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Continuing in our study of Luke. So today we are in chapter seven. I’m gonna read a little longer passage for you today. This is gonna be Luke 7, verses 18 through 35. And if you’re using one of the pew Bibles, it’s on page 503.

So Luke 7:18-35.

So let me read the sacred text and then we’ll pray and then we get to work. As I mentioned, we’ve got a lot to cover today, so please hear the words of our God. So Luke wrote this. The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling to his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord saying, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?

And when the man had come to him, they said, john the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits and many who were blind. He bestowed sight and he answered them, go tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. The poor have good news preached to them.

Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind. What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing.

Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings courts. What then did you go out and see? A prophet? Yes. I tell you more than a prophet.

This is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, and he will prepare your way before you.

I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. Yet the one who is the least of the kingdom of God is greater than he. When all the people heard this in the text, collectors too, they declared God just had been baptized by the baptism of John. The Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him till at the end. Shall I compare this people, the people of this generation?

And what are they like? Like children sitting in the marketplace, calling out to one another. We played the flute for you. You do not dance. We sang a dirge.

You need not weep for John the Baptist came. He eating no bread and drinking no wine. And you say he is a demon. The Son of man has come, eating and drinking. You say look at him.

A glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, I pray that you would bless this time for our good and for your glory. Please help me to be a good communicator. Help me not to stumble over my words, hoping not to speak that which is not true. Keep me from error. And Lord, pray for the congregation that you give them ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and pray song in Jesus name.

Amen. So, as mentioned many times over the years, I became a Christian in my early 20s, where things of God became very real to me. For me, I actually had a little bit more of a dramatic conversion where I distinctly remember where I was when Christ drew me to himself. So in small ways I can identify with the Apostle Paul in the moment of my conversion, where it felt like scales fell from my eyes in order for me to see Christ. Then after I was converted, my excitement for the Scriptures, the things of God was, was very real.

I could not get enough of God’s Word and the truth found in it. However, for me, some of that excitement started to challenge maybe six months to a year or so into my Christian walk, where I began to experience my real, first real crisis of faith, where for the first time I actually battled some real doubts. And this crisis of faith, this battle of doubts is brought on because of a couple of truths found in Scripture that I could not reconcile in my own heart and mind. That kind of put me into a tailspin, simply could not understand the truth of God being sovereign over all things, where nothing happens outside of his counsel of his will, his divine election, how that fits in the truth. We also see in Scripture that mankind, like, we’re not just like robots, but we’re responsible for our actions, our choices, including responsible for the call of Christ to respond to it in ways that we repent and we believe in Him.

For me, I cannot understand how these two truths could work together and as mentioned, put me into a tailspin in my new faith where I began to struggle with some real doubts. That is, until I met someone who’s older and wiser than me in the faith. Help me trust God’s Word and what it says over my own limited understanding by having the trust that there’s just some truths in Scripture that we might not fully ever grasp that they’re a mystery to us. Because for us to actually be able to fully grasp them, we’d actually need to be God, One whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, where to him and him alone belong secret things that are beyond that are beyond our human understanding, which includes some truths in Scripture that are beyond some of our human understanding, like how divine sovereignty and human responsibility, how to fit together as well as shows how God is at work in our life and the world around us where God is working out his great plan to unite all things together in Christ. We’re in this plan.

Some of these things just don’t make sense to us. They’re a mystery to us, they’re confusing to us. And for my older, wiser friend, these mysteries should not draw drive us from God, rather drive us to God to trust in him, to trust in his word, to trust in his good plan in ways that we worship him as God, the God who is so much greater than we. Which for me, not only is this the right counsel, but this is such helpful counsel, encouraging counsel I needed here then, but also I’ve visited many times in my 20 plus years of being a Christian where I have been learning that my doubts should not cause me to run from God, but to run to God, the One who is so much greater than I, the One who is there to help me in my unbelief with his grace and his wisdom and peace, which also surpass my understanding. Now tell you that story today just to help set us up for the story that I just read for you from Luke concerning John the Baptist, who in the text Jesus honored as one who was great.

Back in the text, of those born of a woman, Jesus said none was greater than John. Yet we see in this text that even in John’s greatness John had doubts. We’re in this text. It seems like John almost had like, had like a crisis of faith where he’s having a hard time understanding Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, the plan with Jesus, where John is having such a hard time reconciling these things in his own heart and how God was at work around in the world around him, as mentioned, began to have wonder and doubt if indeed Jesus was the Christ. For us to work through this story, there’s a couple things that I hope can come from this time.

So first, as you work through this story this morning, I do hope it’s a comfort to you and any doubts that you might have in your own faith concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. So unfortunately in this life doubts are going to be a reality that we face. So as you have doubts in your life I hope it’s comforted you that John the Baptist, the great John the Baptist, had doubts. And not only that, in this text, as John had his doubts, we see that Jesus actually didn’t shame him. Rather, Jesus ministered to John through his Word, which is the second hope I have for us in this time, as doubts come your way.

My hope is that we follow the model of this passage and let the doubts that are creeping into our heart, let them compel you to by faith to actually go to Jesus and ways that he is ministering to you from His Word. So by grace you would trust in him as God, even if you’re having a hard time reconciling things in your own heart. Okay, so that was introduction. Please look back with me at the texts. We can work through it just kind of verse by verse.

So see in verse 18, the disciples of John, which is referring to John the Baptist. So we met a few different times already in our study of Luke, starting already in chapter one, we learned that he was born of a mother, Elizabeth and Zechariah, where he learned in chapter one that John would be the promised prophet of God who would prepare the way for the Christ to come. We also learned that John and his family related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as it appears that Elizabeth and Mary were cousins. We were in chapter one, that John, as he first came in contact with Jesus when each other were still in each other’s mother’s wombs, that John leapt in his mom’s womb as he leapt before Jesus. Our text disciples of John came to, came to him, and they did so by giving a report to John, which in the text is a report of all of these things.

Now, all these things in verse 18 is referring to all the things and no doubt more the things. We’ve been working through the last several weeks in our study of the Luke, where we have read reports that Luke recorded for us, which took place during the public ministry of Jesus Christ, some assume. And these reports coming to John’s ear probably would include reports of like the teaching ministry of Jesus, which was his primary ministry as Jesus came to preach and teach God’s Word to fulfill the Scripture. No doubt reports also shared with John included some of the miracles that Jesus was performing throughout the region, including like casting out of the demons, the healing of the sick and the lame. In our text, last week, if you were here, report a young man that Jesus brought back from the dead.

And all these reports that came to John, they had to be incredible reports for him to hear. Incredible even Though as mentioned, Jesus was like his relative. I’m guessing at least in small levels, John grew up with Jesus. Or most likely John would have been told about Jesus being the Christ from when he was born of Mary, the his mother who was a virgin. Furthermore, I’m guessing John probably would have witnessed some of the various things of Jesus life that was a sinless life that he lived.

In chapter three of Luke, which we went through a few weeks back, we read how John baptized Jesus, whereas he was baptized Jesus. Remember how the Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove where God the Father spoke from heaven, declaring Jesus to be the Son with whom he was well pleased. So in some ways I’m sure John was not shocked by these incredible reports of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m sure in some ways they made sense to him. However, in the text, as John heard all of these reports, rather than these reports like further filling his heart with faith, further causing him to leap with joy over Jesus, we see that as John received the reports, he had his doubts.

In fact, he had some real doubts concerning Jesus. So in verse 19, John called two of his disciples to himself to send them on a mission on his behalf, which is a mission to go to Jesus, and simply asked the lord in verse 19, a very straightforward question. Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another meaning Jesus? Are you indeed the promised Christ of the Scripture or are you not? Which by the way, I’m assuming for John’s entire life he probably was told that Jesus was the Christ.

I’m guessing for most of his life he probably believed to be true, particularly when he baptized Jesus, that Jesus was the Christ. Not. My guess is he probably even testified to that truth to others. But now in our text, John is not so sure, began to wonder and doubt that which he heard, that which he professed to believe that it actually was true. So he sent word to Jesus to see what Jesus had to say.

Now, a few things here. So first, as we work through the rest of the story, I do not think that John’s doubt were an indication that he did not have faith in God. I think throughout the Gospel of Luke, John is presented as a man of great faith in God. However, even for this great man of faith, even he had doubts that crept in. And by the way, this is true of so many heroes in the Scriptures as well as throughout church history.

For so many of the heroes have battled doubts unbelief, on different fronts. Let’s do the second thing. So then why was John doubting here? Obviously for us, it’s hard to know why, but let me give you a couple reasons that most scholars pointed as possible contributing factors for John, factors I think that we actually can identify with that might cause us to doubt as well. So first, perhaps John doubted Jesus because of his current life situation, which for John was not a favorable situation.

Now, for us, we don’t see in our text today, but as Matthew as he recorded this scene in his gospel, Matthew included a detail on why John had to send someone to Jesus rather than going to himself. And that detail was that John actually couldn’t go himself because he was locked up in prison, which was brought on because John proclaimed the truth as he called people to repent and believe in God. So for John in this scene, he was in a very unfavorable situation. We’re in prison. No doubt he’s facing various forms of suffering where no doubt he had like lots of time on his hands.

And as we know, when we’re idle, when we have a lot of time on our hands, we can get into our own heads. And in our own heads, we don’t always come up with the right conclusions. Potentially for John, this less than ideal situation was leading him to have some doubts. That’s what I’m sure that we can identify with. I mean, just think in our own life, when things are just not adding up in our own life the way we want, how easy it is to doubt, how prone we are to wonder.

As we just sang, we have a hard time reconciling how God loves us, how he’s good to us, how he’s sovereign, yet our life situation feels so far less than ideal. That’s one potential reason why John had these doubts. Second potential reason why John had the doubts in the text revolve around who it was who put John in prison, which was the Roman appointed leader of the area, Herod the Tetrarch, as he put John in prison because John was like calling him out in his sin. For John, like so many others in this period, the expectation of the Christ who was to come was that the Christ would lead some type of military or political conquest by which Israel would drive out the Romans who ruled over the land. So for John, as he sat in prison because of Rome, as this Roman ruler, perhaps he began to doubt Jesus.

If Jesus really was the Christ, why wasn’t he doing something more to this end? Why is he not kicking out Rome? I mean, after all the reports that John just got, he would have learned there’s a huge crowd following after Jesus. So why didn’t the Lord like empower the crowd to revolt against Rome? Why didn’t he just do like some type of military miracle, maybe perform so many other miracles, why couldn’t he just do a military miracle?

I’m sure for John, like so many generations of Israel prayed, the Lord has sent to Christ to do something on this end to get rid of Rome that is set in prison. Nothing. Instead, Rome appeared to have just as much, if not more power and control than they ever had. So perhaps that’s why John began to doubt. To doubt, question.

You know, what was Jesus doing in the world around him? Once again, probably something we can identify here as well. We look in the world around us, we watch the news, things don’t make sense.

Begin to question, where is Jesus in any of this?

Why is he not doing something?

No, not sure exactly why John had his doubts. It does seem like these potential reasons was probably a factor for him. Keep going. Verse 20 we see these two men from John as they left him, we see that they found Jesus and they said to Jesus, Jesus, John the Baptist has sent us to you with a message. Really more of a question.

Jesus, can you tell us plainly, are you the one who is to come? Are you the long awaited, the long promised Christ that we’ve been telling others you are? Or were we wrong and shall we look for another?

Do we miss something here? Right now we’re having a hard time reconciling things. This question here recorded twice in the text by Luke. So the anniversary 18 are you the one who is to come or should look after another? Now again, verse 20 Are you the one who is to come or you should look for another?

I think this is Luke stressing a point like there’s real doubts here. There’s a real crisis of faith here. As John came to Jesus through His two disciples. Verse 21 as Jesus heard the straightforward question, rather than giving them the answer right away, Jesus did the thing that only Jesus could do on his own accord. And in that hour he healed many people.

He healed those who are suffering from disease and plagues to heal those who are suffering from evil spirits. In the text we read how you healed the blind so they could see. And after Jesus did these incredible acts in front of the disciples of John, which I’m sure caused them to maybe feel a little silly for having these questions of doubt, which by the way, perhaps we could identify this as well, where we can really struggle with some type of crisis of faith, some doubts, only for the Lord to do something that only he can do in our life that gives us peace and assurance, but pushes away the doubts, at least for the moment where we can’t even believe why we ever doubted. In the text, after the miracles that Jesus performed, we see that he turns back to the disciples of John to help them understand what he just did actually was the answer to their question. Because what he just did was he fulfilled the scriptures and what the scriptures said would be true of the Christ who was to come.

Verse 22 if you take your eyes there, Jesus answered them, hey, go back and you tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are clean or cleaned, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preach to them in this response. This is Jesus speaking scripture as he used several passages from the Old Testament book Isaiah to form this response. Passages that were declaring that what the Messiah would look like when he came. So let me just read these passages to you and just listen how they’re found in verse 22 of our text.

So from Isaiah 26:19, your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in their dust, awake and sing for joy. For your dew is the dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. Isaiah 35 verses 5 through 6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. Isaiah 42 verses 6 through 7. I will give you as a covenant for the people a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind. Isaiah 42, verse 18. Hear you deaf and look you blind, that you may see one more mention.

All these are speaking about the Christ who is to come. Isaiah 61:1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. For us this morning the answer that Jesus gave to satisfy the doubts of John his disciples was scripture.

So by the truth of God’s word they would be set free from their doubts.

Verse 23 after the Lord spoke scripture to the disciples of John, he shared with them that blessed is the one who is not offended by me, which here it seems to me like Jesus is really challenging the hearts of John’s disciples who perhaps in their doubts were starting to like almost like be offended by the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not doing the thing that they wanted him to do. Well, perhaps this verse here is maybe more of a challenge of the crowd around him. Jesus is certainly going to challenge Here in just a second. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

This verse here, John or Jesus is challenging both John disciples as well as the crowd, who maybe were a bit offended by the ministry of the Lord Jesus, particularly in what he was not doing in terms of overthrowing Rome. I think we identify with this here. We’re in our own life, perhaps we’re offended by the Lord Jesus, what he’s doing, not doing. Keep rolling. Verse 24.

The conversation between Jesus and disciples of John came to this conclusion and the messengers had gone back to John to give them this report from Jesus. We see. Then the Lord turned to the crowd to speak to them about John. And as Jesus did this, we see that he didn’t speak ill will about John. He didn’t like criticize him for having doubts.

He didn’t shame John in front of everyone. Like of his example, what not to do. Like crowd, do not be like John. We see Jesus showed honor towards John, this one who had his doubts, saying to the crowd, what did you go out and see in the wilderness? That’s what I was referring to.

Luke 3, where John’s ministry of calling, of repentance and baptism took place in the wilderness, the Jordan River. So you see the crowd. So many went out to the wilderness to sit under the ministry of John. So crowd, what did you see was in Texas? Rhetorical question by Jesus.

And he answered them. Did you see like a reed shaken by the wind with a clear answer? So that. Or answer that question. No, that’s not John.

He wasn’t some type of like weak individual who was like easily shaken like a reed in the wind. So I like keep that in mind as you think about the doubts that he had in the story. Wasn’t a weak person. Verse 25, same question. Then.

What did you go see? Right. Another rhetorical question. Was it a man dressed in soft clothing? Is that what you saw?

Meaning, was John some type of privileged individual who lived a life of ease, who could afford expensive clothing? The answer in the text, nope, John was not that either. John wore a garment of coarse camel hair and a leather belt. This is not clothing of luxury, but actually a picture of repentance. So in the text, behold those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury, they don’t wear what John wore.

Those are the ones who wear soft clothing. There’s folks, they’re not out like in the wilderness like John, eating locusts and wild honey. Those types of individuals who are privileged, they’re in the king’s court eating the finest Meals. So clearly that wasn’t John, verse 26. So yet again, right a third time.

What then did you go out and see? Only for this time, Jesus gave the people the right answer to his rhetorical question. What did you see when you went to look at John? I’ll tell you what you saw. You saw a prophet.

That is who John is. A prophet of the one true and living God. And not just any prophet. Jesus said that John was like more than just a prophet, but John was the very prophet who was written about in Scripture, saying, behold, I will send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. It’s here.

This is not Jesus quoting Malachi 3 of a prophet who would come to prepare the way for the Christ this year. This is Jesus showing real honor towards John, even though John had his doubts, which is honor, Jesus only continued to show him in verse 28, saying to the crowd, I tell you, among those born of a woman, none is greater than John. I mean, no one has a resume greater than his. Even though I keep saying the context of the passage. He’s struggling with doubts, confused, maybe even offended by the ministry of Jesus, that John, John the Baptist, was the one who is the great prophet who was to come, the one with the great resume that no one could rival.

Which keep going on the theme here. I hope this encouragement to any of us here this morning and doubts that you’re battling, or maybe you have confusion concerning Jesus and how he’s guiding your life in ways that maybe you wouldn’t have hoped or anticipated, or maybe even having some hard time not being offended by the ministry of Jesus, maybe some of the standards he’s calling us all to live by, or how he’s like sovereignly guiding your life here in this text. For John, Jesus honors his people, all of his people, even if we’re not as great as John the Baptist, which actually leads the next thing we see in the text. So all these things said about John, Jesus greatly honored him. We see then Jesus shift a bit in the conversation with the crowd.

We then use John as an illustration for a little like, almost like comparison and contrast to challenge the crowd here, which I think, as you read through this, I think it might be a challenge for us as well, but also perhaps maybe some more encouragement in the challenge for those in the text, for those who have faith in Jesus, even if you have doubts amidst the faith, but for those who have faith in Jesus Christ, even if that faith is so small, where you feel like your faith is so little, that you’re like in the text, like the least in the kingdom of God. Jesus said those with even little faith, least of the kingdom of God faith, they’re still greater than even the great John the Baptist. Now this is perhaps a little confusing. Let me try to explain. So as mentioned, after honoring John, Jesus now uses John as an illustration to compare and contrast, to make a larger point where he’s going to really challenge the crowd here in particular, like the religious leaders who were in the crowd, religious leaders who thought like their own resumes, ensured they’d be accepted by God.

