy to laugh at these people and call them crazy. Yet I think that video clip reflects something very serious in our society. It seems that the worst thing we can imagine is that we would be offended. Apparently, that is one of the worst crimesâto offend someone without their consent. (Iâm not sure how you could offend someone consensually, but perhaps thatâs what we pay comedians to do.) Heaven forbid that we be offended.
It also seems that the greatest thing that we could achieve is to realize our dreams, whatever those may be. The greatest thing, it seems, is to satisfy our emotions and desires. Another great good is getting everyone else to accommodate our wishes, to have everyone affirm our project of self-actualization. If I have certain desires, you must affirm them as good and right for me to have, and to act upon. If I want to quit my job and leave my family, who are you to tell me thatâs wrong? No, you should cheer me on and tell me to follow my dream.
Yet Jesus says things that contradict the idols of our age. He says that the greatest crime is not to be offended, but rather to offend. The greatest crime is to offend God, to rebel against him, to disregard him, to disobey his commands. And the greatest achievement is not to fulfill our dreams and have everyone else cheer us on as we pursue them. No, the greatest thing is to serve the King of kings, God himself.
Weâve been studying the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Today, we see another passage that features the teachings of Jesus. He warns his followers about sin and tempting others to sin. They, realizing that the Christian life is difficult, ask Jesus to increase their faith. But Jesus doesnât say, âYes, Iâll do that very thing. Iâll give you more faith.â No, he tells them that even a little faith can do great things. But he warns them that they shouldnât do great things for themselves, or to manipulate God. They should serve God because it is their duty; it is what God expects of all of us.
Today, weâre going to read Luke 17:1â10. Weâll read it in three parts. Iâll start with the first four verses.
1 And he said to his disciples, âTemptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2Â It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 3Â Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4Â and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, âI repent,â you must forgive him.â[3]
Here, Jesus warns against tempting others to sin. Why? Because sin a most dangerous, toxic thing. Imagine warning people at a convention not to offend others. Now, amplify that by the order of a million. Thatâs the danger of sin. Sin is truly the root of all evil. Itâs that evil power thatâs inside of us, that causes us to do what is wrong. One not-so-orthodox Christian author has called it the âhuman propensity to f*** things up.â[4] This author writes this about sin: âItâs our active inclination to break stuff, âstuffâ here including moods, promises, relationships we care about, and our own well-being and other peopleâs, as well as material objects whose high gloss positively seems to invite a big fat scratch.â[5]
Now, you may think, âWhatâs the big deal? So what? We all screw things up? Who hasnât?â Well, the reason why this is all a big deal is because the âthingsâ that we foul up are not our own. They are Godâs. God is the very center of the universe. He is the goal of the universe. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end, and all things are made through him, to him, and for him. So, he has made everything, and therefore everything belongs to him. And that in