Applying the Bible

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. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. (Luke 17:31-33)

As we move forward to these verses, remember that the context Jesus was talking about is the end times, and He had told us the days would come when we desire to see Him come back and that false Messiahs would rise up but that we shouldn’t go out or follow them. With that in mind, Jesus is admonishing us to not cling to the things of this world, but to cling tightly to Him alone.

Jesus is about to mention the rapture (which we’ll dig into next week), and He’s prefacing it with a heart check.

We should not be concerning ourselves with the goods in the house and be focused on them as if we could even bring them with us in the end. Sure, we have houses, we have goods and things that we use to survive and maintain life while we’re here on earth, but those things are of no value to us in the end and will ultimately be left behind.

Our heart shouldn’t be concerned with what will be left behind in our house, but instead remembering and looking forward to where our home truly is in heaven.

It’s interesting that Jesus references an event all the way back in Genesis when talking about the end times, and that one little three worded sentence, Remember Lot’s wife, is a strong warning for us.

That word for “remember” means to be mindful of, to hold in your memory, to rehearse – and used in this context, it basically means to regularly be mindful of in order to learn a lesson from it.

In the account of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed, we read about Lot and his family being saved by angels right before it was destroyed. And the angels warned them not to look back or stop when they said “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” (Genesis 19:17)

Now this warning of not looking back or stopping was both a practical and spiritual one for them, because they needed to quickly get out and away so they didn’t get physically swept away in the destruction; but to look back and stop would also be a heart issue of longing for those days lived in those cities of sin. And yet, despite the warnings, we read that “Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26)

Lot’s wife wanted to preserve and longed for the life she had lived in that sinful city, despite being told not to, that the judgment of it was being preserved into a pillar of salt. Lot’s wife stopped and looked back at what she was told to turn away from and it destroyed her. But it wouldn’t have just happen all of a sudden, she was likely lingering in her mind and heart, longing to look and turn back, and what she set her mind on is what she did.

In light of all this – not loving things more than God and the fact that what Lot’s wife set her mind on is what she did – it brings to mind what Paul said in Colossians 3:2-4, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” If we are earthly minded, we are going to be more about the things of this world than the things above it. But if we are setting our minds on the things that are above, then we have Jesus as our focus and we truly have, regardless of what we lose in this world. And we have that as a guarantee because Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

This all comes down to our identity – are we of the world or in Christ? There is a stark contrast between one who is in love with the world and tries to preserve their identity in it, versus one who is in love with Jesus and is willing to lose their life to maintain their identity in Him and keep it.

Christ is everything! Therefore, may we heed the warning and remember Lot’s wife; always being willing to lose anything, to gain everything in Christ.

And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 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. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 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. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:22-30)

In the days of Jesus, the hope of the Messiah’s coming was strong. However, last week we saw that the teachers of the day were setting the expectation of Messiah based on misinterpretation of Scripture and their own desires for a political leader to rise up and free them from the rule of Rome. We know that Jesus truly is Messiah and He did come and fulfill hundreds of prophecies concerning the long-awaited Messiah. But the Jewish people largely did not accept Him as Messiah. However, this passage doesn’t only concern His first coming as the suffering servant that He is, but also refers to His second coming as well. That is important to note because it doesn’t only relate to the Jewish people, but to everyone.

Charles Feinberg, a Jewish man born in 1909 and who came to faith in Christ at the age of 21 and began teaching at Biola University in 1948, said that since Jesus’ time, there have been 64 different individuals who have claimed to be the Messiah. And considering Charles died in 1995, there are likely way more than that by now.

David M. Levy, the former director of International Ministries for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, noted that, “Modern Judaism (Reform) has reinterpreted the messianic hope. Instead of a “personal Messiah”, [they believe] there will come a messianic age which is brought about through the humanist progression of world leaders negotiating for peace.”

Isn’t that interesting, especially in light of the days to come that read about in Revelation. Jesus warned his disciples then and warns us now because He knew other false Messiah’s would rise up, and He knew the tendency of the people to recreate and interpret Scripture to fit their own idea of how things should go. How gracious of Jesus to give us this warning and help us be mindful to keep our eyes on Him and Him alone!