So in this illustration here, earthly speaking, no one, say it again. No one had a better resume than John. I mean, he really could one up everyone. The great prophet, the forerunner of Christ, no one born of a woman having a resume greater than his. However, friends, even that resume is not enough.

Even John the Great, John the Baptist, the one who baptized Jesus Christ, even he could not earn his way into eternal life by his own resume. Even John had to have faith. The scripture is so clear, it’s only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only way we can enter into the kingdom of God. So in this comparison, this contrast, even those with the smallest measures of faith in Jesus Christ, even if they have doubts in their faith, that’s still better, that’s still greater than someone with the greatest earthly resume yet lacking faith in Jesus Christ.

The text in verse 29, Jesus pointed out how this comparison contrast is actually being played out as all the people in the crowd heard him say this. The text included tax collectors who were despised by society, who social outcast, would not have had a resume. The other society would have clamored after yet. But we see in Luke, many of which had faith in Jesus. And as they heard of Jesus, as he heard them speak about faith, they declared God just having themselves been baptized by John as a testimony of their faith.

Verse 30. The Pharisees, the lawyers who is earthly speaking would have great resumes as they heard Jesus say all this, right? They would understood Jesus was condemning them as Jesus condemned them. The ones who rejected God’s purposes for themselves.

But they did not have faith. The text was evident by their rejecting John’s call to repent and be baptized. So here in the text, in this comparison contrast, the despised tax collector, even with little faith, was greater than the Pharisees, the lawyers and their oppressive earthly resumes. And I hope this is encouragement to us as well. Friends, it’s not about resume building the hopes of trying to impress God.

Rather it’s faith simple Faith, even mustard seed faith, that’s what matters to the heart of God. This morning, even in the midst of your doubts, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, where you’re trusting him, friends, you’re great in the kingdom of God.

And finally, we’re going to end our text to study this morning, starting at verse 31. If you take your eyes there, Jesus continues to compare and contrast, this time comparing that generation of people and what they’re like. I think this here not only is probably hearkening back to the generation of people who wandered in the wilderness, but also specifically talking to the Pharisees and the lawyers, the ones who are trusting in their own resumes. Verse 32, Jesus compared them to children sitting in a market who had called out to one another in song, which pointed out to like a fickle nature, where they said to one another, hey, we played the flute for you, this instrument of celebration, yet no one danced. We sang a dirge.

It’s a song of mourning, often used at funerals, but you did not weep. This is fickle, this is inconsistent. No matter what type of music was played, one could not win. Not happy, always complaining, always grumbling. In the text, Jesus says, this was the Pharisees, the lawyers particularly, as he looked at the great prophet of God, John the Baptist, and the Christ of God Jesus.

Verse 33, For John the Baptist came with a pretty aesthetic lifestyle, probably took some type of Nazarete vowel or something close to that. So he didn’t eat bread, he drank no wine. But for the Pharisees, the lawyers, they rejected him. His message ultimately is they rejected God. As they grumbled and said, john, he just has a demon.

But then verse 34, in their fickle, judging, complaining hearts as the Son of man, which is Jesus now referring to himself as he came eating, drinking wine, they said, look at him, he’s a glutton, He’s a drunkard. And even worse, as he’s eating and drinking wine, he’s doing so with despised tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus is showing that he’s a friend to them. For the Pharisees lawyers, their fickle hearts, they’re not happy with Jesus either. Well, they also rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. So even though the Pharisees lawyers thought they had this stellar resume, Jesus pointed out they’re fickle, they did not have real faith. Always complaining, always judging, never happy, always trying to pull the speck out of the eyes of others, even though a huge plank was in their own eye.

As Jesus called out the Pharisees for the fickle attitudes towards the things of God closed the section by saying wisdom is justified by all of her children which referring to that which we hold to the end, will come out of us when the fickle behavior of the Pharisees and lawyers towards the things of God His Word resulted in not only them rejecting John the Baptist, but ultimately rejection of Jesus Christ and His grace in their life, the very one what Scripture is about as they bore children of non stop complaining and judging, grumbling constantly pointing out what they felt were faults in others, making their children those children their true actual resume which stands in contrast to those who have faith in Christ, who seek to keep God’s Word, who bear fruit of their life of a love for God and a love for others, including love for other sinners, even tax collectors and sinners, love for those who may be struggling with their own doubts. That’s we’re going to end our text today, but before I close, I want to close just like giving two real quick thoughts as related to our doubts. Doubts that can creep into our hearts. Doubts can leave us have a real crisis of faith. So when doubts come your way, and they will, even if you have strong faith like John the Baptist in this life, there will be doubts that we will battle on many different fronts.

So as doubts come your way, just two thoughts for us from this text. So first, as doubts creep in, run to Jesus with your doubts. And I think that’s the model we see in the text here. Yes, John the Baptist, he had his doubts. But rather than running from Jesus and the rejection of Jesus, like the Pharisees and the lawyers in the text, he sent messengers to Jesus to hear from him, where Jesus is able to minister to the messengers only to John through His Word in ways that only he can.

So friends, may that be true of us as well. As doubts creep in, whatever they may be, let those doubts lead you to run to Jesus Christ in ways that you’re trusting in him, trusting in His Word more than you’re trusting in yourself. For some, perhaps this is something you need to do even this morning, maybe for the first time. So perhaps you’ve been around the things of God in ways that you know about Jesus, but you have doubts. Doubts are actually keeping you from putting your faith in him, perhaps doubts that he’s actually worth leaving all things behind in order to have Him.

And today I actually want to invite you to let those doubts actually lead you to him in ways that you actually are going to trust in him today more than you’re trusting in your doubts that today, by faith, you would actually run to Jesus Christ. All of us here, you have trusted in Jesus, but your walk with him is just really not what you want it to be because you’re struggling with, like, some assurance of your faith where these doubts are just loud voices in your head, where you feel like your faith is like the least of the kingdom of God. And if that’s you this morning, I also wanted to invite you to let your doubts cause you to run and trust in Jesus Christ, knowing that Jesus, he loves his people. And as we run to him with our doubts, with our unbelief, we’re not going to be met with him, like, shaming us.

Rather, he promises as we come to him, he’s there to care for us, to minister to us, to give us his peace. And he promises this. No matter how many times we’ve already come to him with our doubts, he still will receive you. There’s not like a punch card where you only get so many times to run to Jesus with your doubts.

He will meet you there with his grace upon grace upon grace. Actually, the second thing I want to leave us with before we close, so his doubts creep in.

Rest in Jesus with your doubts. And here I’m specifically speaking about resting in his resume, about to sing here, just a bit. Our worth is not our own.

It’s not our resume. Our worth is found in Jesus Christ, his resume, which is a resume that’s unlike ours. Ours is filled with sin and unbelief, complaining, judging, fickle. The resume of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man. It’s a resume of perfection where Jesus did everything perfectly, where he lived the life of faith, that we could never live without sin in order to fill the Scriptures, including what the Old Testament book of Isaiah prophesied about.

In his great love, Jesus laid down his life on a cross to take on the judgment, the punishment of our sin, where he bled and he died for us, where he was buried, only to rise again from the dead on the third day to be the atoning sacrifice of our sin. And according to God’s good word, Jesus sovereignly calls out to all to come to him and put their faith in him so that his resume, his righteousness, would be counted as ours, so that we might be justified before God, forgiven our sin because of Jesus Christ, because of his great plan, which is not a great plan to drive out the Roman rulers was a great plan to drive out and defeat sin and death for us forever and ever. Amen. Which, by the way, this is the greatest of all mysteries, according to his great plan so far beyond our understanding that Jesus would love us in this way to do that for us. Yet, friends, that’s where we must rest, in what Jesus has done for us.

So yes, in a real way, we should live a life of faithfulness before God where we’re growing in our faith, which is part of hopefully our resume of our resume. It’s not what we rest in, it’s his to close. Let me just share something else that was shared to me that’s been so helpful to me over the last 20 plus years of being a Christian. So I’ve heard this a few different times. So it’s not the strength of our faith that justifies us.

It’s not having like no doubts. It’s not what justifies us. Rather, it’s the object of our faith. That’s how we’re justified. It’s the object of our faith.

It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So, friends, today, in the future, as doubts creep in, and unfortunately, they will let those doubts cause you to run to Jesus and rest in Jesus, the great object of our faith, who loves us in such a way that he calls and continues to call us to himself that we might believe. Let’s pray.

Lord, we are very prone to wander.

And Lord, there are so many things that we just do not trust you in ways that we should.

But I’m sure if we were to survey all the different doubts that fill the hearts of this room, it’d be a very long list.

So, Lord, I do pray that in this time that through your word, through your spirit, that you would minister to us.

And not only would you drive the doubts away, but you would use the doubts to cause us to run to Jesus, to rest in him.

And Lord, pray for those who maybe are here this morning, who have yet to believe that today would be the day of their salvation. Today they would taste and see that you are good, that they would believe that you did die, you did rise again from the dead, that you do offer forgiveness, that you are the great treasure worth leaving all things behind in order to have.

Lord, for many others that are here that do have faith, but they’re struggling.

So Lord, I pray that you just give them peace and assurance today.

Help them to trust you, trust your word more than they are trusting in their doubts.

Pray this on Jesus name, Amen.

The post Messengers from John the Baptist – Luke 7: 18-35 appeared first on Red Village Church.

Are glad you’re with us today. I just didn’t know what today would look like with the weather. And I know some were not able to come in because of the weather, but I’m glad that you’re, you’re here today. So if you have a Bible with you, if you’d open up to the Gospel of Luke and continue our study of Luke today, the text from chapter 7, verses 11 through 17. So Luke 7, 11:17, which is on page 503 on the Pew Bibles.

If you didn’t have a Bible with you this morning, if you want to grab one of those, page 503. And so let me read the sacred text and then I’ll pray, ask for the Lord’s blessing on this time, and then we’ll get to work. So Luke 7, starting verse 11 through 17, please hear the words of our God.

Luke wrote this. Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain and Disciples, and a great crowd went with him. And he drew near to the gate of the town. Behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow.

And a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Then he came up and touched the briar, and the bearers stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all, and they glorify God, saying, a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people. And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, it is good to be here. And Lord, we’re here this morning on this cold, wintry day because we want to hear from you in your word. And so, God, I pray for the glory of Christ that you would indeed speak through the folly of my preaching and ways that you just fill our hearts with Christ. And I pray song in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay, so perhaps my favorite passage in the Gospel of Luke is actually found at the end of the gospel account. So this is one that came after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, where I read a story of two men on a road to Emmaus who are trying to figure out all the things that just took place concerning Jesus Christ and specifically his death and then resurrection from the dead. And if you’ve Read through Luke before you may remember that these two men are having this discussion, you know, trying to process these events, trying to process reports that were circling around that the risen Christ actually showed up and he entered into their conversation with the two men at the beginning of the story, actually not able to recognize the Lord. Then after some back and forth between Jesus and the two men, Jesus actually rebuked them for being foolish, for not understanding and believing that which was taught in the Old Testament through the prophets concerning the Christ and the suffering that was to come on him to rebuke. Starting with the old test teachings from Moses, which are the first five books of the Bible, and then continuing through the rest of the Old Testament Scripture and the various prophets, Jesus interpret for these two men how all the scriptures are about him, to show them that he is indeed the fulfillment of the Scriptures as God’s word in the end is about Him.

It points us to him. Then, after doing this incredible Bible study with these two men, appears that the Lord celebrated the Lord’s supper with them as he broke bread, as he celebrated the meal. Finally the man’s eyes were open, and they’re open in ways they were able to recognize Jesus as the one they were talking to over as their eyes were open. From there, Jesus actually vanishes from their sight, where he went off to appear to some of his disciples. But after he vanished in the story that I love, the two men started to process all that Jesus had told them, how he opened up their eyes to the Scripture, where they’re in dismay, how they didn’t recognize the Lord at first, primarily because of how their hearts burned within hearts burned of the truth of Scripture that Jesus taught to them.

Truth of scripture that is mentioned points us to him. Now I tell you that story, it’s a story that we eventually get to in our study of Luke and the months to come. Not simply because it’s actually one of my favorite stories in the Gospel account, but I wonder how important this story of Jesus testifying to all the Old Testament is about him, how important that story was actually to Luke, the author of this gospel that we’ve been studying. Where I’ve wondered, as Luke was going around interviewing eyewitnesses to the life, the death, resurrection of Jesus Christ as he was told this story of the two men on the road to Emmaus, which I have wondered, maybe told directly from them. I’ve wondered how Luke’s heart was like burning inside as he heard the story, as he was starting to see more and more how the scriptures in the End are about Christ.

The Scriptures became even more alive to him when he understood them in light of Jesus Christ. I wonder how the truth of Moses, the truth of all the prophets, ultimately speaking about Jesus became so important to Luke that as he wrote this orderly account, that he desired to do so in such ways that he would share stories to help his readers, including us, see how indeed all of the Old Testament is there to point us to Christ, including our text today, which is a text where we’ll continue to see the power and the authority of Jesus Christ on display. So this is something that we’ve seen multiple times in multiple passages that we’ve looked at recent, as Jesus has power and authority even over demons and sickness. Now today we’ll see that the power and authority of Jesus is even over death. So that’s one of the things we’ve seen in the text.

Addition, our text today, perhaps even more primary to the passage, is we’re actually going to see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, where Jesus used his power, his authority, in direct correlation to his compassion, where we see his good heart towards his people who are suffering. And in the text, we’re going to see how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, which I think to me is clear that Luke is wanting us to see how we’re to see that two of the more important characters of the Old Testament, two of the greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha, ultimately were there to point us to Christ, as they were types of Christ to come, who is the great and true prophet. Now, before we dive back into text, just a quick reminder where we left off last week so you may remember. Jesus just finished one of his most famous sermons recorded in Scripture. Sermon mentioned many times, referred to as a sermon on the plain.

And after Jesus dismissed that congregation from the plain, he himself left the plane and headed towards a city called Capernaum, which is a place that he previously ministered at, at least on two occasions, where he did some incredible acts of ministry. In fact, Capernaum actually seemed to be Jesus like, almost like his home base during his earthly ministry. So in our text last week, if Jesus returned to that city, we learned that there was a wealthy, influential Roman military officer, a centurion, who sent for Jesus. And. And he sent for Jesus because he wanted Jesus to come heal his favorite servant who was at the point of death.

In our story last week, the centurion sent a delegation of Jewish elders to go get Jesus, doing so with the belief that he was worthy of Jesus coming to do this for him to heal his servant because of the authority that he carried. However, as Jesus responded to this request by starting to make his way to the house, somewhere in the short time between sending for Jesus and Jesus drawing near to the house, somewhere in that short period of time, the centurion has like a major change of heart and a tone towards the Lord Jesus. Or for me, I think the centurion actually was converted. Because as Jesus Christ came near the house, the centurion sent a second group of delegates, some of his friends, to tell Jesus to come no further. Because the centurion now understood he actually was not, not worthy of Jesus Christ, even though he was a man of great wealth and authority.

As Jesus came near, the man understood and he testified that he actually was a man under authority, specifically the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And upon hearing the centurion make this declaration, which the man who I should mention was a Gentile, Jesus had his own declaration in response, saying that nowhere in all of Israel did he find such faith, a faith that rightly understands the lordship of Christ over all of our lives. But I should mention here that some actually connect this story of the centurion to a famous Old Testament story of a different gentleman who had power, remember Naaman, who had leprosy on the end of that story, professed faith in God. So some connect that story of centurion to him. And finally, where we ended our text last week, after Jesus making the declaration about the centurion, the second group of delegates then returning back home and they found the sick servant healed, where Jesus healed a man, where he continued to show power, authority over sickness.

Now today, as we continue in our study with Luke, we actually come to an even greater healing, even greater then the healing of the centurion. Who’s the point of death where text today is mentioned, Jesus actually raises a young man from the dead. And this morning I hope that this increases the burning in our hearts as Jesus puts his power and authority and compassion on display as he proves that all the scriptures are about him. So that is the intro if you want to look back with me, starting in verse 11. So if you’re visiting with us.

So what we do here is I’m just going to walk us back through the text verse by verse. So if you have your Bible open, please keep them open. So starting verse 11. So we read these words so soon after this refers to the interaction that Jesus had with the centurion, which is the start of chapter seven. So soon after that we see that Jesus was back on the move and we See that he traveled maybe 25 or 30 miles or so to the south, you know, a good day’s walk.

And he now came to a town called Nain. Now when it comes to this town, this is actually the only time it’s mentioned in scripture. But where we gather through archaeology, this town seems at one point to be a town that had some size to it, but perhaps maybe to like a change in economy, something like that by the time of Christ. This is now a smaller, more insignificant town that’s located in the southern part of Galilee, which is where Jesus spent much of his public ministry. Now what’s interesting about N is that this little town was really close to a more familiar town in scripture.

A town to seem to be the location like a large cemetery of like tombs and caves that served this area. A town called Endor. No, for Star wars fans, not that Endor, but if you’ve read the Old Testament, maybe this town is familiar to you. There’s a very famous yet very odd story about a witch who was from Endor who practiced divination which where in this odd Old Testament story, Saul, who was the king of Israel, began to understand that his like kingdom was slipping out of his hands because of his own sinful practices where like he rejected the Lord and his authority over him. I mean unlike the gentile centurion, Saul was not a man under authority.

And as Saul rightly understood, the king was slipping away. In his desperation he came to this witch in Endor, asking her to speak to the dead on his behalf, specifically to speak to the former prophet and priest who anointed Saul as king, a man named Samuel. As Saul wanted to get some advice from him. Now in this odd story, really much to the surprise of the witch, when she called upon Samuel, he responded to her, communicating to her, communicating to Saul through her that soon the kingdom will be taken from him. Now we don’t have time to work through that story, but various scholars I read this week do wonder how this story in Luke perhaps has that story of the witch and Endor like kind of running in the background in subtle ways in the text here.