We have an account of the days of Noah and Sodom, which Jesus references here, preserved in the pages of our Bible. If we look back at what the days were like back then, we see this:

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. (Genesis 6:9-12)

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. (Genesis 20:1-7)

In our current days, is it really any different than those days? In fact, I’d say we’re probably worse. The very things that God has spoken against are the very things our culture tends to elevate as good. Paul warned about this in his day as well when he wrote to Timothy saying, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

So where does that leave us as followers of Jesus in this current era? What can we take away from this? The church in Thessalonica had concerns about the end times, the rapture, and second coming of Jesus too because false teachers had been saying that the second coming had already happened. But Paul wrote this to them:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Jesus warned us, Paul reiterated, and we encourage one another with the truth that while we don’t know the day or hour Jesus is coming, we do know that He’s coming for us and He’s coming soon. So, don’t focus on the world or the world’s claims about Jesus’ return, that will only lead you astray. Instead focus your attention on the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, not worrying about when Jesus comes back, but walking in the good works God has prepared for you with the knowledge that Jesus is coming back soon and desires to find that you have been a good and faithful servant.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

Here we see that the Pharisees questioned Jesus about the coming of the kingdom of God. They expected a grand, visible display that matched their misinterpretation of Scripture. They had envisioned a temporal kingdom with political power, not realizing that the true kingdom was spiritual and already among them. And when Jesus said that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you, He wasn’t talking about in a some kind of mystical way or New Age way, but was saying it was indeed a spiritual matter, not a physical one.

Now, the approach that the Pharisees were taking all started with a misinterpretation of Scripture and basing their perspective on that wrong interpretation of Scripture that had been born out of their fleshly desire to see Rome’s rule over them be broken. And in the Greek, that word for “observed” when Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed”, is better translated as hostile examination. The Pharisees’ demand for a visible sign revealed that they weren’t actually searching for truth, but instead once again showing hostility toward Jesus and His message.

But remember back when Jesus first started His ministry, He came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). The Pharisees heard that message, but it was pride that led them to reject the call to repentance and ultimately, because they had convinced themselves that the kingdom of God was going to be a temporal one, they blinded themselves to see the reality that it was a spiritual kingdom. And worst yet, they failed to see that the kingdom of God was in their midst as Jesus, the King of kings Himself, was standing right in front of them.

Matthew Henry, a late 17th Century bible commentator, said this, “It is the folly of many curious enquirers concerning the times to come that they look for that before them which is already among them.”

Similarly, in our own Christian walk, we might miss what God intends to reveal because we’re entrenched in our own expectations or interpretations. This isn’t speaking of salvation, but in our walk with God. But if we do this, we might miss out on what God is trying to show us, simply because we’re so caught up and focused on our own interpretation or desire of how things “should” be. But if we are so busy creating our own vision or goal of what we desire something to be, then how can we expect to see what God has already planned and desires it to be?

The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:14-15, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” But here’s the kicker – we can’t effectively look at two goals at the same time and if we try, neither get accomplished. That’s truly a recipe for frustration because you won’t be able to be successful in your own desires nor God’s, and while being successful in your own desires isn’t truly fulfilling apart from being faithful in God, being ineffective in both flesh and spirit will undoubtedly be used by the enemy against you.

If we are going to truly look forward and press on toward that upward call of God, then we can’t busy ourselves with making goals based on our own fleshly desires, otherwise it only serves to distract and possibly derail us.

The lesson as current followers of Jesus that we can learn from the Pharisees interaction with Jesus in these verses is this: We must seek to align ourselves with and focus on God’s vision rather than our own, remembering that the true kingdom of God is not found in our personal ambitions, but in recognizing and following the King of kings who is already present with us.

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19)

This scene is quite interesting because it shows us a great miracle that Jesus performed for ten men all at once, but also shows us the way most believing people respond, the way we should actually respond, and the way Jesus views it all.

Before we take a closer look at the general response to the healing, let’s first take notice of the fact that these ten men were in essence outcasts between two cities, standing at a distance from Jesus as He was passing along. The ailment of leprosy made them outcasts, and yet because of their ailment we see both Samaritans and Jews together. That was not a thing in those days because Jews and Samaritans despised each other. The cool thing is, these men were basically bonded together over their misery but together they all came to Jesus; yet they didn’t come to Jesus as Samaritans and Jews, they simply came to Jesus as men in need of healing.

We saw that these ten men came to Jesus for healing saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And instead of Jesus touching them to heal them like He had done with others, He simply said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” AND AS THEY WENT they were cleansed. This took obedience on the part of the ten men to do what Jesus said simply because He said to do it and without any indication that they would be healed on the way. They had come to Jesus claiming Him as master, and it was going to take obedience to prove they actually meant what they claimed.