So Jesus entered into Nain, it appears that he is about to run into those who are headed towards endorphins. So not sure if that should be running in the background as we think through this passage, but is it interesting to consider back to verse 11 of our text. As Jesus went to Nain, we say he did not make this 20 file 25 mile walk alone. Rather we see that his disciples are with him. Along with a great crowd, which this really had to be an interesting sight to see for those who are along the route from Capernaum to Nain.

You know, just think like, maybe like out working your field and you look up and you see a large caravan people headed towards this little insignificant town, which didn’t seem to be part of any like major traveling route for this time period. Rather seemed like this little town was like fairly isolated, fairly removed from much of the world around it. However, we see it’s not isolated or removed from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12. As Jesus and his great crowd drew near to the gate of the town, this time they’re about to end, we see that they were met at the gate by a considerable crowd who’s about to head out of the city, headed seemingly towards Endor.

As this crowd that Jesus met was part of a funeral procession. And in this procession there would have been people there that we assumed would be there, like family and friends. But culturally, during this time this procession also probably included like hired mourners as well as hired musicians, making this like a huge crowd which as these two crowds, the crowd of Jesus and crowd of mourners, they meet here. This would have made a huge group like converging at the gate, perhaps well into the hundreds, all at the city gate. Verse 12.

See that this procession of mourners was there because of a man, a man who was being carried out, a young man who died, who was the only son of his mother, who now was, or who also was a widow. Okay, now just a few things on this just to interest you. So first, for this woman, I mean, this would have been awful, a really awful thing for her to endure and have to process through hard enough to have your only son die and all the pain associated with death. But culturally this would have put her in like the most vulnerable of places where culturally women would have been dependent upon either her husband or her sons like, to provide and support and protect. But now for this woman who was a widow, she’s now culturally void of those realities.

So for those who read the Old Testament book of Ruth and the story of Naomi, remember how she like, basically considered herself like, good as dead when her husband’s, her husband and sons died. That’s the woman here in this text. All of the pain, all of the hurt of losing her only son, as well as all the fear, all the concern, all the worry on what was before her, to have no husband or son, provide, support, protect her. This woman was in desperate need of grace and Mercy. She was desperate for someone to show her some compassion.

Second, a widow losing a son. This is actually where her mind should be taken back to the great prophets Elijah and Elisha. So you may remember this. In the ministry of Elijah in First Kings 17, there’s a widow from a town called Zarephath who had a son who died, who God brought back to life through the prayers of Elijah, who laid upon the boy three times as he prayed that God would give back his Life. Then in second Kings 4, there’s another young boy who died, who Elisha also prayed for doing so with laying on top of his dead body.

And in both these stories, not only did the Lord give back to life, each of these boys as the sons were brought back from the from the dead to the land of living. The prophets then brought the sons back to their moms. Which we’re going to see in just a bit is our text in verse 15. But for now, just know the story of Jesus here in Luke 7. This is tied with like strong allusions to Elijah and Elisha and the stories that’s mentioned, particularly the one of Elijah in 1st Kings 17.

Third, I also want to just mention here something I read in one of the commentaries that I thought was actually pretty insightful. This came from the John Phillips commentary where Phillips wrote concerning verse 12, concerning two different crowds, two different processions that met at the city gates. Philip wrote, one was being led by the angel of death, but the other by the Lord of life. And that reality of being led by the angel of death or the Lord of life was not just true of the scene here, but that reality is true of all of us where either we all are dead in our sin being led by the angel of death, or we are walking by faith in Christ as he leads us as the Lord of life, as he leads us into eternal life that is to come. So by the way, just kind of on this, I just do have to ask, as you walked in this morning, what procession are you following right now?

Keep going. Verse 13.

As the true processions met each other, as this large crowd was forming at the city gate, we see that the eyes of Jesus found the one in the crowd who was hurting the most as his eyes were taken to the mother who was mentioned again would be carrying like overwhelming pain with the loss, incredible stress on what would be for her coming next. And as the eyes of Jesus fell upon this woman, we see that his eyes were filled with compassion towards her, which is important for us to see in this passage as well in our own lives. So, yes, Jesus is the Lord. He’s the one filled with all power, all authority, where all things exist by him and for him. And in his power and in his authority, he will justly judge all things.

But within those truths, what we see in the text, we see throughout Scripture, is that towards his people, Jesus sees them with eyes filled with compassion, where he sees his hurting people, our pain is not absent from Him. And as the Lord sees our pain, he sees us with his tender heart. One of my favorite passages in Scripture, a bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. And that is so true in this passage here. For this mom, who is hurting, who is grieving, Jesus did not come to her to break her, to quench her.

Rather, text, with his eyes and heart filled with compassion, we see Jesus, like, walked up to the woman to console her with the words, woman, do not weep, saying this because he knew he’s about to dry her tears in the most incredible ways, which, by the way, is what he promised to do for all his people as they enter into eternal life, where Jesus will dry every tear that we shed with kindness, with compassion, we heal, dry our tears in such a way that we actually will never cry painful tears ever again, as he removes all pain and hurt and tears from his people forever. In text, verse 14, after consoling the woman, see, Jesus went to the brier, which is a frame that a coffin or a deceased body is laid upon. As the body being carried to the tomb, as he approached the dead body of the young man, we see that it stopped the bears, you know, the ones carrying the briar, and stopped them in their tracks. And they stood still before the Lord, you know, just waiting to see what he was going to do. As the bear stood still, assuming everyone else, and both parties at the gates stood still silent before the Lord.

We see in the story that Jesus spoke up in the text, young man, I say to you, arise. Which is notice here. Jesus is speaking to the dead man with all of his power, all of his authority, doing so in such a way that Jesus knew that the dead man would hear him. Which is a stark contrast to the witch of Endor as mentioned, was shocked with her divination. As Samuel responded from the dead, Jesus spoke up to this man.

Jesus knew that his word would not return to him void, but he knew that the dead man would hear and respond to his sovereign voice. So in verse 15, as the word of Jesus went forth, we see the dead man head no choice, but he had to Respond. And he sat up and began to speak.

Alive, risen. And this had been an incredible sight to behold for those at the scene. But even more for this young man, this scene, as the first thing he sees after his resurrection is Jesus.

Just a couple things on this. So Pillar commentary points out that this face of Jesus would have been most likely unfamiliar to this young man. Most likely. He probably did not meet Jesus prior to this. But as he saw the face of Jesus as he rose again, he saw the face to which he belonged.

Second, while this story is unique in scripture, there’s not many who were raised from the dead. In fact, in the ministry of Jesus, we only see three such occurrences. So there’s this one, there’s his friend Lazarus we can read about in John 11. And then there’s a daughter of a man named Jairus we’re actually gonna get to when we get to Luke chapter 8. So while this reality of being raised from the dead to see Jesus is unique in this life.

But for those who are in Christ, friends, this will be your reality, where one day, yes, you will come to your last breath, where to this life you will be dead. But the promise of scripture, for all those who have faith in Jesus Christ, as we die to this life, our eyes will be open to the eternal life that is to come. And the first thing that we’re going to see is Jesus.

So for us right now, yes, we have to imagine what this must have been like for this young man. But for those who are in Christ, one day, you will not have to imagine what this was like because you’re going to experience it yourself. You will see Jesus face to face, the very one to whom you belong. Keep on the text with more compassion, more kindness from our Lord Jesus Christ. As Jesus resurrected this man we see, he now turns back to the mother to give her her son.

As mentioned earlier, this action is very similar to what Elijah did in 1st Kings 17. For us. Once again, with imagination, we can only imagine the joy this had to be for the mother to have Jesus return to her her only son. However, one day, because of eternal life that Jesus offers friends, we don’t have to imagine what that would be like either, to be reunited with a loved one who had died. For all who are in Christ, not only will we see Jesus with our eyes, but we will see each other as we will live with Christ and each other throughout all eternity.

Keep going. Verse 7 or 16. For those that have seen, they didn’t have to imagine what this all looked like because they were there to Experience. And as he experienced the power and the authority of Jesus to raise the dead, as well as he experienced the kindness, the compassion of Jesus to care for this woman who was in deep pain. In the text we see that they were like seized by fear.

And this fear here is not like fear of danger. It’s not like a fear tied to some type of worry or anxiety. Rather, this is a fear that’s filled with like awe. As both crowds that met at the gate stood almost dumbfounded with awe by that which they just witnessed. You know, for the crowd to arrive at Jesus of the gate.

Yeah, most likely they would have witnessed some incredible things beforehand. You know, various hearings that Jesus did, casting out of demons, but now raising the dead, that’s next level for the crowd who was there as part of the funeral procession. Right. This would have been the last thing they would expect as they’re proceeding out to the graveyard, as they headed to Andor, they’re expecting to place the body in the tomb, not seeing the body raised up from the dead.

Going into the theme of imagination for us does not take a lot of imagination, our part to see and understand why the crowd stood seized with fear, with awe and the text as this awe filled crowd, as they witness all this that Jesus did, we see they did the only thing that they could do in response to the Lord and what he did. And they began to worship and they began glorifying God in the text, saying, a great prophet has risen among us and God has very visited his people.

Now, just a couple things and these two phrases said by the crowd. The first phrase, the declaration, the great prophet has risen among us sends a crowd like understanding that indeed Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is written about him. In the Old Testament there’s a few passages speaking towards a great prophet who was to come that you’re connecting now here to Christ. One they probably most likely had in mind is Deuteronomy 18, where Moses wrote this says, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is him you shall listen. I also wonder, perhaps you’re thinking about Malachi 4, which says this. So behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, you will turn the hearts and fathers of their children, and the hearts of their children, and children in the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest they come and strike the land with a decree and utter destruction. Which that passage of Elijah to come we do see is first pointing to John the Baptist, who is a forerunner Christ. But I do think that both Elijah as well as John the Baptist are there for us to see Jesus as the great and true prophet.

As mentioned our text, as a crowd stood seized with awe, it seemed like they were understanding. Their hearts were burning inside as they were recognizing that Jesus indeed is the prophet. Promised from old then the second phrase that people declared, the phrase God has visited his people. And for us this is such a rich and such an encouraging reality when it comes to our God. Most religions worldviews, their deity is like just distant, pretty aloof to what’s going on in the world around them.

So for many, they’re just hoping to do enough good things to somehow capture the attention of their false God. They might feel compelled like to entertain them with his presence. But this understanding, this type of religion, this is so far different from the truth that we see in Scripture concerning the one true and living God. But He’s a God who’s near, who’s present, who’s active in the world around us, including in our own hearts. He is a God who indeed visits his people.

In fact, we’ve learned in our study of Luke, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God visits His people in such a way that he actually lived among us, Emmanuel, God with us. Furthermore, we see in Scripture, particularly in the book of Acts, which is volume two of this work of Luke, in the person of the Holy Spirit, God continues to visit his people in such a way that he lives and he dwells in the hearts of his people. Meaning for his people, God could not be more near than he is, as he promises that he will forever be near to us, as he will never leave us, never forsake us.

And finally, we’re going to end in our passage today, verse 17, as his entire crowd came to this conclusion, as he understood the worship that Jesus deserves, we see the groups went their different ways. And as they left the scene, we see that reports about Jesus raising the young man from the dead started spread throughout the whole region of Judea, along with all the surrounding country, which no doubt only added to the buzz and excitement and the interest of the growing conversation of Jesus and Nazareth, if indeed he was the Messiah, which He is now. As I close this time here, I just want to give you just a few kind of summary statements from what we see in the text and then we’ll be done. So first, as we think through this text, so let the power, or the authority and power of Jesus, let that burn deeply within your heart and this Power, this authority, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is something we continue to see throughout Luke, throughout the public ministry of Jesus Christ that Luke records for us or his ministry is not like one of a charlatan, like he didn’t minister in weakness.

Jesus didn’t minister with like false promises where he like oversell but then vastly under deliver. Rather the ministry of Jesus was filled with real authority, with real power where Jesus was able to do that only God’s Eternal Son can do in text today. This authority, this power is found in the greatest miracle of Jesus that he performed to this day. Where according to this authority, to this power, Jesus raises the dead. And friends, let that authority, let that power burn in your hearts knowing that only did Jesus raise the dead in this text along as with the others that I mentioned earlier, but he has the authority, the power to raise all of his people from the dead so for all time they can dwell with him in eternity.

You know, there’s plenty of things in this life that appear to have some type of authority, some type of power.

Friends, let your heart burneth in burneth hope that in the end there’s only one authority. There’s only one power that’s gonna win out. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. Second, let the compassion of Jesus also burn deeply within your heart. Yes, Jesus has all power, he has all authority, but he also has all compassion.

Where it’s mentioned in the end of time, as his people enter into eternal life, he’s gonna meet us with his compassion, where he’s gonna dry every tear that we have ever shed, including our most painful and grief filled tears.

He’s gonna dry them with all of his compassion for us today. While no doubt the resurrection power and authority of Jesus is very present in the text, but I think even more what Luke wants us to see in this passage is the compassion, the tender heartedness of Jesus Christ who is filled with compassion towards this moment, who just lost her only son, this mom who is at the point of desperation, who needed someone to show her compassion, which in the text Jesus does with his grace upon grace. And friends, I do hope that the compassion that Jesus has for his people does burn in your hearts where it burns in ways that we feel it, particularly in our times of need.

We’re in our times of need. We trust that Jesus is not aloof to your pain, to your reality. Rather he is present. He’s present in ways that he is there to visit you in your pain. As your great High Priest who ministers with compassion and Kindness and grace upon grace.

Which by the way, I do wonder if maybe that’s true for some of you here this morning, that you did come in carrying just pain and grief.

Jesus is here to minister to you with his compassion. Third, let Jesus fulfilling the Scripture, let that reality also burn deeply within your heart. Just back to the passage I started to share from the end of Luke, where in the end, all of scripture, all of it, is there to point us to Christ. So as you read God’s holy word, let me encourage you to do so in ways where you’re like actively engaging your mind and heart, where you’re reading, in ways you’re like actually studying it, where you’re meditating upon it, memorizing it, where you’re asking the Lord through the power of his spirit to help you see whatever you’re reading, how that is to lead you to Jesus, whether it be through promises, through types, through failures, through prophecy, or wherever it may be. May we read Scripture in ways that it’s leading us to see how all of God’s yes and Amen are all taking us to Jesus, the One who sets our hearts on fire.

Back to our text, I do think it’s worth considering the odd story of the witch in Endor and her false divination, which just shows us like the sin and folly of mankind, how they’re there or that story is meant to stand in contrast to this story here in the truth and the wisdom found in Christ. Clearly in our text today, as we read about the great prophets Elijah and Elisha, as yes, we see the great things that the Lord did through them, but ultimately they’re types, pointers to the one true great prophet, the Lord Jesus, the one who raised the dead. So for us it would read God’s sacred word. May we read them in ways that they’re seen. We’re seeing how they take us to the truth that is Christ and may that truth burn deeply in our hearts in ways that we worship him, which actually leads to the next thing.

Let your burning heart lead you to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, where your heart is set on fire in ways that you’re seized with awe of who Jesus is, where all that you do is done as an act of worship of him, as you pour out your life as a living sacrifice that’s holy and acceptable to him, where you’re pouring out your life in ways that shows worship of love towards him, love towards others, starting with others. Here in the church, we’re in this worship. You’re giving your time and your Treasure and your talents to prove that indeed Jesus is the Lord of your life, the great treasure of your soul. One more Let your burning heart lead you to spread reports about Jesus.

So another favorite passage in Scripture comes from a different prophet. Different prophet is also there to point us to Christ Prophet named Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrote this. If I say I will not mention him speaking of God or speak any more in his name.

There is in my heart as if it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary of holding it in and cannot. And church. May that be true of us as well, that our hearts burn in the worship of Jesus Christ with a burning that’s so intense, so white hot, that we can’t help but share reports about him, starting with a report of his gospel found in his death, which Jesus, God’s only son, died on a cross, which he did out of great love, according to his great kindness and compassion and mercy, which he did in accordance with the scriptures that he came to fulfill as he, Jesus took on the punishment of our sin in our place where he died. But unlike the Son in the text who was stopped before he reached the tomb, Jesus actually was buried outside of the city gates where he lay dead for three days. However, as we know, Jesus did not stay dead, but in accordance with his great authority and power, which is authority, power even over death, in accordance with the Scripture, according to the sign of the great prophet Jonah that was given to us in the Old Testament, on the third day, in his greatest of all miracles, the Lord Jesus picked back up his own life as he rose again from the dead, where he now lives eternally.

And this report of Jesus crucified and risen, that has been passed down to us is a truth that is meant to seize our hearts, to seize in ways that penetrates like every fiber of our being, where our hearts are now burning so intensely inside that we cannot help but share the report in ways that we pass it down to others for us, sharing with others throughout the whole of Madison and then to the surrounding country and not stopping until we reach all the way to the ends of the earth. And by the way, if you’re looking for like a very real practical way to satisfy this burning in your heart, the sharing a report of him we know in a few weeks it’s Easter, where we’ll be even more intentionally remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if I can encourage us, let’s invite others to come join us at that service.

And who knows how on that Sunday, those who might walk in dead, dead in sin on that Sunday, maybe they hear the voice of Jesus in ways that they have no choice but respond to him, so that by faith he would believe in him. That they be risen, having their hearts set on fire for the Lord of life.

By the way, I actually did wonder this morning if this may actually be true. Maybe if some of us here, or even this morning, perhaps you walked in dead to Jesus, dead in sin for sure, you might know things about him, but you’ve never met Him. He’s not the vision of your life.

I do wonder that maybe today, maybe even this moment, for the first time, you would actually trust in Jesus so that through the eyes of faith you would see him.