Now, generally speaking, a Christian is going to obey what the Lord tells them to do. Of course, that’s not always the case, but we have that general understanding that if we are going to claim to be His servants and call Him Master, then we must be obedient to whatever He says. But in practice, that can be much easier said than done. We are called to walk by faith and quite literally, they had to physically walk to the priest by faith with the intention of showing themselves cleansed BEFORE they could see that they were cleansed.

Similarly, we are called to put on Christ and to walk in Him even though we still might feel like our old selves. Those men didn’t feel cleansed, but Jesus said to do it, so they went to do it – they trusted His words, acknowledging Him in their obedience over their own understanding, and Jesus directed their path to healing. They literally lived out Proverbs 3, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)

And yet, there’s an even better way when we don’t just stop at obedience.

We read even further that one of them, when he saw he was healed, returned to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

When we look at this situation as a whole, we see that all ten of the lepers were willing to obey the religious ceremonial requirements but only one was stirred with a heart of thanksgiving that brought him to worship at the feet of God.

And yet that one man’s response is the way we too should respond to Jesus. Obedience is a must, but how sweet that offering of thanksgiving and praise is to God. And when we examine even further, we see that Jesus desires us to have that kind of response and the text even tells us what He feels about those who don’t respond that way.

Let’s look again at Jesus’ response to this - Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Jesus missed the nine that didn’t come and He asks about them. Jesus wants us to come and expects that we will come with thankful hearts, having that attitude of gratitude before Him. And why wouldn’t we? Well, that gets deeper into yet another heart check area, doesn’t it?

If God does anything for us, no matter how big or small, shouldn’t we have a grateful heart of praise that we bring to Him? In our heads we know we should return to Him with thanksgiving and praise, and God does so much for us, so why don’t we do that every time?

I’m going to be really transparent here – for myself, I would say that if I’m not taking the time to sit still before God regularly, then my mind can easily get bogged down with doing things that I don’t stop long enough to have an attitude of gratitude. Or other times I may just have a selfish perspective, being so focused on how God’s work in my life affected me, that I don’t take the time to turn my eyes back to Him and offer thanksgiving for it. But I can’t actually answer that question for you personally. Maybe you can relate and maybe you can’t, but God can reveal why you don’t always return to thank Him – you just need to ask Him and then sit and wait for Him to tell you.

And here’s the thing, if we stop at obedience and don’t turn back to God in thanksgiving and praise, we effectively miss out on a blessing. God doesn’t need our praise, but our hearts do well to praise God because we were made to worship Him.

The very last thing that Jesus said to the one man who turned back to Him in praise was, your faith has made you well. On first reading of this, we assume that being made well is only referring to the physical healing of the man, but that word for being made well is to heal and make whole. All those ten men were healed, but it appears that only that one who returned to Jesus was made whole.

Jesus was speaking to the heart of the man. That man had been healed outwardly along the way as he exercised his faith in obedience, but it was in that man’s returning to Jesus to fall at His feet and worship in thanksgiving and praise, he was made inwardly whole.

Our physical healing in this life isn’t a guarantee that Jesus ever offered us, BUT making us whole and restoring our soul in Him is something He offers to us on this side of eternity. Being made whole inwardly happens when you come to Him again and again to receive rest, casting your cares on Him and making your requests known to God with thanksgiving; being still and knowing God, and waiting on Him as He renews your strength.

Jesus tells us all these promises and how to receive them, so the only question remains – will you come to God and take Him up on His promises, receiving them with thanksgiving and praise the way you were made to?

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:7-10)

Before we jump into these few verses, we need to look back to the beginning of the chapter to remember who Jesus was talking to here. In Luke 17:1, it says, “And he said to his disciples” so Jesus is talking not to the masses, but his disciples. Today, these are people who are saved and are servants of the Lord.

Jesus is talking to His disciples; these are the people who are serving with Him in the hard stuff day in and day out. These are the people who hare hard at work at the plow, who work through the blood, sweat, and tears for their master; and these are those tending the sheep, having a tender heart and care for them while baking under the hot sun each day.

And yet the master doesn’t call in the servant each day to stop working and recline at table with him; not because He hates His servants or doesn’t want them to rest, but because there’s still work to do.

Sometimes our hearts can get discouraged, especially if we had been plowing and then something happens where we can’t for a season. But there’s still work to do, and you are just as valuable whether you’re plowing, tending sheep, preparing supper, etc – because it’s a matter of your heart that what you’re doing is in service to your Master. There’s always something we can do to serve God, and there’s always some way we can do it.

If we take the context of what Jesus had told His disciples in the preceding verses, there is still the work of forgiving people and works of faith to be done. And you may even be physically disabled, but there is always ways for you to serve the Lord. I had a season of being completely physically disabled when I couldn’t walk, talk, and the whole right side of my body was paralyzed, but I was still able to pray in my heart even when my mouth couldn’t talk. I could still offer a one-armed hug to comfort others. And God was still pleased to allow me to serve in those ways.

Charles Spurgeon worded it very well when he said, “If you cannot go out ploughing, you shall go down into the kitchen, and do some cooking; and if you cannot feed the cattle, you shall bring up a dish of food for your Master. This is a change of work for you; but you are to keep on as long as you live.” (Spurgeon)

Jesus is talking to his disciples who are already serving, He’s not trying to tell them they need to serve, because they already are. Jesus’ goal here is teaching His disciples the proper perspective and attitude in serving. Pride so often becomes intertwined in how we think and it becomes a filter in which we view everything, whether we realize it or not. And Jesus doesn’t want us to have that filter of pride, He desires humble servants, especially in light of the fact that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6) The thing is, pride will have an affect on not only our perspective but on how effective our work is.

Unfortunately, there are many Christians who have an attitude of wanting to be seen as a type of “super Christian” and have a bolstered image before man, not stopping to really understand and acknowledge that the pride of that desire only serves as a broken and marred image before God. The reality of it though, is that we only think we’re better than other people and deserve praise when we look to man instead of Jesus. When we look to Jesus, we are faced with the full reality that He is everything and apart from Him, we are nothing. It’s in that reality of our place that we gain the correct perspective that God wants us to have.

God desires us to have an attitude of gratitude and a proper perspective that His pleasure comes before our own, and that we serve for His sake and not our own. Sure, we may want to serve in certain areas, but do we take the time to ask God where He wants us serving at any given time or are we serving for our own pleasure, our own desires, and our own goals?

Having a correct perspective and attitude comes from a place of truly understanding the reality of our place – our Master has done far greater things for us than we could ever do for Him. When we let our heads and our hearts align in understanding what the Father did for us in Jesus, our gratitude will overflow into an immense desire to serve Him and not serving for compliments, praise, or our own desires, but out of joy that we have the privilege of being allowed to serve Him at all.

We aren’t meant to be looking for compliments, thanks, or praise for our works here and now anyway. There will come a time when the work is done and we are called to enter into the joy of our master when we will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23) But that time is still yet to come.

While we serve here, looking for compliments, thanks, praise, and self-fulfillment will only serve to distract us and bolster our pride – instead let’s look only to Jesus, with hearts full of gratitude, and tune our ears into the Spirit to hear what God wants us serving in for this current season of our lives.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:5-6)

Have you ever heard someone say something like, “All it takes a mustard seed of faith”? This is where that is coming from, BUT the meaning gets lost in well-meaning statements like that.

When we think of a mustard seed, it’s really tiny – approximately 1mm in length. And Jesus said that if we had faith like a grain of mustard seed we could uproot trees with our words and plant it in the sea and it would obey us. Now most people take the view that all it takes is a small amount of faith – even as small as a mustard seed, BUT here’s where the issue comes in – we don’t even have that tiny amount of faith.

Jesus often said, “O you of little faith” because it’s true of us as mankind. Jesus wasn’t trying to give us a pep talk that we just need to muster up a small seed size of faith; He’s explaining that we don’t have as much faith as we might think we do.

It can be easy to get sucked into thinking we’re more than we are. I’m sure when the disciples said, “Increase our faith!” they didn’t realize just how much of an increase they really needed. But by Jesus mentioning the amount of faith being likened to a mustard seed and the impact of that faith, it helps to visually put into perspective that we have even less faith than that, while simultaneously encouraging us to have more faith.

None of us have had this amount of faith – not enough to fill a grain of mustard seed, but fortunately we have a great example of someone who did. Take a look back in Luke 8 when Jesus calmed the storm:

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25)

Jesus had enough faith to command the storm to cease and the winds and waters obeyed. And the very next question Jesus asked His disciples was, “Where is your faith?”

Now, let’s be super clear here; having faith isn’t about being able to control nature – winds, waters, trees, and seas – but if we all had even the tiniest amount of faith like a grain of mustard seed, oh how different our lives would be! How free we would be to serve the Lord without hindrance of doubt and fear if we had faith like that. So why don’t we?