That you be raised to life with him, the new and eternal life that he offers. My friend, if that is actually true of you today, just know we would love to rejoice with you in that truth. So please share that report with us. Knowing that reports like this, that you trusted in Jesus for the first time, that only adds to the fire in our own hearts. So, yes, Redville Church, may the truth of God found in his Word, the truth that leads us to Christ, may that set our hearts on fire today and always, that all of our days are filled with the joyful worship of him and the sharing of the reports about him.

That by the grace of God, others might have their hearts burned within as well. Let’s pray.

Lord, I do pray that you would do a great work in our hearts.

That even in this time, in this moment, that you would fan the flame within.

Lord, I pray for those here who may have not yet trusted in you. That today, through your sovereign voice, that you would call them to yourself, that you would open up their eyes, that they may see the Lord Jesus Christ, the very one who died for them, to take on the punishment of their sin, only to rise again from the dead so they may have life in you. Life abundantly, both now and throughout all eternity.

And Lord, we need your help to be faithful, to eagerly spread the news of reports of Christ crucified and risen. Lord, far too often our hearts are cold to share this report.

Far too often we make excuse on why we are slow to share. So, God, not only do I pray you forgive us for falling short, but particularly the next few weeks, that you would just help us to be faithful witnesses. That we’d faithfully share the report.

And Lord, our deep prayer is that you would use our little church to draw many to faith in Christ. And we pray that you would do that even within the next few weeks.

And lastly, Lord, I just do want to pray if there’s any here that are that walked in just carrying the weight of grief, that in this moment that today you would meet them with your compassion and your kindness.

That indeed you would prove to be their great high priest, who can sympathize with them in all weakness yet without sin. And that you would minister to them in their time of need with your grace upon grace.

Pray song Jesus name, Amen.

The post Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son – Luke 7: 11-17 appeared first on Red Village Church.

All right. Well, beautiful singing. If I’ve not met you, My name is Aaron and I’m the pastor here and I would love to meet you. So if you can find me at the end of the service, I’d love to meet you and learn a little bit more about you and how I might be a friend and to serve you. So, you know, I’m glad that you’re with us today, especially it being spring ahead.

And so I’m glad you sprung ahead and here on time. So thank you for that. So we have a lot to cover today. So if you have a bob with you, if you’d open up to the Gospel of Luke. We continue in our study of Luke.

So today our text is from Luke 7, verses 1 through 10. And if you have a Bible with you, if you’re not, there are Bibles kind of scattered throughout the chairs. That’s on page 503 of those blue Pew Bibles. So Luke 7, verses 1 through 10. And I’m going to read the entire text and then I’ll pray and then we’re going to get to work.

Expansion. We got a lot to cover today, so please hear the words of our God, starting in verse one. After he finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now Centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When centurion heard about Jesus sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.

When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, he is worthy. Do you have you do this for him. For he loves our nation and he’s the One. And he is the one who built us our synagogue. And Jesus went with them.

He’s not far off from the house. The centurion sent friends saying to him, lord, do not trouble yourself, for I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore not presume to you to come or presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to the one, go.

And he goes. And to another, come. And he comes. And to my servant do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.

And turning to the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even Israel have I found such faith.

And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant. Well, so that’s God’s word for us this morning Would you please pray with me?

God, thank you for bringing us together. And Lord, it’s good to be together with your people, together around your word. And Lord, please help me to be a good communicator this morning. Please help me to speak that what’s true. And Lord, please be with the congregation.

Please give them ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. And Lord, we pray. Use this time for our good and your glory. Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Yes. Let me just start off, just a reminder where we were last few weeks in our study of Luke, where we study a sermon that Jesus gave while standing on a plane, which is a sermon primarily given by our Lord to help his disciples know what it would look like if they’re going to faithfully follow after him. We’re in the sermon. If one is going to be a faithful follower of Jesus, they’re going to be setting their minds on the eternal life that is to come, doing so in ways that they’re actually doing earthly good, doing such ways that they’re going to try to store up treasures in heaven where God will reward his people. We’re in the sermon on the plane.

This life part of doing earthly good is actually to love one’s enemies, even if the enemies are bringing like persecution or persecution towards you for your Christian faith. Addition, we learn if we’re going to be a faithful follower of Jesus, we’re also going to learn we’re also going to love all other Christians doing so. On the positive, we’re going to be merciful to other Christians because God himself is merciful. We’re also going to be generous towards other Christians because God himself is generous. Furthermore, as Christians, we’re going to treat other followers of Jesus in ways that will not be engaging in the negative, like judging, condemning, withholding forgiveness from other believers, because in our pride, we’re actually, like, too busy trying to, like, pull the specks out of the eyes of others doing so, even though there’s a plank in our own eye.

And so on the plane, as followers of Jesus, we’re to live ways that we, like, bear fruit, to show that we truly are his followers, to prove that our life is actually built upon the foundation that is the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the foundation that will hold us secure, that will not fall as the storms of life come crashing against us. And for us. We went through the sermon on the plane the last few weeks. My hunch is all these different things that I mentioned are probably things that we would have like listed beforehand before we went to that sermon. Of things.

Like we know if we’re going to follow Jesus faithfully, like we know those things would be present now, today, as we continue in our study of Luke, with the story started, Luke 7, we come to another thing that we must do if we’re going to faithfully follow Jesus. But my hunch is probably not something we would write down if we actually did sit down to write a list. But this one’s actually really important and really is at the core of what it means to be a Christ follower, a Christian. If we’re going to be a faithful disciple of Lord Jesus Christ, we’re going to be a person who lives under authority, starting first and foremost by living under the authority of the Lord Jesus in His holy Word, but then within that, living under the various authorities that Christ has set up for us to live under in this life. Something we’re talking kind of more about throughout this sermon.

So I have the introduction you want to look back with me and the text starting in verse one, if you’re visiting with us. So all I’m going to do is kind of walk us back through the the text. So please keep your nose in the Bible. That’s the most important thing, is just hear what God says from His Word. So verse one.

So we read that after Jesus finished all his sayings in the hearings of the people, and this is a reference to the Sermon on the Plain, we see that he dismissed his congregation. And as the congregation was dismissed, we see that Jesus himself actually left the plane and he went to go enter into a town called Capernaum, which was a town on the Sea of Galilee. It’s the region where Jesus spent much of his earthly ministry ministering there. And Capernaum is actually a location where Jesus had previously set up shop. So you may remember in chapter four, verse 23, we read that folks from his hometown of Nazareth were talking about things that they heard Jesus recently do when he was in Capernaum.

And then chapter four, verse 31 reads some different things that Jesus did in Compern after leaving Nazareth to go back to that town, which included like casting out some demons. Jesus healed many in Capernaum, including the mother in law of Peter. And so for us in our text, it’s good to remember that this town that Jesus was entering back into, this is a place where Jesus spent like a significant amount of time where this town is on the receiving end and some really incredible ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so no doubt, like most people would have saw him as a very popular and well Liked figure where many in the city were either like firsthand recipients of his ministry or at least firsthand witnesses to that ministry. So here in the text, Jesus coming back into this town, right?

This would have caused like a stir, a buzz. News of his return would have spread quickly throughout the town. And this would have been actually the talk of the town. And as he made his way back to Capernaum, we see as the talk of spreading, we see in verse two that there was a centurion caught wind of this news of Jesus return. Now if you’re not sure what a centurion was, so this refers to a title of a fairly important officer in the ancient Roman army, which was an officer had some real authority.

So centurions were in charge of like 100 or so men just on their own accord. And then centurions were to work with like maybe 60 or so other centurions to lead an entire like Roman legion, which it was approximately like 6,000 soldiers. So like a very important, an influential person with significant amount of authority. Let me also mention not only centurions important on military front, but they typically were pretty wealthy individuals which most likely had a hand in how they achieved their status in the Rome in the Roman army because of their wealth. So according to the pillar commentary that I’ve been using throughout this study, centurions had a reputation of using great wealth to actually help fund like public services, civil projects, which we see is true of our text today with this particular centurion.

Let me also mention before we give the text that most centenarians were gentiles, okay? So non Jewish people, which based on the context of this passage, particularly verse nine, as we get there, it seems very likely that this centurion was indeed a gentile. And I think all this information is actually important for us to gather together if we can understand this text. Keep going. Verse 2.

As the Syrians caught wind that Jesus is back in town, this interest or this information was a lot of, of real interest to him. One, that no doubt excited him on a very real personal front. And reason why is as you see that the centurion had a servant who is highly valuable to him, our text tells us, but who is sick. In fact, this highly valued servant was so sick that he was actually near the point of death. Now let me just mention here, having a servant, one point is at the wealth of the centurion, right?

He was able to afford servants. And two, this also points to like further authority that this man had over others. So not only did he have like Military authority over soldiers, but he would have had authority over his servants, assuming that probably had multiple servants that he was had authority over. Okay, keep going. Verse 3.

As this news of Jesus returned to Capernaum, made his way to centurion, naturally centurion was able to connect some dots here. You know, he heard about things that Jesus did in the past, perhaps even witness Jesus giving some healings in the past. And so as centurion was able to connect the dots to Jesus being able to healed to his servant who was sick. We see, like he sends word to Jesus with the hopes that the Lord would come and heal his most important servant. The text as a centurion sent word to Jesus, we see that he did so by sending a delegation of like elders of the Jews, who likely were elders that this man would have worked with.

Maybe a little bit of a go between like the Roman government and the local Jewish people. And just to further take note here, this delegation probably continues to point, if not the authority, at least a vast influence of this centurion. Like not everyone could like have, like elders of the Jews, like on retainer to go and do something upon their request. But this man did. He had power, the authority, the influence to call the elders of the Jews to go and do his bidding, to be his delegates.

And so for us, like, we need to see and understand this centurion, like, he’s an important individual. He had some real clout, some real like gravitas about him, some real authority that he had like really all over the city. Okay, keep going. Verse 4. As a delegation of the Jews, Jewish elders were sent from this man.

We see that as they found Jesus in the text, as they found him, they didn’t simply relate to Jesus. Hey, Jesus, Israel, you know, please come heal the sick servant. Rather more than that, as they found Jesus began to like, plead with Jesus with like earnestness. There’s like a passionate plea here where they pled with the Lord saying, lord Jesus, you have to come, you have to do this. You have to come heal this sick man, for he is worthy for you to do this for him.

Now this he here, he is worthy. This is actually referring to the centurion. Not that the elders didn’t care about the sick man, but excuse me, they had such love and admiration for the centurion. They knew how much the servant meant to him, and they understood if the man died, how devastated the centurion would be. So they pleaded with Jesus on his behalf.

The thought of the centurion losing his servant was too much for the elders of the Jews to bear. So he’s mentioned they pleaded with Jesus. Although I should say here, others have wondered, myself included, if this message from the delegation concerning like the worthiness of the centurion was maybe not just a message that the delvets came up with on their own, but perhaps it’s actually part of the message that the centurion himself gave to the delegation to relate to Jesus. Meaning from the centurion delegates, go find Jesus and let him know, like how important of an individual I am. Let him know that I’m a centurion, Let him know that I have authority, I have power.

Let him know that you’re not coming on behalf of just anyone, but you’re speaking upon my behalf, someone who is worthy of his time and attention. Now, I’m not exactly sure. Maybe the answer is maybe both things are true. Basically, in verse five, we’ll get to in just a second. Elders clearly thought by thoughts about the centurion.

But also we get to verse six, perhaps the centurion also did think that like he was worthy of Jesus coming, at least at first. I’ll explain why when we get to those verses or verse six, whoever came up with the message of the worthiness. In verse 5, we see that the elders did have a high regard for this man, verse 5. For even though he was a Roman leader of the army, even though he was a Gentile, the delegates like testified to the Lord Jesus. Jesus, we’re not just coming to you on behalf of anyone, but we’re coming on behalf of one who has like loved the nation of Israel, who has loved our nation in such a way that he gave his own money, his own resources in order for us to build a synagogue.

Jesus, this is like our biggest donor, our most important benefactor. He has done so much for us, we would like to do something now for him. And by the way, I should mention here, building the synagogue just points to the wealth that this man had. He used his resources in this way for the civil social good. Just guessing, but synagogues probably were not cheap to build.

Yet through his generosity, that’s what the people of Capernaum were able to do to build a synagogue. Verse 6. So Jesus heard the pleading from the elders, we see that actually touched his heart. So according to the will of the Father, Jesus got up and he starts to head back with them to the house. However, in the story, Jesus is getting closer to the house.

The centurion seemingly had like a bit of a change of heart towards Jesus, as we see in the text, the centurion sent some of his friends with a different message that he sent with to the Jewish elders. So he sends like a second delegation here. And this delegation was not asking Jesus to come. Instead this delegation actually started to plead with Jesus to not come as they were testifying on behalf of, and they were not testifying on behalf of the centurion’s worthiness, which the first delegation did. Rather, in this second delegation, their message was sent to deliver, or sent to deliver a message of his like unworthiness.

It’s in the text, the friends to Jesus, Lord, do not trouble yourself. Do not keep coming towards this house. For the centurion wants to communicate to you through us that, that I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. This is a very different message, what just took place with the Jewish elders, a very different tone here. And I think it’s actually important for us to see in the passage.

So from the short time between verse four to six, the centurion went from thinking he was worthy, feeling deserving of Jesus to come into his home, sure, a large part because of who he was and all the great things he did for Israel. But now as Jesus is coming into his presence now he felt unworthy, undeserving to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. So really what changed? I mean, Capernaum wasn’t like a huge city that had taken like days to travel by foot across. Not a big city, so probably not a lot of time back and forth, I don’t know.

But I’m guessing the timeline between verses four and six, maybe it’s just been like a matter of hours, maybe even less. That’s what changed to me. I’ve wondered if this quick change, perhaps the first delegation was on the way to Jesus, perhaps maybe some of the friends of the centurion, the friends who were with him, maybe started to share with him a little bit more about Jesus and his ministry, perhaps telling the centurion about the buzz that is filling the area, that Jesus was like the long awaited and long anticipated Christ, the one who has authority not just over sickness, but also over demons and sin. And also I wonder if perhaps if as the centurion waited for their first delegates to return back with Jesus, one of the friends and this new delegation kind of wondered, maybe he’s like part of the congregation on the plane. And then maybe it’s like communicating to the centurion all the different things that Jesus said, particularly like building one’s life upon the foundation that is him.

Obviously I don’t know what happened here, but I wondered if someone witnessed to the centurion between verses 4 and 6. And as this information concerning the Lord Jesus was given to the centurion, this man began to understand that Jesus is more than just simply like a healer, but indeed Jesus is the Savior of the world, the one that he was to build his life upon as the foundation. That indeed Jesus is the Son of God who came into the world, that he is the Savior that we do not deserve, no matter what kind of social standing we have or how many people we have authority over. Maybe you understand that Jesus is a Savior that we can’t like earn by our own good deeds, even if our good deeds were enough to build an entire synagogue. Begin to wonder, like, what happens, what happened here?

It seems to me between verses 4 and 6 that the centurion was converted and began to understand that only the Lord Jesus is worthy. I’ll say again, I don’t know if this happened, but it does seem like a real change of heart here in a very short period of time. Keep going. Verse 7. After the first delegation of friends came to Jesus to relay the message with a very different tone, they shared with Jesus from the centurion.

Therefore, because I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof, however, in your grace, your power, Jesus, I know that if you just say the word that your word has all authority and know that by your word you can heal my servant, like right from where you stand. I think this here is further indicating just this real heart change of this interior. In a short few verses, he understands the power, the authority of the Lord Jesus was far greater than having to be physically present for him to be at work. Rather, Jesus has all power, all authority to do whatever he desires, regardless of his physical location, the text that after saying these things, the centurion said perhaps the most important thing in the text, the thing that I think is good for us to see and understand, the thing that we also must say if we’re going to be following after Jesus as disciples. Verse 8, Jesus, for I too am a man under authority, which is pointing that he has now submitted his life to the authority of Jesus Christ, doing so, even though at the end of verse eight, like he knew he had soldiers under him who basically did whatever he asked of them.

He said to some, go, he goes, to another come. Well, he comes. He knew that he had servants. And if he told his servants do this, the servant would do it. So even though this man was powerful, wealthy, influential, even though he had many under authority.

He rightly understood that he too was a man under authority, the authority of Christ. Why this is so important for us to see is because this is actually true of all of us. And this is true of all of us, whether we profess it and submit to it like this man did, or we do not. Even if we try to resist Jesus rightful authority over his life or over our life. The end Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, he is the One who has all authority.

Just circle back to more, just a bit. But for those of us who have faith in Lord Jesus Christ, who follow him as his disciples, being under the authority of Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior, friends, this is at the core of all that we do, why we do what we do. We joyfully live under his authority, his righteous authority, knowing that it is for his glory and our good. Verse 9 After the Lord heard all this from the centurion, we see that Jesus marveled at him. He’s amazed, perplexed by this response.

In his amazement, we see that Jesus turned to the crowd of people who followed him to the centurion’s home and said to them, crowd, listen, I got to tell you this, this profession that was just made by this Roman soldier, this Gentile, nowhere in Israel have I found such faith. Now a few quick things here. So first, this here Jesus speaking about the faith in centurion, this is why I think that at least by the end of the text today, the man was converted by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had faith in Christ. Faith is only found when one is converted.

Second, I did wonder how the crowd received this announcement of Jesus and how he honored the centurion. I haven’t found faith like this in all of Israel. So yes, this man really did seem to be a respected individual in the area, but he still was a Gentile. So I did wonder how the crowd received this information. Perhaps specifically how like the Pharisees and other religious leaders receive this information, whether they’re on site, part of the crowd, or they just heard about this report later on.

So in the New Testament there are multiple reasons why the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead. One of which is because Jesus loved Gentiles who he’s like grafting into the family of faith. So the third thing I just want to point out before we finish the text, something I think I mentioned previously in the study of Luke, but I want to mention again just because how important it is the storyline of the Gospel account of Luke as well as volume Two, which is the Book of Acts. And just the thing I want to point out is just a spectrum of people who come to faith in Jesus Christ. I mean, it’s an absolute mixed bag of people.