Our hearts desire should be like that of the apostles as they said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” But before we get to a place of wanting our faith increased, we must come to the realization that we are lacking faith. That’s a place that drives us to go to God with our lack, ask for help, and receive from His abundance.

This takes a humble heart. A heart that acknowledges that our faith is smaller than even a tiny little mustard seed. A heart that’s desperate to have faith that could move mountains that would bring God glory through our obedience.

Let’s take a heart check moment here – do you acknowledge your lack of faith?

Take time to sit before the Lord with this acknowledgement and wait on Him. Renew your strength in waiting on Him. And as He increases your faith, rise up with wings like eagles and soar in your walk with Him as He guides you through every step of your life. And may we never stop saying to our Lord, “Increase our faith!”

And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 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. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:1-4)

These four little verses are packed full! So, let’s break it down, shall we?

Jesus starts this off by making it perfectly clear that temptations to sin are inevitable. Even in the Garden of Eden before sin was ever committed, temptation preempted the sin. How much more will there be temptations in the fallen and sinful world we live in. BUT Jesus immediately follows it with woe to the one through whom they come!

That word “woe” is primarily an exclamation of grief and carries a proclamation of divine penalty. That little three letter word should stop everyone in their tracks and cause an ear to be tuned in to heed the warning.

This is not the only time we see this woe pronounced either. There was a string of woes directed at the scribes and Pharisees by Jesus in Matthew 23. And when speaking of Judas Iscariot during His last Passover meal before going to the cross, Jesus said, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” (Matthew 26:24)

The key to understanding who this woe applies to is in understanding what the temptations to sin are.

In the Greek, this phrase “temptations to sin” is one word, skandalon, and it means a trap or a stumbling block. In the instance of a trap, it refers to a bent stick that is used to trigger a trap, in the instance of a stumbling block it refers to something that is put in the way in order to cause someone to stumble and fall, such as a rock.

The word skandalon is also translated as “causes of sin” when Jesus said, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:41-42)

That brings us right back to what Jesus further said in His woe by whom the stumbling comes through - It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea. Being purposeful in leading others astray and into sin is a serious matter to God. A person who leads others into sin is following the footsteps of satan. And God is saying that a horrible death of a millstone hung around their neck and cast into the ocean to die from asphyxiation as water slowly fills their lungs is better than the judgement they will get from doing so.

Now as we read this, there are any number of people that may come to your mind who fit the profile of stumbler, yet the very next sentence Jesus says is Pay attention to yourselves!

This is a warning to us – both to the fact that temptations to sin will come as well as against being a person who stumbles others.

As children of God, we should never desire to nor actually purposefully stumble our siblings in Christ, nor lead other people astray from coming to Christ. And per usual, the way of keeping ourselves from becoming evil doers who seek to stumble people is by abiding in God:

“…but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.” (1 John 2:5-6,10)

This last little section of verses here goes into rebuking other siblings in Christ who sins and forgiving them.

Now rebuke is a strong word and it can often take on a meaning of its own if we’re not careful. In this context, the word rebuke literally means to charge someone with wrong IN ORDER to restrain them. Restrain them from what? From the sin they’re engaged in, and ultimately the consequences of said sin. Rebuking is always supposed to be done with love as the motive and for the purpose of separating the brother/sister from the sin in order that they would repent and be restored.

But if we in any way are mixing our flesh into rebuking anyone, that’s going to produce the wrong kind of grief. Paul laid it out clearly to the Corinthian church when he said, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

We must be on guard and pay attention to ourselves, lest we rebuke our brother/sister in our flesh and then cause them to stumble.

Now, on the other side of repentance is forgiveness. This is the natural, godly flow. We should see this in our own lives: we sin, God convicts and rebukes us, we repent, He forgives us – or at least that’s the intended flow.

We do need to be careful not to conflate these two things though – stumbling blocker and sin againster. The word for sin in “he should cause one of these little ones to sin” is different than the word for sin used in all the references to a brother sinning. The word for sin when referencing a little one being caused to sin is skandalizō and the root word is skandalon. But the word for sin when referencing a brother is hamartanō, which is to miss the mark – what we mostly think of when sin is referenced since we miss the mark of perfection, of which Jesus is the standard.

So yes, we are called to forgive all who sin against us, whether they do it on purpose or not, but in this context, Jesus is saying that when our brothers or sisters in Christ miss the mark and sin against us, we are to forgive them.

And the seven times phrasing isn’t saying you should keep count and only up to seven times should you forgive them. To do that wouldn’t be loving since 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus wasn’t trying to narrow our understanding of forgiveness by giving us a number, He was broadening it. Seven is a number of completion, and Jesus is indicating that again and again, we should be forgiving one another.

When we think of how many times we sin against Jesus, whether we know it or not, is He not faithful to forgive us again and again? Likewise, if we’re going to love one another as Christ loves us, just as Jesus commanded us to, then that includes forgiving one another.

As followers of Jesus, let’s pay attention to ourselves and not stumble anyone, and be quick to forgive our siblings in Christ again and again, just like Jesus does for us.

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:19-31)

As this chapter moves along, we shift from direct conversation with the Pharisees to Jesus telling a story about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. Now this section of Scripture is interesting because there’s some question as to whether it’s a real story or a parable that Jesus is telling. Let’s go ahead and dive into that real quick before we dig into the meat of it.

If we look at this compared to other parables that Jesus told, often times we’d see a precursor given, such as in Luke 14:7 where it says, “Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them…” and in Luke 15:2-3, where it says, “And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable…” Yet in this section of Scripture there is no precursory context given.

In the parables that were clearly called out as parables, no names were used; in this section of Scripture, we are given the name of the poor man, Lazarus and Abraham is named.

We are also given context that this place where the rich man ends up is a place of anguish, torment, and flames. In Matthew 13:49-50, after Jesus told the Parable of the Net, He adds, “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And again, in Mark 9:43-48 in reference to temptations to sin, Jesus said, “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” These other times when Jesus references hell, it’s literal.

In many examples throughout the gospel, Jesus would tell a parable and then give some kind of statement of truth or that would provide a bit of understanding afterwards. As He is talking to the Pharisees and has given them many parables in short succession, I believe this story of the rich man and Lazarus is a true story and not a parable. Could I be wrong? Of course! But does that change the truth of the context, not at all! With that, I tell you this simply because I am going to approach this from a true story standpoint.

This story continues in the line of thought that those who choose to embrace the life of the world now, will end up in anguish on the other side of eternity. Now that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy life and eat nice food or whatnot, but that’s not what this rich man was doing. The word in the Greek for clothed in indicates an investment into the clothing, and the purple and fine linen indicate an extravagance of attire that went far beyond just clothes to cover nakedness. And the phrase “feasted sumptuously” literally means to rejoice in lavishness. In essence, the wording here tells us that the rich man was not simply enjoying the life he had been blessed with, the earthly pleasures were what he lived for.

That’s a stark contrast to the way Lazarus lived. And it’s not about the amount of money they each had. We don’t need to be dirt poor and have dogs lick our wounds to end up in heaven. It is implied that Lazarus had a faith in God because when he died, it says he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side, which is often what has been referred to as Abraham’s Bossom – being a place of rest for those who had faith counted as righteousness before Jesus died, descended to get them, and brought to them to heaven, which is referenced in Ephesians 4:8 where it says, Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

Ultimately, the rich man chose to live for the temporal, BUT WE must choose to live for the eternal.

Everyone will realize the error of their ways, either now in which they repent and spend eternal life in heaven, or once they die but it will be too late, and they will spend eternity in hell.

I’ve heard many say that God would have to be a mean God to send people to hell, but that’s the thing – He doesn’t! Jesus made this very clear in the conversation He had with Nicodemus in John 3. Right after John 3:16, the verse which outlines salvation, He followed it with, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:17-19) God doesn’t wish anyone to perish, He wants them to come to repentance!

God wants everyone to be saved through Jesus so much so that He sent messages through His prophets and the Law and Jesus fulfilled them. The problem has never been with God, but the lack of acceptance by people of the words He gave through the Law and the Prophets. Jesus even told the Pharisees that plainly when He said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)

So, in this story when the rich man wants Abraham to send Lazarus back to preach repentance to his family, Abraham tells him ‘They have Moses [the Law] and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ Notice that the same message that Abraham told him is the same message today – one can be told the truth of the gospel, but they have to hear it for themselves and obey by repenting. If someone does not believe and receive salvation through what God has given, the mystery of Christ revealed, then nothing will ever convince them. Even Jesus being raised from the dead hasn’t persuaded people, so if they choose to reject not even the greatest of miracles, then they will unfortunately reap the consequences of their rejection.

As followers of Jesus, how do we respond to a story like this? First of all, it should result in praising and thanking God for saving us from the condemnation we deserve! Second, we got a glimpse into the spiritual world and an event in which a condemned man realized in his torment that he wished he could have even a moment of his anguish quenched and wished he could warn others who weren’t dead yet.