So let me just review with us just some of the people we’ve seen come to faith in Jesus in just the first seven chapters. And as I give you this list, just be on the lookout of how this list will only continue to grow throughout the remainder of our study. So just so far, let me start with a couple Gentiles being with the author. Luke was a doctor, also appeared to be a Gentile himself, yet he was a disciple of Jesus Christ. He also spoke to a man named Theophilus, who also seemingly was a Gentile.

There’s an old Jewish woman named Elizabeth, who for her entire life was barren before becoming pregnant, where she gave birth to a son named John. She had faith. Her Jewish husband Zechariah, who was also an old man, who was a well thought of priest at Faith. There’s a young virgin named Mary, who was her niece, who’s a virgin that the Lord would use to give the birth of the Christ that the Old Testament foretold. There is her husband Joseph.

So even though he came through the line of David, was a simple carpenter from Nazareth, kind of a small backwater town, not very well respected by much of Israel, yet he had faith. There were lowly shepherds who were out watching their flock by night, who were the first to meet the Christ on the first Christmas as he was lying in a manger. They became his first witnesses, proclaiming to all what they saw. There’s an old devout man named Simeon, who has promised to see the Christ before he died, indeed did meet the Lord, the Christ child in the temple. There’s a prophetess, Anna, who was a widow for decades, who not only gave thanks for being in the presence of the Christ, but also witnessed to him or about him to others.

There was John, the son of Elizabeth in Zechariah, being known as John the Baptist, who was the promised forerunner of the Christian, the one who Jesus said, there’s like none greater born of woman than him. Then throughout we read of people at various synagogues coming to faith in Christ. There’s a man possessed by a demon who trusted in Jesus. There was his first disciples who Jesus called himself, who were just like ordinary common men, several which just being simple fishermen. There was a man with leprosy who cultured been an incredible social outcast, yet came to faith in Jesus.

There was a man who was Paralyzed who appears other in society thought came about as something like he deserved because of his own sin. Yet he too trusted in Jesus. But not only did he receive healing so he could walk, but more importantly, Jesus forgave this man of his sins. There was a man named Levi, a despised tax collector, who may have been like some of the most hated people or person in all the area. Yet Jesus called him to be one of his disciples.

There’s a man with a withered hand received healing on the synagogue on a Sabbath, much to the dismay of the religious leaders. There are crowds of people around Jesus from like all over who followed after him to hear him preach with one who has authority, including the congregation on the plane. Now here today, Roman officer, a Gentile, a person with real authority, real power, real influence, real wealth, now submitting his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Just in the first seven chapters. It is an absolute mixed bag of people.

Jews, Gentiles, well thought of, part of the social elite, yet social outcasts, those who are despised, lowly thought of. There are people who are known and important, people who are just ordinary in average. That all, like the centurion in our text today, came to Jesus by faith, all proving that indeed Jesus is mighty to save. And finally we’re in our text this morning in verse 10. After Jesus honored this man for being a man under authority, those who came to Jesus returned back home where they found the servant well as Jesus, in His grace and his power and his authority, healed a man who was at the point of death for us.

As we’re going to end our text to study today in Luke, but before I close, I want to just make a few comments concerning being an authority. And then from there I just want to point out a few things from the centurion in terms of like some positive examples that we can follow from him of not only how to live with authority, if we have authority, wherever they may be, but also how to live under authority. And then I just want to finish off our time by looking at the perfect example of Jesus and how he exercised authority or exercises authority, and how in his incarnation, how he too lived under authority. So first let me give you some real general thoughts just on authority. So we actually were designed to both live under authority as well as exercise authority.

And we see this actually in the creation account, where we’re designed, created to live under the authority of God in His good word that he’s given to us, and then in turn exercise authority over the earth as mankind was to be fruitful and Multiply and fill the earth, like, subduing it, having dominion over it, including like the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, over every living thing that moves on earth, right? So that that is actually our design, a good design, but one that we rebelled against as mankind sinned against God and his authority over us. Let’s say it again. Mankind designed to both live under authority as well as exhibit authority. Now, when it comes to living under authority, we always do so in ways that line up with Scripture.

And in Scripture, there’s actually a lot of different authority structures that it speaks towards, just to name a few. Like, there’s government that’s over nations. There’s husbands who are over the home. There are parents who are over children. There are bosses who are employees in church life, there’s elders who are over local churches.

And as we live under the various authorities, we see in Scriptures, this is not to be like a blind follow the authority, but we are to live under authority as far as the authority lives under the authority of Scripture to do the things that God would have us to do. And for us, this is actually really important, right? As we live under authority of God’s Word, like we live under authority even of others, provided others are not, like, causing us to sin.

Likewise, as scripture or scripture, as we live under authority, this is actually a real part of the way we worship God, right? So this is actually important for us both in terms of us living on authority and exercising authority. It’s part of our design. This is how we worship, worship God. This is part of what it means to like, follow after Christ and his authority in our life as we testify as we live under him.

Second thing, I want to close with just these examples from the centurion and what we can learn from and how to do this. Well, so first, let me just start out how we can learn from the example of like, having authority. So if you have authority, wherever that authority may be, he gives us some good examples, I think, in this passage. So first, as you have authority, ensure that you’re actually using it to care for others who are under you. And I do think that’s the example we see in the centurion, his favored servant who was appointed death.

Like, he cared about him and he cared enough to send for Jesus. He was like, you know what? My servant’s going to die, kind of a bummer. But you know what? I have plenty of cash and I can just get myself another servant.

No, he cared about the servant and he sent for the Lord. And this is important. So if you have authority, wherever that authority may be, those underneath you should, should indeed know that you care for them. Second, if you have authority, be generous with that which you have, which could be money, but it could be more than that. It could be like time, wisdom, opportunity, like be generous.

And the text is Centurion is a very wealthy man and he was generous with that wealth where he built for the people of Capernaum, a synagogue. So be generous with whatever authority that you have. In fact, this is a real way that we can show that we care through generosity. Third, if you have authority, wherever the authority may lies, use it to be a positive influence over others, where that influence has people like, willing to do things for you, not just like out of compulsion, but like out of joy. So one of my early Christian mentors gave me a plaque that said, lead wisely, so those who follow you will follow cheerfully.

And I do think that’s a bit what we see in the text of the Jewish elders as they went to plead with Jesus on behalf of the centurion, where they testify to Jesus, how this interior had a positive impact on the city scriptures, specifically speaking towards elders who have authority of congregation. So it’s like we’re not to like lord over the church, so not be like domineering, but by giving example that it’s worth following. While elders of church, I do think, have a higher standard here. These elders are caring for the church which Jesus purchased with the blood. I do think that principle applies to whatever area of influence that you have, whatever authority you have, that you’re not to like, dominate them, but you, like, give them example worth following, where those underneath you, like with joy, submit to your authority, your influence over their life.

Let me give you one more. So if you have authority, wherever the authority may lie, still have friends. And I think that’s a challenge. The more authority that one has, I think that’s actually harder it might be to have friends. I think naturally we just kind of like isolate from others.

But that’s not the example we see in the passage Centurion as much authority as he had, we see in the text like he still had friends, as he sent a friend, a delegation of friends to Jesus. So friends are important, like real friends. Like, even as you gain added authority, have friends, real friends, not like just yes men and yes women who are just like fanboys or fangirls, but like real friends who help you stay grounded or to not get like full of ourselves or whatever authority that we may have, have real friends who testify to you about Jesus and the authority he has over all of our lives, which, say it again, I do wonder if that’s what took place between verses four and six of our passage. Okay, so if you have authority, there’s some things there. Second, as me point out from the model of centurion, like, how do we, like, live under authority?

As mentioned at least to me, that’s the most important verse in this passage. As the centurion told Jesus, I too am a man under authority. So give me just a couple things here from examples. As we live under authority, starting with authority of God’s word, but also authority of those who God has placed over us. So as you live under authority, first, do so by having humility.

I mean, this is the example of this most important verse in this text, right? With humility, the centurion testified, hey, I too live under authority. I’m under the authority of you, Jesus. Right? Authority we designed to live.

And for us, we just have to be humble in all aspects of our life, including this aspect. Friends, we’re not our own. We’re not the master of our own fate. We’re not the captain of our own soul. Rather, we all belong to God.

He created us. He’s the master, he’s the captain. He alone is the Lord. And we must humble ourselves before him, before his authority over our life and whatever earthly authority he has placed over us, providing that earthly authority is not causing us to sin. And we know it’s not easy for us to do.

It’s not easy to be humble as we live under authority. Even this week, if you kind of replay your week, grumbling, complaining, murmuring how much it was towards those who have authority over you. Facts and sin enter the world. Naturally, we just want to, like, rebel against authority, starting with God’s authority over us. But if we’re going to obey scripture, if we’re going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, friends, we must be humble.

Second, if we live under authority, we actually have to live with trust once again, starting with trust in God. Trust in his good rule over our life. The text we see the centurion had a change of heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And he trusted him. And he trusted that the Lord is the one who is worthy.

He trusted that the Lord had power to do whatever he pleased, including healing his servant from where he stood. For us, as we live under authority, we must do so with trust.

Trust in God, but also like levels of trust in those he placed over us. Now, it’s not a blind trust, but we trust, trust that knowing God actually does hold people in authority accountable and we can trust that people over authority, that God is using them in our lives for our good. It’s not good for us, it’s not for our advantage. If all we ever do is like buck authority, because like we can’t trust as we live under authority, that that must be there. A trust that is grounded in the Lord and who he is.

And this actually leads. The last thing I just want to say here just revolves around the perfect model that comes from living under authority and then having authority, which is a perfect model found in Jesus where in his incarnation as the eternal Son of God became flesh. He did so by submitting Himself fully to the authority of His Heavenly Father as He came to do his will, which included in the flesh. Like even Jesus lived under authority, doing so without sin. He lived under the authority of his parents, even lived on authority of government is that he paid taxes.

Where in every aspect of life Jesus humbly submitted himself to the will of the Father, including like healing the servant in this passage. Where Jesus trusted His Father in all aspects of his life, including with all perfect humility. Where he trusted in accordance with the Scripture. Where Jesus humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. Where on the cross Jesus bore the wrath of God that burns over sin as Jesus dies for like a mixed bag of people, Jew and Gentile, where he died even though we all have rebelled against God as authority of our life, where we have failed to live perfectly with whatever authority he has given to us.

That even though Jesus lived and died under authority, we know he did not stay dead. The but on the third day, in accordance with the Scripture, our Lord picked back up his life as he rose again from the dead to prove that not only does he have authority over life, but also authority over sin and death. So that through his death and resurrection, the name of Jesus will be the Name that is above all names in heaven and on earth. The Name has all authority. Where as mentioned, one day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord.

Where as the Lord not only did Jesus have the power to rule, the authority to rule, but he also has, like all care, all love, as he does so towards his people. Whereas the Lord Jesus lives with his authority, he generously pours out his grace upon grace upon his people to prove that indeed he’s like the true friend of sinners.

So yes, Church, if we’re going to follow Jesus, we must live under his authority, which is a good authority found in his perfect word, finally, to close. I just wanted to close. But despite inviting any here who have yet to submit their life to Jesus Christ, who have yet to put their faith in Him, I want to close just by inviting you to actually do so. Like right now, in this moment, where in the short time since you walked in this morning to when you walk out at the close of the service in just a bit, that there’d be like a change of heart in you, where you realize and you understand that you’re actually not worthy of Jesus. But in his incredible grace and love and mercy, he died for you and rose again and is now calling himself, recalling you to Himself, so that forever and always you can joyfully live under his authority as the one who is worthy of it all.

So let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for Jesus, thank you that in the incarnation that he gives us the perfect example that we need as he lived the life that we could never live.

And Lord, I do pray that you would help us all just to trust in Jesus today.

Trust and believe that indeed Jesus did die for sin, indeed he did rise again on the third day. And to trust that his word is true and it’s good.

And Lord, I pray you just forgive us all the different places that we’re failing, whether it’s failing to live under your authority or the authority of others that you placed over us, or for abusing the authority that you have entrusted to us. And so, Lord, please forgive us. And indeed, Lord, I do pray that all here today would have faith, would be a man or woman under your authority. Pray so in Jesus name, amen.

The post Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant – Luke 7: 1-10 appeared first on Red Village Church.

And the ruin of that house was great. It’s not God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, we pray that you would indeed speak through the preaching of your word. Lord, please help me to communicate this text. Well, Lord, please keep me from error, but to speak only that which is true. Lord, we do pray that you give the congregation here just ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. And Lord, please bring much glory to Jesus in this time.

It’s in his name we pray. Amen. So let me share with you a story I think I may have shared in the past, but I think it’s been a little while since I’ve done it. It’s like every good story starts with me. So there we were.

And this was when I was still in college and I had a summer job working for a carpenter who actually specialized in building log homes. Now, for me, my main job was donut pickup guy for the morning break. But I also had a number of other trivial jobs that come alongside some of the main carpenters just to kind of help them do their thing in ways to help them be efficient and able to concentrate on doing quality work. Well, in this story, one of the days when I was assisting one of the carpenters, things are just not coming together. So we just finished putting on the decking over the basement of the house, which I should mention was a huge home.

This is the biggest home. The owner of the building company had to up to this point. But as we put the decking on and started to lay out the exterior walls, things were just not coming together. The walls were not lining up according to plan, even though from what we could tell, we were laying things out according to the blueprints. So after a while trying to figure things out on our own, trying to figure out why things are not coming together according to the design, the carpenter that I was assisting called over to the owner of the company to see if he could help us just understand why things were not working the way they should have.

Which led to the owner also looking at the blueprints where he started to measure things out on the exterior walls. But as he did that, things were not coming for together for him either. So for the next, I don’t know, 30 minutes or so, we’re all scratching our heads trying to figure out what the issue was. Why were things not going the way they were designed? Why were they not coming together?

Where did things go wrong? Only for the owner to realize what was wrong had nothing to do with the blueprints, nothing to do with the measurements of the walls, rather the basement foundation that was poured, the one that the company owner laid out like he didn’t do it right. So in the hustle and bustle, I’m sure the pressure excitement of building his biggest home to date, he got a little distracted. And the measurements, the layout of the foundation was off something like a foot or two, which might not seem like a big deal, but just that little bit off of the foundation put everything else off. And with everything because that was off, we just could not move forward.

Because if we did so, not only did the house not come together according to plan, the house would have been structurally vulnerable, set up for a huge fall with the foundation off, everything else was off as well. Now, I tell you that story this morning to hopefully set us up for our text, a study, which is the final section, often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain, which is something we’ve been studying the last few weeks. This is called Sermon on the Plane, because in Luke 6 we see that the sermon that Jesus gave was to a great crowd of disciples, a great multitude of people from all over the region, while he gave this, while standing on a level place, a plane. So I mentioned a few times, and I’ll mention again here, this sermon plane is similar, but yet a little different to perhaps Jesus most famous sermon. The sermon is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, which the Lord gave on the side of a mountain, which you can read about in Matthew, starting in chapter five of Matthew.

And the sex is very similar, but different. In fact, the sermon is very similar, but different, including how similar actually is, how it ends. Both those sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Plain, end very similarly. And I do think it’s important for us to see that each of these end with a very similar challenge to the listeners. A challenge that’d be good for us to hear this morning as well.

A challenge that is meant to cut to our hearts, to show if our hearts indeed do beat for Jesus or not. So we’re talking more about this kind of throughout the sermon. Let me also just mention before we get dive back into the text, that throughout this sermon on the plain, Jesus is primarily speaking towards his disciples. So yes, it’s mentioned there’s a great crowd around Jesus from all over the region who he was speaking to as well in the sermon. But the primary audience for this sermon, the Sermon on the Plain, was his many disciples, as Jesus was helping them understand what it looks like to follow after him.

Understanding if we’re going to Follow after Jesus. We need to follow him not just in word, but also in deed, meaning to be a disciple of Jesus, not simply acknowledging that Jesus is the Lord. We were to follow him joyfully submitting our life to him and as the Lord as the foundation of our life, where our desire is to build everything about our life off of him, knowing that if Jesus is not our foundation, everything is going to be off, which in terms of the plains, well, as the sermon, the Mount, everything be off in the most tragic and terrifying ways. Without Jesus as the foundation of one’s life, we are set up for a great fall. Okay, so that is the introduction.

Please look back with me at the text, starting in verse 33, where Jesus spoke to the congregation on the plane by giving them another parable or illustration to help them understand, like an important spiritual truth. So in the text, verse 43, Jesus says, for no good tree bears bad fruit. Nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its fruit. I’ll just say pause here for a second.

Clearly here in this parable illustration, Jesus is using trees as a metaphor to address one’s heart, which is the thing that Jesus is after. He wants our heart. He deserves our heart. So in this illustration, when our hearts are good in ways that they’re good before God, because God has birthed inside us a new heart, we’re in the grace of God, he takes out like a heart of stone, that actually we’re all born with a heart that’s like spiritually dead before God in sin, that by his grace he gives us a new birth, he puts in a new heart, a heart of flesh, which is a heart that now beats for God. A heart that knows God, or better said, is known by God as his own.

Because a new heart, this heart of flesh, this very spirit dwells within. The very presence of God, fills that heart. So from that new heart that was graciously given to us by God, now good things come out of it. Not bad things, not bad fruit. But in the text, good things, good fruit, which are good things.

Good fruit that honor God, that communicate worship towards God. They have a real love for God, a desire to bring glory to God. In the New Testament, these good things, or these good fruit that come out of a new heart, it’s often referred to as the fruit of the spirit. Good fruit, not bad fruit. So Galatians 5 says this.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. So in this sermon, Jesus, in this illustration on the positive, when the heart is good because of God, putting a new heart like a good tree, good fruit will come from us. As a good tree does not produce bad fruit, a new good heart will not be characterized by having bad fruit. However, then on the negative, the challenge of warning for those who do not have the spirit of God dwelling inside, where they have not experienced, like, this new birth, where they do not have a new heart, where they’re still spiritually dead in their sins, spiritually dead before God, where they have this, like, heart of stone. Scripture refers to a heart that does not beat for God, does not desire to bring him glory.

In the text, like a bad tree, they will not produce good fruit, Meaning they will not live a life seeking to worship God, obey God, love God, bring glory to God. Rather, without a new birth, the spiritually dead heart will produce fruit, which the New Testament refers to as like the works of the flesh. So once again, Book of Galatians, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. None of these things are good fruit.

None of these things bring honor and glory to God. No, just a few things before we keep moving on. First, I just want to address maybe a couple related questions you have here. And then after that, I want to just stress something essential for us to see and understand in this passage. So first question, potential questions you might have.

Does this mean that if one is a Christian who has a new heart, does this mean that, like, bad or sinful things cannot come out of them, where they’ll never sin, never do anything wrong? The answer is life is unfortunately, bad things, sinful things, even for Christians, for disciples of Jesus, unfortunately, these still will happen. Or, unfortunately, we still will stumble and fall in many ways. And if one says that he’s, like, not a sinner, not capable of sinning, like Scripture tells, like, they’re a liar and the truth is not in them. So Jesus is getting here.

It’s not that we’re going to be perfect where we only give good fruit, but what he is saying is, like, bad, sinful things, bad fruit. These things will not mark our lives. We’re not gonna just, like, give in to bad fruit without seeking to put them away through repentance and faith. Like, there’s gonna be evidence of our life of good fruit when we have a good heart, they’re gonna be present. There’s gonna be a desire A longing, a joy for obedience, that we live a life that bears fruit for our good God.

And they say things will mark one’s life. Our life will be one that’s lived. They’re seeking to honor and worship God once again. Just to be clear, in this life, unfortunately, they can be done in imperfect ways as a wait for and long for the next life. In the next life, all these things will be done in perfect life, in perfect ways, where in the next life only good fruit will come as sin is fully removed from us.

Let me mention the context of sermon. Some of the good fruit that is to mark those who are Christians who have a new heart, those who are trusting in him, I’m positive, will include things like storing up treasures in heaven. Just something Jesus talked about kind of throughout this sermon on plain. It’ll include like loving our enemies. It’s going to include good fruit of like not being judgmental and condemning or unforgiving towards other Christians.

Our lives can be marked, like trying to do to others which we wish others would do to us. Likewise, a good tree, the life is gonna be characterized by not like having this bad fruit, like trying to pull the speck out of someone else’s eye when there’s a plank in your own eye. Instead, when there’s a good heart that God has graciously put in the fruit of our life that comes from knowing God will have like the fruit of generosity, the fruit of love and mercy towards other and word. And indeed so once again, not perfect in this life, but there should be a life that produces good fruit because of God’s work. Second potential question then, is Jesus teaching those who are not Christians who still have a heart of stone, who are dead in their sin.

Is Jesus saying that they cannot do good things? And the answer is kind of a yes and no here. So certainly non Christians can do morally good things towards others where they can show, like, love and kindness, where, in a sense, you can do good things to benefit society. In fact, I’m sure we all know those who are not yet Christians, who are like some of the nicest and kindest people that we know, who have done good things that we have benefited from. However, that being said, non Christians who are spiritually dead before God, who still have a heart of stone, they cannot do good things in ways that, like honor God, that reflect the heart of worship towards God to produce good things that bring glory to God in the end.

This is what Jesus is getting at here. Bad trees cannot bear good fruit in their lives in ways that honor and glorify God, which is what we’ve been designed to do. God created us to obey him, to enjoy him forever, to bear fruit with our lives. But because of sin is in all of us on our own, apart from the grace of God in our life, we can’t bear good fruit for God. Like we need a new heart in ways we’re going to live, ways that we have been designed to live.

And third, I just want to stress here before I move on within this illustration that Jesus is using here, something he continues to really teach throughout his ministry, including this sermon on the plain. There’s really only two ways that one can live. Either you know God by having faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, or to keep saying it, you have a new heart given to you graciously by God, with the Spirit of God living inside, where you’re blessed in God, where God is the foundation of your life, where you’re bearing good fruit for Him. That’s one way. Or you don’t know God and you still have a heart that’s spiritually dead before God.

Where in the sermon on the plain, you’re under his woes because he is not your foundation. Like there’s no sliding scale here. Either a good tree or a bad tree. Either you have a new heart or you have a heart of stone. Either you’re alive to God because of his grace and the new heart is given to you, or you’re still dead, dead in your sin before Him.

Either Jesus is the foundation or he’s not. There’s only two ways to live, and this is true for all of us here this morning. Either we are in Christ or we are not. Either we are a good tree or we are a bad tree. Keep going.

Verse 44. For each of these two tree options we see it’s known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from bushes, nor grapes picked up from like bramble bush. Those types of trees don’t produce those types of fruits. It’s not in their nature.

They can’t do it. It’s impossible. Verse 45. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart, then produces good. Once again.

With the Spirit living inside, one will produce good fruit. It will happen. In fact, it’s impossible for it not to happen. But the evil person is referring to any and all who do not have faith in God through Jesus Christ, who is still dead in trespasses and sin. The evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil.

How can it not? It’s in its nature. It cannot produce that which is good to bring glory to God in the text. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks, meaning that which is at our core in our heart, it will come out of us like whatever is at the core of a tree, that fruit will come out. Which by the way is why our words are so telling.

A New Testament book of James says if anyone thinks he’s religious but does not bridle his own tongue, but deceives his heart, this person’s religious religion is worthless. Keep going. Verse 46. We see it’s not just our words that are telling when it comes to what kind of tree we are or what kind of foundation we’re built upon. We also see our deeds or their lack thereof are also so telling Jesus to the congregation on the plane and to us here this morning.

So why do you call me Lord? Lord? Which calling Jesus Lord, like those are the right words for our mouth to speak yet. And this is a pretty massive three letter word here. Yet you do not do what I tell you.

Verse 47. Everyone who comes comes to me and hears my word and does them. I will show you what he’s like, which here Jesus give another illustration or parable to communicate his point. And this is something that James also communicates about works and obedience. There’s a natural outflowing when one has faith, outflowing from the heart, there will be works.

This is what Jesus is about to get at in our text. Verse 48. So that person, the one who hears and obeys, he’s like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. Now just for some historical context here, just to understand what Jesus is getting at. So in this time period houses actually were pretty heavy.

These are often rebuilt with like either like large stones or bricks. And often these heavy houses were built on a terrain that was like not most level. So this can be kind of a hilly region. And because of these factors, the overall weight of the home, the uneven terrain, if a house was built in haste without taking time to dig into the bedrock to secure the home, the house would be set up for a fall like crumbling under its own weight. So the better, the necessary thing to do, the better long term picture here to do the right thing is to dig deep into the ground.

Even though it cost time money to set the foundation of the house on a rock, building a house on the rock would make the house so much more secure, particularly when the storms blew in which in the text. So when the flood waters rose, which actually Something could be pretty common in this region of the world. Times like heavy rains might pop up from time to time. And as these storms pop up, maybe flood waters would join them, causing a stream to come, like rushing against the house. And the house that’s built on the deep, secure foundation of the rock, as a stream came rushing against it, the text tells us it will not shake because this has been built well, safely secured and tethered to the rock.

I remember in verse 49, if you want to take your eyes there, the warning. But the one who hears the words of Jesus, the words found in sacred Scripture, but does nothing with them, rather hears but rejects God’s word as if it has no bearing on your life. Particularly what it says about the salvation found in Jesus Christ. It takes that person is like a man who built a house without a foundation, having no real care, no real concern, no real thought on that which might come rather just kind of quickly throw up the house just to get back to the cares of the world for that person. When the flood waters came, causing a stream to form that came crashing against that type of house with no foundation, immediately the house will fall and the ruin of that house will be great, where that person will lose everything.

I think the reality of losing everything certainly is true in this life, but I think more importantly is true of the life that is to come. For those who reject Christ, who do not build their life upon him as the foundation, they will be forever lost apart from Him. Which is why this Sermon on the Plane is a heavy but important sermon for us to hear. Perhaps that’s why Jesus ended this sermon as well the Sermon on the Mountain. The same way for us to hear this warning, knowing that he, like, came to seek and save those which are lost so that they would be found by him, so they would have their foundation built on him as the rock of our salvation through his death and resurrection from the dead.

For us, that ends the sermon on the plane. However, before we end this sermon here, just a couple things I just want to do. So first, I specifically just want to give us some thoughts from our text today. And then I just want to kind of back up and give you some thoughts on the Sermon on the Plane as a whole that’s mentioned. We’ve been looking at the last number of weeks.

So first, let’s just start with our text today. As I mentioned, again, not only ends the Sermon on the plane, but very similarly ends a Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. And I do think it’s important to see like this is the conclusion that Jesus has, as he preached to the crowds around him. And so for us, I just have one kind of major point of application, which is this, as we end this sermon on the plane, is just to examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith. Okay, so New Testament says this in Second Corinthians, it says, examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith.

Test yourself, which testing through what Scripture tells us, test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourself, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test? I think that’s what the heart of Jesus is getting at in the passage today, that for the crowds around him, they were simply to assume that because they were in the vicinity of Jesus, because they were hearing his Word preached like they were good, rather as they heard the word of the Lord, they were adhered in ways that the word is to examine the fruit of their lives, to examine the foundation of their life, to see where it’s at. And for us, I think it’s important for us to do as well. I think it’s important for us to let this passage, like, examine our hearts, discern if our life is producing the fruit of the Spirit that comes from a new heart that is alive towards God.

So again, discernment do we see the fruit of like, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control coming out of our lives. Furthermore, as we discern our lives, let Scripture and examine our hearts to see what’s coming out of our mouth in the text, out of the abundance of the mouth, the heart speaks. And as we do this, not only to serve our words that we might say in church life, but also the words we might say outside of church life to see if they match up. Remember back to the story I gave a few weeks ago where my hypocrisy was exposed. For the most part, my words in church life were pretty good, but they were far different from the words I used in all the other areas of my life.

So can I just ask, as you discern the words that come out of you, like what are the words not just in church life, but what are the words that you use throughout your life out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks. But it’s not just the fruit of our words that we’re to discern and examine in the text. We also need to see the fruit of our deeds. Jesus told us verse 46, we can say, Lord, Lord, but if we do not do what he tells us, those words are in vain. The Fruit of our life ought to be one who hears the words of God and does them no, keeps us saying this once again in this life.

We’re not going to be perfect in this, even with a new heart, with the Spirit of God living inside. But as we examine our hearts, as we examine our life, there should be fruit. We’re seeking to bring honor and glory to God with our words and our deeds. Likewise, we need to examine to see where the foundation of our life lies. Are we building our life off of Christ?

Is Jesus the cornerstone? Or as we examine our lives, we recognize our life is actually not built upon Jesus, but we’re, like, seeking to build our life off of something else, which could be a host of different things, perhaps in themselves not bad, but they’re not Christ. If you’re unsure what foundation life is built upon, just ask. As hard things come your way, as storms of life beat against you like floodwaters, like, what happens?

Where do you look? Where’s your hope? As the floods come, does it result in, like works of the flesh come, continuing to bubble out of you where you, like, run and indulge in various types of sinful behavior? Or as the floods come, do you see the fruit of the Spirit even into difficulty, do the flood waters lead you to Christ? You know, the great Charles Spurgeon said this.

He said, I’ve learned to kiss the wave, the Rock of Ages. Ben’s gonna ask, does hard things come your way? Do they take you to Christ, the rock of ages, once again, not that we’re gonna be perfect in this life. The storms come. Even those who have the spirit living inside, who maybe are mature in their faith and this life are not gonna be perfect, which is why we still need Jesus.

We’ll talk about that more in the end. But for this morning, as you can see the text, how this passage ends, let me just invite us once again examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, to let this text test ourselves so that we might realize that Jesus Christ is in us so we do not fail the test. The weight of this passage, of how this sermon ends is so important for us to feel. It’s not enough to just be in the crowd, to just hear the words of Jesus, brother, we must put our faith in him. He must be the foundation of our life.

This is a test. This is an examination that we all must pass, because if not in the passage, there will be a fall and it will be great. This actually leads to the second thing I want to do before we close, but I just Want to leave us just two things from the Sermon on the Plain as a whole. So first, the sermon does help us see what it looks like to follow after Jesus as one of his disciples. So, meaning the Sermon on the Plain is not like primary sermon on how to become a Christian.

Rather, this is primarily a sermon on what it looks like to live out the Christian faith in faithful ways which. Including things we just talked about, like the fruit of our life, where the fruit of our life is doing things like storing up treasures in heaven. We’re in the Sermon on the Plain. We’re, like, willing to suffer for our faith. That’s what it means to follow Christ.

That should be a fruit of our life. Through fruit of our lives. If we’re gonna follow Jesus, should be loving enemies, loving fellow believers. If we’re gonna follow Jesus, we need to be merciful. We need to do others what we wish others would do to us, Right?

These are all things that are meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, to follow after him in faithfulness and in joy. And for us, you know, one of our church pillars is to grow. We want to continue to grow in our faith, to bear more fruit for. And the Sermon on Plain is just so helpful for us on that end. So if you want to grow, let the Sermon on Plain be part of your guide and just ask the Lord to help you to be obedient to these good words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Particularly, I think, when it comes to wanting to do to others or doing to others that you wish others to do to you, which I kind of think is a summary statement of the entire first half of the Sermon of Jesus. So this week, at home, at school, at work, at church, with all the different interactions you’re having with others, if you’re this Christian, a disciple who’s seeking to grow all those interactions, do them in ways that you want others to do to you, especially if you were in their shoes, doing so in ways you remember how much the Lord Jesus has done for you and how loving and merciful he continues to be to all of his people. Which leads to the second thing I just want to leave us with as we close the Sermon on the Plain. The Sermon on the Plain does help us see how much we need Jesus, friends. We all need the Lord Jesus Christ.

So for those of us here who recognize that you’re not, like, passing the test, as you recognize that your life doesn’t match up what it looks like to follow Jesus as disciple, you see no fruit, you know, the foundation of your life is actually not on Christ. Like you’re not passing the test. If that’s you friend, you just need to see how much you need Jesus. And not only that, let me give you some good news. The promise of Scripture is that if you call upon his name, that by faith you would turn to him, trust in him.

That indeed you would trust that he came to die for you on a cross to take on the punishment of your sin, only to rise again on the third day. The promise that indeed he will save you, that you have a new heart, that the Spirit will live inside. From the end of the sermon on the plane. This call to examine oneself so that’s not there, to like, to cripple us in ways that we just get so introspective, like forever and ever. We’re crippled under the weight of our own sin and our own guilt and our own shame and our own shortcomings, where all we see is like ourselves, our own failures, rather the examination of self.

We’ve examined ourselves in ways that we see our need for Jesus, in ways that we call upon him, knowing that as we call upon him by faith, he will hear us. Scripture is so clear. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but through him the world might be saved.

And friends, that’s the heart of this sermon as it ends. This is why Jesus ends this way, including the Sermon on the Mount, in the same way so that you would hear the Word, in ways that you would turn and trust in him. So that not only we see your sin, your shortcomings, but more importantly, that you would see the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of our sin. So this morning as we close the sermon, playing for those who are here, who are not in Christ, who sure may say Lord, Lord, but you know your actions do not match up. I just want to invite you to turn from sin and turn to Jesus, asking Him to be the foundation of your life once again.

Trust him that he did die for you and that he did rise again from the dead, trusting that he is worthy of building your entire life upon, knowing that as you turn to him, you’ll be securely and forever his. So if you don’t pass the test, don’t leave here this morning just looking at self, like feeling doomed because you didn’t pass the test. Rather, leave here feeling forgiven, have hope and joy because you’re now looking to Jesus, who passed the test for us, who is loving, who is merciful, who is calling people to Himself, including perhaps you this morning. This morning, it’s not just those who are not yet Christians, who need Jesus, who need to set their eyes on him, to close the sermon plain. They should help all of us, including those who already are disciples, just see how much we still need Jesus and the power of the Spirit to empower us to live out as disciples.

This call in this sermon is a heavy call to live in this way. And this is called we just cannot do on our own. So we need Jesus. We need his example on how to live this out. But Jesus perfectly lived out the call in this sermon, including how he loved his enemies in ways that he died for sinners like you and me, including how he loves his people, his church, how merciful and generous he is towards us, including the example how his life is forever and always one that only bears fruit, good fruit for God.

But not only do we need this example, we also, as mentioned, we need his power. If we can live this out. So Scripture tells, like he’s the vine and we’re simply branches and apart from him, we can do no good thing. It’s only in him by which we can bear much fruit. So even if you are a Christian, maybe you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you still need Jesus and you still need to continue to set your eyes on him, and you still need his love and his mercy.

And this morning, if you know the areas of life where you’re not bearing fruit, where you’re. Perhaps you’re doing things on your own in ways that do not reflect Christ being your cornerstone. I also just want to invite you to turn to him as well, to confess and forsake your sin, to trust in him, knowing that he does forgive, that he is merciful, that he is loving, that as you turn to him, you will bear good fruit. So back to the story that I started out this time with. So as my boss realized that the foundation was off, he did the only thing that he could do.

I mean, he didn’t keep trying to build a house, simply saying, well, we’re only off, like maybe a foot or two. So that’s pretty close. Let’s just keep going and I’m sure it will kind of work out close enough. Instead, he humbled himself. He admitted that he was wrong.

He recognized he was just too hasty as he laid out the foundation through which we were to build off, and we stopped doing everything in order for him. To make a change, to like, reset the foundation to what it was designed to be. Friends, may that be true of all of us here today that we would not seek to live out our life with a faulty, wrong foundation. Rather, where we’re off, just humble ourselves by the grace of God. Make a change.