Now unlike the rich man in hell, we know this truth now and we’re still here on this side of eternity – so WE CAN warn others who aren’t dead yet. And we should. We have the Law and the Prophets and the whole New Testament that brings the whole mystery of Christ together to understand how they spoke of Jesus.

Let’s remember this each and every day so that when the opportunities arise to share our faith and the good news of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, we don’t shy away for whatever reason. May we see not only the outside of people but be willing to sacrifice our social comfort for the well-being of their eternal souls; being good ambassadors for Christ as we allow God to make His appeal of reconciliation through us to a lost and dying world.

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. (Luke 16:14-18)

Since these last verses on divorce and adultery tends to get sectioned off as its own little segment by those who broke down the section titles in the Bible, I’ve included the previous verses for context. But just like we saw last week where Jesus seemingly took a turn into another topic, He’s actually still on the topic of the heart here. He’s just using another example to His initial point that they were justifying themselves before men, but that God knows the heart.

Before we jump in here to this, I know divorce can be a touchy topic, especially in our culture where the divorce rate is almost half of all marriages. As we look at what Scripture says on this, it isn’t to point fingers at you or anyone else, this is simply the section of Scripture we happen to be in and we’re looking to grow in the Lord and understand His word.

Jesus makes a clear claim that everyone who divorces and marries another is committing adultery. As we look at this, we have to take this in context to the rest of Scripture, because far too often it’s verses like these that get used as weapons and chains of captivity and that is not the heart of God here. God never intends for His word to be weaponized to keep people captive in abusive relationships.

We get more insight into what Jesus said on divorce in Matthew 19 where it says, And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:3-9)

Paul also spoke to divorce details in 1 Corinthians 7, with the instruction that divorce shouldn’t happen, but that if a believer has an unbelieving spouse who will not stay married to them, let it be so and let the unbelieving spouse leave.

What we need to remember here is that in the whole context of all these verses is the same thing – these are issues of the heart.

Remember in Matthew 5 where Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28) As we look at what Jesus has said about adultery and divorce, we need to remember the true issue of the heart here because that’s where the Pharisees were going wrong, was justifying sins of the heart with a perspective of having purity of the body.

In the days of Moses and beyond, divorce became an option that was deemed acceptable as long as proper protocols were followed, such as a certificate of divorce. Yet God doesn’t want what He joined together to be separated by man.

Now in light of the verses in Matthew 5 that talks about anyone who looks at someone with lust commits adultery, there honestly aren’t many marriages in which a spouse hasn’t committed adultery then because lusting in the heart is such an unseen thing. The ultimate ideal would be repentance and reconciliation, whether committed with only the heart or also with the body. But if sexual sins are committed, these are where the exemptions come into play.

It is gracious of God though, to expressly word exemptions such as sexual immorality or an unbelieving spouse leaving. Otherwise, there would be people who stay in abusive relationships with their spouse habitually cheating or watching pornography or in sexual abuse or the like, and that’s not the purpose of God saying He doesn’t want divorce.

In an ideal world, people would get married, have a perfectly blessed marriage, never battle with sexual sins, and be married till death parts them. But we don’t live in a perfect world and God, in His knowledge and grace and mercy and love, fully understanding the mental, physical, and emotional limits of our humanness when a spouse commits these sins against us, gives a way out in those extreme circumstances.

The main reason the topic of divorce and adultery came up as an example was because the Pharisees had been justifying sins and exalting among men what is an abomination in the sight of God. They took things like marriage, given in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of time, and they perverted it. They allowed divorce for little to no real reason at all and then justified themselves before men, when all along God saw their hearts were hard.

When it comes down to it, the whole purpose of bringing up divorce was to point out the wrongful exaltation of sin and justification of it. Whether you’re single, married, or divorced, – the underlying lesson remains true and can be applied across the board and is the lesson Jesus is teaching here in these verses; don’t exalt and justify among men what is sinful in the sight of God.

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. (Luke 16:14-17)

Jesus had just told quite a few parables about the kingdom of God, God’s heart and perspective, that we can go astray and how much joy it brings God when we repent, and that we cannot serve God and money – really hitting home that the issues of sin are a heart issue, not a ‘how good you can act outwardly’ issue. And even after all that, it says that the Pharisees ridiculed Jesus.

The text gives us context here as to why the Pharisees ridiculed Jesus and it was because they were lovers of money. They had just been told by Jesus that they cannot serve God and money and since they were lovers of money, it apparently hit close to home and they didn’t like it, so they ridiculed Him in response.

That word “ridiculed” in the Greek means to scoff, deride, or turn up the nose at. This wouldn’t be the last time they do this to Jesus either. The next and only other time this Greek word is used is in Luke 23:25 during Jesus’ crucifixion where it says, And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”

Unfortunately, the ridicule or scoffing over the truth that one cannot serve God and money would continue to drive the scoffing at the cross as Truth Himself looked back at them as He died to offer them redemption of their souls.

It’s pretty cool to notice here that Jesus didn’t react with an outburst of upset when they ridiculed Him, He responded again with truth that got to the heart of the matter – their hearts.

Jesus, who we know doesn’t look at the outward appearance but looks at the heart, told them a few poignant truths about themselves: They were justifying themselves before men, God knows their hearts, and what was exalted before men is an abomination before God. These were undoubtedly hard things to hear, but Jesus told them for their benefit because He loved them.

Yet, the specific things that Jesus pointed out were bound to cause one of two responses – either, pushing away due to a prideful heart or drawing near due to a humble and repentant heart. And these are the responses we get to choose from when faced with things Jesus tells us too - push God away or draw near to Him.

As Jesus mentions the Law and Prophets, it would seem that He moved into a whole new topic but in actuality, He’s still on the same topic. All of this is in context to the heart and the fact that in our flesh we seek to justify ourselves before men, but that God knows our hearts.

Jesus mentioned the Law and Prophets right before mentioning that the good news of the kingdom of God had been preached. The Pharisees didn’t exactly put this together, not realizing that the Law and Prophets all spoke of Him, but this is what Jesus is telling them. And He adds that everyone forces his way into it – this is speaking of the misunderstanding of the Law and Prophets and thinking that outward observance of the Law would save them.

As the people read/heard the Law and Prophets, they had a desire for their Messiah to come set them free physically from their captivity under the Romans, not really understanding that He would come to set them free spiritually from their sin under death. When Jesus came and John the Baptist had made straight His paths, they both preached repentance and that the kingdom of God had come. But the people tried to force their misaligned perspectives into the mix and even used that as a reason to justify to themselves and others that Jesus wasn’t their long-awaited Messiah, as they continued to try to force their way into it.

Yet, Jesus was reaffirming that He would indeed fulfill the Law when He said that it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. Jesus knew His calling and mission, and nothing was going to deter Him from it.

Remember those two responses that were mentioned when Jesus points out specific heart issues? We read that the Pharisees pushed away, staying prideful and justifying themselves before men, but it doesn’t have to be that way for us. We can learn from their mistakes and when God puts these hard truths in front of us to face, we can draw near to Him with a humble and repentant heart, ready for Him to cut that out of our hearts and mold and shape us more into His image.

For the Pharisees, there were the things of their day that was exalted among men that was an abomination in the sight of God. But what about in our current day? These are issues like the sanctity of life and marriage – that abortion is murdering a child and that marriage between anyone other than one man and one woman is perversion of the institution of marriage that God designed. These are issues like exalting loving self, money, and attention of others – all of which are selfish endeavors that lead to emptiness and lead us astray from the relationship God desires to have with us.

The list of things that are exalted among man and are wrong before God is honestly too long to list here, because we live in very evil days. We live in a sinful world which has had thousands of years to pervert the perfectness that God created everything in. BUT if we are making it a habit to sit still in the presence of God and know Him, then we will make it a habit to be holy as He is holy, and not exalting worldly ideals which are an abomination in His sight.

So then, the question becomes – in our hearts, do we WANT to justify ourselves before men and exalt those types of things before men or not?

It is often times much easier to live that way because it puts us in the driver’s seat of life, which our pride loves, and prevents any conflict with those in the world if we just go with the flow, even if it’s an abomination in God’s sight. But we all know that’s not right because the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8), but we have to stand up for and act on what we know is right and not just know it in our head and keep it to ourself.

If God is convicting your heart on something – maybe you’ve been justifying yourself, keeping quiet on things that aren’t right in God’s sight or maybe even going along with them, or possibly like the Pharisees you’ve been serving money. I’m not here judging or condemning you, but I whole-heartedly encourage you to take some time to ask God to search you and reveal anything that’s not been pleasing to Him. And if He brings anything to your attention, then resolve to stop, repent, and look up to serve God and do what is pleasing in His sight.