Reset the foundation of your life on the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might live for him, that you might bear good fruit for him. I should say it again, that is our design. Knowing that as we live our life on the foundation that is Jesus, the rock of our salvation, we are eternally and fully secure, no matter what storms may come our way. Let’s pray.

But thank you for Jesus and Lord, I do pray that by your grace and by the power of your Holy Spirit, that indeed all of us here today would have Jesus as the great foundation of our life.

And Lord, we do want to bear good fruit for you. So please help us to abide in you.

And Lord, I pray specifically for those here today who struggle to know if they are passing the test.

And Lord, please help them to put their eyes in Jesus and to trust in him above all things. Pray that you might give them deep assurance because of the promises that you’ve given to us. Pray this on Jesus name. Amen.

The post Examine Your Fruit and Foundation – Luke 6:43-49 appeared first on Red Village Church.

Well, good morning everyone.

My name is Zeke and I am a member here at Red Village and I’m on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. So I work with college students at UW Madison, seeking to reach the campus with the Gospel and equipping students for a life of sharing the Gospel, studying Scripture and pursuing God, both during their time in college and for the rest of their lives. It is a joy and an honor once again to bring you God’s word this morning and continue on where we left off in Habakkuk. Now that might be a confusing sentence to some of you since the last time that I preached on Habakkuk was April of 2024. So I’m not expecting you all to remember everything, just most of what I said last time.

But it’s been a minute. So for a lot of what I’m going to talk about today, the context of this lesser known book is pretty needed. So with that in mind, I’m going to begin with some context of what has happened so far in the Book of Habakkuk and where the Book of Habakkuk is placed in the context of the Bible. So Habakkuk is one of the minor prophets which is found towards the end of the Old Testament. So it’s about 2/3 of the way through your Bible.

This book was written somewhere from around 615 to 600 BC after the fall of the Assyrian Empire and during the rise of the Babylonians, but before the beginning of the Babylonian exile of Judah. So here’s a bit of a rundown of where we are in the history of Israel. King David is a good grasping point for us to begin in highlighting where this is happening. Contextually, he’s a pretty familiar guy. So he’s king of the twelve tribes of Israel and has a son Solomon, who becomes king and builds a magnificent temple to the Lord.

But because of Solomon’s sin, and that he is not fully following God with his whole heart, God says that he will tear 10 of the tribes of Israel away from his family. Solomon dies. And after a huge mess of war, idolatry and lots of sin, the twelve tribes of Israel split into two kingdoms referred to as Israel. The northern kingdom composed of 10 of the tribes and Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. Israel immediately set up two golden calves to worship so the people wouldn’t go to Solomon’s temple in Judah.

And Israel was a very wicked nation for most all of its existence. After about 200 years of this, we see in Isaiah the prophesied and fulfilled Judgment on Israel as the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom. After the kingdom split, Judah followed God some of the time, but was still often consumed by idol worship and other evils. Habakkuk is written in Judah around 300 years after the kingdom split, or like 350 years after King David died and about 100 years after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians. This is around the same time of the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and is all leading up to when the Babylonian empire would lay siege on Judah.

This is all also taking place before the exile, so before Israel lives in captivity in Babylon, before Daniel, before Esther, and especially before the books written about the return of the exiles like Ezra, Nehemiah. As for structure, the book of Habakkuk consists of two complaints from Habakkuk the prophet and God’s responses to those complaints. And the book ends with a psalm of faith. Habakkuk’s first complaint is him crying out to God because of the wickedness in Judah. He says that justice never goes forth and the wicked surround the righteous.

His complaint is that it seems like God isn’t doing anything to punish the wickedness and sin happening in Judah, and it is just being allowed to continue. God responds to this first complaint with something very different than what Habakkuk was probably expecting or hoping for. God promises destruction of Judah by the Chaldeans or the Babylonians as they’re also known. Habakkuk’s second complaint is one in response to this. He is in shock as he asks God how.

How can he do this? How can he turn Judah over to a vile and wicked nation more evil and idolatrous than Judah itself? And he asks, how can it be good and right for God to raise up such an evil nation to destroy Judah? God answers Habakkuk’s second complaint in two parts. First, which is what I covered in my last sermon by telling Habakkuk that the righteous shall live by faith.

Or in other words, righteous people should faithfully trust God’s plans to declare that although it is difficult for him to understand, God’s plan is what is most good and absolutely just. And Habakkuk should rest in faith, knowing that this is how God will always operate. But God does answer in a second part, and this is our text of study today, the Five Woes of Habakkuk. So that’s quite a bit of context, and I hope at least some of that made sense. But there’s one other thing that I want to talk about before we read our passage for today, and that’s the emotional setting.

I feel like we can easily gloss over what this would have been like for him. We can read it as a Bible story where things are hard, because, you know, in the Bible, things are always hard. But then we don’t really think about how this would feel for us today. At this point, Habakkuk was probably pretty haggard. He was suffering at the hands of the wicked and watching helplessly as the few righteous people who remained in Judah were beaten down and oppressed at his side.

In his emotional petition for God to bring his salvation, he learns of the impending conquering and destruction of his city and his people for them to be dragged into a foreign nation even more wicked than the wickedness found in Judah. This is hard, and I don’t want to skip over how complex and difficult the situation for Habakkuk is and all of what it means for Habakkuk to live by faith in trusting God’s plan. So our passage for today is Habakkuk 2, 6, 20. But I will be reading the entirety of chapter two, which begins at the end of Habakkuk’s second complaint. And then verse two starts God’s response, which spans the remaining 19 verses of the chapter.

So please open your Bibles to Habakkuk chapter 2 and follow along with me.

Habakkuk2. I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me. Write the vision, make it plain on tablet, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time.

It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up.

It is not upright within him. But the righteous shall live by faith. Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations, and collects as his own all peoples.

Shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, woe to him who heaps up what is not his own for how long, and loads himself with pledges? Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them, because you have plundered many nations. All the remnant of the people shall plunder you for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm.

You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples. You have forfeited your life for the stone will cry out from the wall and the beam from the woodwork respond.

Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity. Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that people labor merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink. You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness.

You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision. The cup of the Lord’s right hand will come around to you and utter shame will come upon your glory. The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them. For the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it? A metal image, a teacher of lies. For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake to a silent stone, arise. Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver and there is no breath at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before him. Please join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this word of Habakkuk the prophet and your response to him. We thank you for the ways that this reveals your justice and helps us to learn more of how we can live by faith, trusting in your plans. Please speak through me. Give me words to speak.

Help people to receive the message from you, not in my own wisdom. Jesus name, Amen.

And so, as God continues in his response to Habakkuk’s second complaint, he begins to describe five woes, five aspects of injustice that Babylon is doing and that are cause for the impending judgment of Babylon. God sees Habakkuk in his distress and he listens to his complaint. He sees that it is hard to see a wicked nation like Babylon flourish. And these woes are a comfort to Habakkuk that God sees the wickedness of Babylon and will bring about justice. As in the first part of God’s response to Habakkuk in chapter two, Babylon or the Chaldeans aren’t explicitly mentioned.

God uses him and he to describe the wicked character in the story. And I think that that is intentional, both so that this judgment on Babylon can be applied to the wicked nations to follow Persia, Greece, Rome, and many others, but also I think, because although this is a specific judgment brought against the impending oppressors and conquerors of Judah, it is also a critique of Judah. And in many ways, if we are willing to listen, it can be a critique of us also.

The first complaint of Habakkuk, which is the first part of chapter one, is one crying out to the Lord because of the wickedness in Judah, wickedness that was not being addressed. And I think that although these woes were primarily spoken against the Chaldeans, they are also written to show the justice found in the destruction of Judah by the Chaldeans. However, for simplicity as I expose it, I will be speaking primarily in the context of the he being the Chaldeans. So with that broader view of the recipient of the judgment in our passage, let’s dive in.

The first half of verse six provides the immediate context for what God is declaring. Shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, or as the NASB translate it, will not all these take up a song of ridicule against him, even a saying and insinuations against him, and say the all these is referring to all nations and people which he gathers for himself in his greed and unrest. All these nations, tribes, and peoples of the earth, who have witnessed and experienced the wickedness, destruction, oppression, and greed of the Chaldeans. In a way, this is to say, will not those who are oppressed eventually cry out and act against their oppressors? And so we enter into the first woe of the Chaldeans, the first warning of the earthly consequences of their warring wickedness and greed that is as unsatisfied as death and hell itself.

So this is verse 6B through 8 is our first woe. Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own for how long, and loads himself with pledges. Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them, because you have plundered many nations. All the remnant of the people shall plunder you for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities, and all who dwell in them.

Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own. For the Chaldeans, this was all of what they had wealth and possessions brought from the stripping down of the nations to which their armies laid waste. They stripped the nations bare of the people, possessions and property. God is displeased with the accumulation of much through the downfall of others. We can see this from the beginning and the establishment of God’s law with the people of Israel.

Leviticus 19 and 25 speak about this in different ways. The Chaldeans receive even more wealth from the surrounding nations in pledge given in fear as a means of putting off their destruction. Their greed is their own undoing as their unjust accumulation of all that has led to their debtors having no option but to rise against the Chaldeans in vengeance. And in verse 8 God declares that this destruction of the Chaldeans will happen because of all the plundering, violence and death that they have caused to all the cities of the earth. This is right and just earthly punishment to the Chaldeans for what they are doing to the earth, just as their conquering of Judah is right and just because of Judah’s own wickedness.

And this should serve as a warning and a question to us also where do we acquire money and things in unjust ways? Where do we gain at the loss of others or acquire things in ways that perpetuate the unjust treatment of others?

Verses 9 through 11 the second woe woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to set his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm. You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples you have forfeited your life for the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the Woodwork respond. Verse 9 takes this acquisition of wealth from a national level to a personal and familial level, and also brings up the issues of how we utilize that wealth. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house. This is not describing evil gain made by the inequitable use of his property, but is speaking of acquisition of wealth utilized for the benefit of his family and home.

First was addressed how wealth was acquired wickedly. Now we address the wicked use of that wealth. Verse 9 speaks of the ways this is primarily done to set his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harmony. God is condemning the utilization of wealth to create safety and security for the family line. John Calvin writes from the perspective of the man doing this in the passage, Were I satisfied with a moderate portion, many would become my rivals.

But when my treasure surpasses what is common then I shall be as it were beyond the reach of men and and when others envy one another, I shall escape. The sin of this woe is in establishing the future and well being of oneself and lineage far above the well being of those around them. This is bound in selfishness and trust in personal plans and wisdom instead of loving neighbor as self and trusting in the wisdom of God with the obedience of his commands. I’m going to slightly tangent to go over the way this woe very directly applies to us today because I think this is a great temptation and wickedness that we can easily engage in without awareness. So C. Stacy woods, the first president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the United States, writes in his book Some Ways of God.

He writes this how easily we citizens of heaven, secure in Christ Jesus, find our imagined security in earthly things. Take for instances the insurances and Social Security which surround and undergird us. Let me first hasten to say that there is nothing whatsoever intrinsically unchristian in these supports and guarantees which seem to cover our every need from the cradle to the grave. The danger is in the effect that these securities have upon us. Spiritually we feel secure against almost all of the disasters of life that can overtake us, so we no longer feel the same intensity our need for God.

If my home burns down and I’m out of work and there are children to feed and I have no insurances to fall back on in agony, out of desperation, I will cry out to God to meet my need, but with multiple insurances the pressure is off. The same is true of all types of wealth. These things give us the sense of material security which is dangerous for our spiritual welfare. My greatest need is to feel and understand my need of God. I need the every hour is always true and should be the constant cry of our hearts.

To feel my need of God my Father and consciously to depend on him is spiritual health. To feel secure apart from God is spiritual sickness and disaster. Woods puts it well into words to feel my need of God my Father and consciously to depend upon him is spiritual health. To feel secure apart from God is spiritual sickness and disaster. When our security is found in anything but God, we are using our wealth and insurances in place of trust in God.

Woe to us for setting our nest on high to be safe from the reach of harmony. I think this is a pretty controversial view of security and wealth today, even in the church to see both the call to steward wealth well and to be wise and also actually fully faithfully adhere to the call to not build bigger barns for ourselves in security and comfort and just in case, but to use our wealth to care for our brothers and sisters in need around the world and give generously in such a way that we must continually trust in the provision from God so as to ensure we never rely on ourselves. But this isn’t some new or novel perspective on how to live, but it is a warning that God explicitly gives to his people in Deuteronomy 8 as he tells them about the prosperity he will bring them if they continue to obey his commandments.

So this is Deuteronomy 8:12 lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses and live in them, and when you have herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there is no water. Who who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end? Beware, lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you.

So you shall perish because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. The warning to Israel was to be wary that they looked to their wealth for security and forget to set their hearts on the Lord above all else. Solomon’s reign was the height of wealth and comfort for Israel and took place immediately before their fall into idol worship and the division of the kingdom. And I won’t go too far down this rabbit hole, but I do think that we should take it as a warning to us, our church and our nation that America.

But I do think we should take it as a warning to us and our church for our nation. America is one of the most comfortable and wealthy nations in the world and it is becoming increasingly irreligious and self idolatrous. But leaning back to our passage, God presents the punishment for this selfishness and wicked use of wealth in verse 10 shame that is self devised for your family and a forfeiting of life, whereas God declares to Israel, like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. Verse 11 functions as a sort of transition, intertwining the woe of evil gain for house with the third woe and making it clear that it is unavoidable that their wickedness and sin will remain hidden, for even the home which is the base for the evil, will cry out, proclaiming the wrong that it was done. And so here is the third woe.

Verses 12 through 14 woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity. Behold, it is not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The third woe is a woe of foundations. To build a city on iniquity and wrongdoing to establish something upon the death and destruction of others is a true evil indeed.

But motive in work is more of the issue addressed in this woe and the cause for God’s justice to come upon the Chaldeans. The foundation of all that the Chaldeans are doing is built upon wood, hay, and straw, to use the analogy of Paul in First Corinthians 3. The things of vanity that serve no purpose and are destroyed in the fire that will test all things. Their work was to build themselves up at the expense of others, a foundation that is a far cry from being set on Christ with gold and precious metals, things built in Christ and for God that serve a greater purpose and than our own self glorification. Here is yet another woe we should look to and question ourselves.

God declares that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Do we want to take part in this proclamation of the glory of the Lord, or spend our life in vanity, proclaiming our own false glory? Too often we excuse ourselves from taking part in the proclamation of the glory of the Lord in all the earth because of things that are good or not inherently bad. But too often we are caught in the trap of laboring in vanity only for things which will perish in the fire, and not for eternal things. Verses 15 through 17 the fourth woe woe to him who makes his neighbors drink.

You Pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness. You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory. The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them.

For the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. The fourth woe is an interesting one. At face value, this seems to be a critique of forcing and coercing others into drunkenness, which is in itself wrong and worthy of woe and punishment. But I don’t think that this is the heart of this woe. Habakkuk2.5 says, Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest.

His greed is as wide as Sheol. Like death, he is never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples. And so this is a base for our understanding of this woe. The drunkenness of the Chaldeans is not one of strong drink, although that is probably also true, but it’s a drunkenness of the gluttony and greed for the conquering of others and spilling their blood on the ground.

So the evil in this woe of enticing others to drink to drunkenness is to entice them to join in the warring cause and share in the drunkenness of desiring to destroy all nations. The many kings who joined with the Chaldeans in their battles would be the neighbors led to drunkenness. Kings and kingdoms who have been enticed to desire nothing more than to kill, conquer, and destroy other nations and peoples alongside the Chaldeans. Without this aid, Babylon would not have been able to bring about the destruction that they did. But one with so great a drunkenness for ultimate dominion would by no means slow their greed for wealth, peoples, and power to honor the agreements with their fellow drunken warring nations.

So not only are the Chaldeans intent on evangelizing their lust for blood, but then in their desire for power, they turn on these same nations who they led into a love for war, expose their nakedness, and so as to destroy and subdue these supposed allies. When this critique is taken to be the metaphor that it is, we see this woe is not one of a local sinful and abusive behavior leading to drunkenness and then sexual exploitation, but it’s a national level of enticing others to sin and then betraying these allies out of and insatiable drunkenness for power and dominion. God’s response to this is to respond in kind. God will do to these Babylonians just as he later proclaimed to do to the metaphorical Babylon of Revelation 18 and pay her back as she herself has paid others, and repay her double for her deeds, mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed and again in Revelation 16 and God remembered Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. To bring justice for this great wrong of wickedness.

God will in his righteous wrath bring about destruction and justice upon the Chaldeans, and show them as fools in their own folly and unrighteousness. And this justice will consume their glory and reveal its emptiness and put the justice and glory of God on full display in the process.

Verses 18 through 20 the fifth woe what profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it a metal image, a teacher of lies. For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake to a silent stone, awake. Arise. Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before him.

And at last, in this fifth and final woe, the full folly of the Chaldeans is completely put on display. The Chaldeans worship their false gods of wood and metal, and attribute their victory to them. They will see their destruction of the nation of Judah as them and their false gods defeating Yahweh, defeating the Lord, who brought the Hebrews out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. They will look to and worship their false handmade gods, who cannot talk or do any works of power, and claim them to be higher than the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And how foolish, how foolish are they to put their trust in silent stones and speechless idols?

How foolish are they to assume they know the plans and purposes of God, and suppose that he was not at work in allowing them to conquer Judah? Who are they to suppose they can defeat the Lord God Almighty, or to know his thoughts, plans, and purposes in the world? All who worship anything but the one true God are are but fools, trusting in their own creation. We do this when we look to anything but God to pursue anything but him. We do this when we attribute our gain to ourselves, or do anything to gain glory for ourselves.

And so this section ends with but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before Him. For all the gods of the world, the only true and living God is the Lord. We stray and worship the things created when our Creator sits on his throne above all our right response and the response all will have is to see and acknowledge the Lord for who he is. The greatest part of all this is God’s glory and justice being revealed.

The Chaldeans think they are the ones receiving ultimate glory, but it is all a part of God’s ultimate plan for justice and redemption. The Babylonian empire fell and is no more, but our God reigns forever and we now see his ultimate plan for redemption accomplished in Jesus, who will one day bring true justice to all people, tribes and kingdoms for all time. All of this is a fulfillment of Psalm 2, the nations raging and God reigning, which I would love to read and dive into. But that is another sermon for another day. Now this is a pretty dense text and a contextually tough passage.

We looked at the five woes God is declaring of the wickedness of the Chaldeans and how he will bring his justice and worked through not only what each of these woes meant for the Babylonians, but took short detours exploring the ways we are guilty ourselves and so also did deserving of receiving these woes. But wrapped up in all this is a complex web of God’s justice and I want to spend most of the rest of our time focusing on this. When I speak of justice here, I am referring specifically to how God rightfully brings punishment to the wicked. There are multiple levels to this complexity. One is seeing the impending destruction of Judah by the Chaldeans as good and God ordained.

We talked about this a lot last time and won’t go into that aspect too much today. The complex aspect of God’s justice we will be focusing on has to do with how we should look at the justice of God through these five woes. Part of this answer is simple. God told Habakkuk these five woes as a comfort, so he would know and trust that the wickedness of the Chaldeans would not go unpunished and that God would bring justice. But the rest of this answer is a bit more complex.

Let me tell you a story to help bring out some of this complexity. During the Cold War there was a union between the communist nations of Eastern Europe known as the Warsaw Pact. You can think of it as the communist version of NATO. A friend of mine who has done a lot to engage in global missions throughout his life began his ministry around the same time. There was a meeting of many of the leaders of the nations involved in the the Warsaw Pact.

My friend found a picture of these presidents in their black suits gathered together. He cut it out of a magazine and posted it in his office. And every single day he prayed for each leader by name. He would look at this picture and pray for each and every leader that God would either redeem them or remove them from power. These leaders collectively not only caused the suffering and death millions of people, but they actively opposed Christianity and were some of the chief persecutors of the church in their day.

My friend would pray that Jesus would make his salvation known to them and change their hearts so that they would see their sin and turn from it, or that God would bring his justice and remove them from power so their wickedness would come to an end. Five years later, in 1989, there was a revolution in nearly every one of those countries, removing the leaders from their positions of power and functionally ending the Warsaw Pact. The Berlin Wall fell. And in many ways, his prayer was fully answered. By 1991, every country had an entire change of power.

And overall, every single person prayed for was removed from their positions of power. One killed, most removed, and one of them was even possibly redeemed. As he later spoke of himself as a Christian, his prayer was answered. But it was not just his prayer. It was the prayer of millions, some who began praying it in 1917 when the Russian revolution led to the Communist control of the Bolsheviks.

Today, my friend prays the same prayer for many other dictators of the world that they would be redeemed or removed. This is the paradigm by which we must view the things of our passage today with a desire for redemption through Christ and a desire for a bringing of justice and punishment for the wicked. When we look at the five woes of Habakkuk, we should rejoice in that God is bringing justice to wickedness and that this is an attribute of God. And we should also pray for the redemption of our souls and the souls of others so they might not experience the wrathful justice of God that Babylon experienced. It is easy for us to look at our enemies and demand that they receive justice and to look at ourselves and plea and expect redemption.

It’s a whole lot harder for us to look at ourselves and see the ways that we do deserve God’s justice and look at our enemies and pray for them to be redeemed.

We should seek to have the truths of these woes shape our lives and our response to God’s justice. So here are two chief desires to come to mind for us to do this. So first we should desire and trust in God’s justice. As I said before, there are many ways that this is easy and ways it is much harder. This is most often easy when it’s time for our enemies to be punished.

But it’s sometimes a hard truth for us to accept. We don’t really like to talk about hell or even think about it. We often like to avoid thinking too hard about the passages in the Old Testament where God destroys or punishes a person, family or nation because of their sin. Some heretical sects of Christianity have even gone so far as to try and claim that the God of the Old Testament and Jesus are entirely different and that the God of the Old Testament isn’t good, maybe more neutral or evil altogether, but separate from Jesus. We like to look at the gentle and lowly aspects of Jesus and forget about the times that Jesus was angry or quite literally drove people from the temple with a whip when they were sinning in his Father’s house.

And we definitely don’t want to think about the holy and righteous Jesus depicted in Revelation with a sword bringing judgment. It may be hard for us to understand because deep down we don’t think we deserve judgment and we want to cry out unfair, mean unjust at a God who truly sees and reveals our sin and that we are deserving of death, when this is the greatest, holiest and most loving thing that our God can do. So the way we desire and trust in God’s justice and must stem from us knowing and trusting that God’s justice is good, God’s justice is right, it is just. And also by recognizing how we are deserving of wrath and punishment, we are saved by grace, not by our works. So our recognition of our sin is key in us understanding this.

Therefore, we must also pay close attention to the ways that we act unjustly and sin and continually repent of these things. This doesn’t save us. But for the Christian, this should be an outpouring of our faith and the way that we love Jesus. For if you love me, you will keep my commands. So we should reflect on the ways the five woes can convict us also and repent.

But we can also desire justice to come, like how my friend prayed for the removal of those leaders, or how Bonhoeffer operated in the midst of World War II, or how Bishop Alexander of Constantinople prayed for the death or removal of the heretic Arius, who was wreaking havoc in that day. We even see this in Revelation as the martyrs cry out to God, asking How long until he will punish those who persecute and killed them?

Our second desire? We should desire redemption and salvation from God’s just punishment for all people for our sin. Just as God is a God of justice and will bring punishment to those who sin against him, he is also a loving and merciful God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The story of Judah doesn’t end with them being conquered by Babylon. God redeems his people and brings them home.

He has the city and the temple rebuilt. And amidst his people in Israel, Jesus is born in Bethlehem. God came down in the form of a man being born and lived a perfect life on earth. He preached for the need for repentance and faith in God and was killed on a cross. Even though he did nothing wrong.

He died to make a way for us to be able to be fully redeemed and saved from the justice of God that we rightly deserve. And this is the most beautiful and redemptive thing that God was doing in the destruction of Israel. And it provides a means for us and all who repent and believe in Jesus to be redeemed. And it should be our desire for all to be redeemed. If you are here today and don’t yet know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I hope you can see how he desires for you to be among the redeemed and will come to follow Jesus.

For those of us who are among the redeemed, then our role is to spend our lives serving God in His mission for the redemption of the lost. We should pray every day for people around us to be saved. Kevin DeYoung is quoted as saying, if all your prayers came true this week, who would be converted, whose marriage would be restored, what great gospel advance would there be and what missionaries would be sent out? All of these things are great acts of redemption. And I don’t think this means that we should make a list of as many people as possible and pray for hundreds of people every day to be saved.

Although I’m definitely not opposed to this. George Mueller, who I do not have time to talk about, was a big advocate for praying for the lost and had five men he prayed for every day for over 40 years.

In the end, all five men that he prayed for every day came to follow Jesus. But don’t just stop with prayer. Also act and live in ways that will bring redemption to others. So if I lost you at some point in there, our response to seeking God’s justice, punishment and eventual redemption through the five woes in Habakkuk 2. So our response should be to do these things, to see God’s justice as good, to repent of sin, to desire redemption for all, and to pray and actively live in ways that advance the gospel for the redemption of the lost.

Let me pray.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you are a good and holy and just God that brings justice to the earth. We thank you that you are so good that you cannot allow wickedness to go unpunished and that in the end you will bring ultimate justice to all.

Jesus, we also thank you for your redemption, that you saw our need and loved us so much that even though there was no way that we could make a way to be with you, you made a way for us to be with you. You made a way for us to be redeemed. Jesus, we thank you for that. Please help us to live this out, to see your justice as good, to repent of our sin, to desire redemption for us and for others, and to live this out actively for the advancement of the gospel in the kingdom. Jesus name.

Amen.

The post The Five Woes – Habakkuk 2: 6-20 appeared first on Red Village Church.

All right, well, beautiful singing. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here and glad you’re with us today. There’s a lot of sickness again in our church. Feels like this winter, maybe you felt it, it’s been feeling better.

Nope, we’re sick. Feeling better? Nope, we’re sick. And so this is one of those we’re sick weeks for a lot in our church. And so I’m glad that you’re with us.

And also I just want to say I had a lot of fun at the karaoke night. So thank you for those who helped put that together and got a lot of good singers in the church. And so that was just a fun night. So if you have a Bible with you, could open up to the Gospel of Luke. Today’s texture study is going to come from Luke 6, verses 27 through 42.

So a little longer passage, Luke 6:27 through 42. And if you don’t have a Bible with you, it’s on page 503 in the blue Bibles that are kind of scattered throughout the fuse. So let me read the text and then I’ll pray and then we’ll work through the so Luke 6, please hear the words of our God.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from the one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners and get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you’ll be sons of the most high. Praise kind to the ungrateful and evil. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, you will not be judged.

Condemn not, you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give it to be given to you good measure. Pressed down, shaken together, running over, we put into your lap for the measure you use it will be measured back to you. He also told in the parable, can a blind man lead a blind man?

Will they not both fall into the pit? Disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye? Did you not notice the log that’s in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, brother, let me take out that speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that’s in your own eye?

You hypocrite. First take out the log in your own eye. Then you’ll see clearly. Take the speck that is in your brother’s eye. That’s God’s word for us this morning.

Would you please pray with me?

God, thank you for bringing us together. Lord, I pray for the glory of Christ and our good and joy in Christ you would bless this time. Please help me to be a good communicator. Please help me to not stumble over my words. Please protect me from speaking that which is false.

Help me to only speak that which is true. Lord, please be with the congregation. Please give them ears to hear. The Spirit is saying, pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.

This morning I’d like to start a story with you. It’s actually kind of a shameful story about myself. So I mentioned the past. So I became a Christian in college after a friend invited me to a Bible study. We’re at the study I felt the love of Christian people and heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in ways that, by the grace of God, that landed on my heart, in ways I could repent and believe in him before the time I actually did go to church where I did hear the gospel, but I heard it in ways where I remember clearly thinking to myself, I really don’t believe any of these things to be true.

Because if I thought these things were true, they should have some major bearing in my life and how I lived. For that being said, even though I knew I didn’t believe, I would still go to church. In fact, fairly consistently, I would go to church. And the reason why I would go to church was kind of twofold, two very related reasons. So first, I went as like, a source of pride for myself is I would go to church when my roommates in college were still sleeping in.

So it made me feel a little bit better about myself that I would do the right thing, made me better than them. Second, I would go to church as a meeting just to try to satisfy my guilty conscience. So before becoming a Christian, I really hit every stereotype of being a college kid from small town Wisconsin. I mean, I loved everything related to like party life and drunkenness. However, you know, I love these things in many ways.

These were my identity, this lifestyle that I had, it did eat at my conscience where I’d feel guilt and shame for all the things I was doing. So I’d go to church, but honestly, on many Sundays, like still inebriated from the night before, and I’d go just to try to satisfy my conscience. The guilt, the shame I was carrying, although that often just resulted in more guilt, more shame. So I knew that my lifestyle was not adding up as I pretended to the rest of the church I was something I was not. Okay.

So with those things in mind, now back to my shameful story. I thought those things weren’t shameful, but one year, trying to get maybe a little bit extra credit to fill my pride, use my conscience, I began to volunteer at a Christian school to be an assistant basketball coach for their seventh grade boys team. Now I do love basketball and I love coaching. So that is part of the reason why I helped out. But more than that, I loved getting praise from the head coach, the players, the families.

For being a college kid who’s helping out at a Christian school. It added to my pride, pride that I tried to help ease some of my conscience. Once again, the more praise I got, the more guilty I felt became more clear. It’s like living this double life as I tried to hide my party life and all the other dumb things I did from the team, from the families. Well, my shameful story during one of the games on the bench, I was exposed.

My hypocrisy was exposed. So one of the kids on the team did something he was not supposed to do, only for me to yell out from the bench in my frustration. Yell out for everyone to hear the precious name of Jesus Christ. Seeing it as a curse to what just happened on the court, which is something I had no problem using as a curse in every other place. I wasn’t trying to pretend to be something I wasn’t around church people, but I yelled that out of the game.

It felt like really everyone in the gym was looking at me. And I do know that the head coach and the kids on the bench all turned and looked at me for screaming that out. I was exposed. Exposed to everyone, including myself, of how much of a hypocrite I was. I wasn’t this nice, godly college student who is pretty Good at going to church.

Rather, what came out of my lips, that’s what reflected what was actually in my heart. That was the real me that I was trying to hide from everyone else. Exposed in very humbling ways. I tell you this story this morning with hopes you actually send us up for our passage where I do think hypocrisy is at the core of this passage. Hypocrisy that is painful as it is to be exposed, friends, it does need to be exposed in our hearts.

Now, before we get back to our text real quick, where we left off last week in our study of Luke was part of a sermon. We started out with a sermon that Jesus gave while standing on a plane. As mentioned last week is often referred to just as the Sermon on the plain, which is similar but a little different from the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus recorded in Matthew 5. So similar information, but a little bit different. Mentioned this last week because Jesus gave a similar sermon at least two different times.

The sermon that Jesus gave is often, I think, arguably the greatest sermon of all time. For this last week, you may remember that as Jesus gave this great sermon started with a series of blessings for those who follow Jesus as his disciples, and then they’re followed by a series of woes for those who reject Jesus. When our text last week, the blessing and woes were actually grounded in the eternal life that is to come, which actually we see is important in our text today as well. As Jesus often thought through this life as it relates to the next life, the eternal life that is about to come. We also mentioned we learned last week the primary audience by which Jesus gave his sermon on the plain was to his disciples, to those who had faith in him.

And this is actually important to our text today, we receive instruction from Jesus on what disciples are to look like so that his disciples will not be hypocrites. And for us this morning as it works, this passage, I do want us just to be really humble before this text. Humble in ways we’re actually asking the Lord to search our hearts to expose like any hypocrisy that may be there. Now, none of us necessarily enjoys having hypocrisy exposed. I mean, it’s actually still embarrassing to me how I was exposed at that basketball game.

However, as embarrassing and perhaps even painful as it is to be exposed as a hypocrite, it’s the best thing for us for multiple reasons. So living like a hypocritical, almost double life, that’s exhausting, it’s stressful, it’s anxiety building. We have like no freedom to be ourselves if we just pretend to be something that we’re not. But also having our hypocrisy exposed made plain for everyone to see, including ourselves. It should drive us to confess our sins in ways that they’re running to Jesus rather than continuing to try to hide our sins.

So through confessing our sins to the Lord, we can find forgiveness and healing and even freedom that he offers. That’s far better than holding on to hypocrisy, even if there’s, like, consequences that possibly might come for having our hypocrisy exposed. So say it again this morning. Let’s just be humble here, humble before God’s word, and let the Lord search our hearts. So back to the text.

So let me read reread verses 27 through 31 if you want to follow along there. I’m going to read this together as a whole just to try to feel the momentum once again that Jesus said in the sermon and the weight which Jesus is calling his disciples to when it comes to loving others. And after reading through it, then I’m going to try to walk back through and just try to maybe answer some questions that maybe you have with that passage. So Jesus to the congregation of plain But I say to you who hear, which by the way includes all of us here today as we hear God’s word, love your enemies, which the love of our enemies result in doing good to those who even hate you, where we even seek to bless those who curse you, where we love in ways, we’re even praying for those who abuse you. Furthermore, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to love our enemies in such a way in verse 29 that if one strikes you on the cheek, we are to offer the other as well.

And if one takes away your cloak, we actually do not withhold our tunic either. Verse 30 as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to love others and it results in even like if someone comes and begs for you like to give it to them. We love in ways that we wish others would do to us, or we to love others in ways that we wish to be done to us. This here is often referred to as the Golden Rule. How we’re to live our lives with love, where we seek to love others around us in ways we want them to love us if we were in their shoes.

Walk us back through the text. So first, I do think it’s really important to understand this teaching on loving our enemies. It’s really important for us to See this in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So Scripture is clear that before faith in Christ, we actually all stand as enemies of God, where we all have sinned against Him. However, the message of the Gospel, the good news, that while we are yet sinners, that enemies of God, Christ loved us in such a way that he died for us to take on the punishment of our sin as he made like sinful wretches his treasure.

So back to this teaching. If God loves us, his enemies in this way, would it not be hypocritical for us to now in turn not love our enemies? So I think it’s really important we understand this love in the context, in relation to how God loves us. Second, this love that Jesus is calling the disciples to is not actually a love that we can do within ourselves. This is the type of love that only God can do with his strength through us, where his love is like compelling us to be able to love in this way for us.

I think that’s kind of the point of this passage here, right? God putting his great and powerful love on display through us. We can’t do this on our own. It’s God’s love controlling us, compelling us to be able to love our enemies. Third, this love that Jesus is calling his disciples to, this obviously is a radical love.

This one is so far different from what we see in the world around us. And I also think that’s part of the point of this type of love. Because as we love others by doing good works to others, loving in radical ways, that the hope that others will see like the glory of God, see it in ways that maybe they will turn and trust in him like we have, this is part of the point as well. We are to love our enemies for the glory of God. This is actually part of our worship of him and hopefully for the salvation of others.

Fourth, loving others in this way, loving our enemies in this way, loving. Not only is it a real part of how we worship God, but actually helps indicate on whether or not we actually are true worshipers of God, if indeed we do know his love. Or like me in the story I just shared before I was a Christian, for just maybe someone going through the motions for self serving reasons. Remember the first character trait of the fruit of the Spirit? Love, making love the greatest of all.

So without love, even love for enemies, how can we say we have the spirit of God living inside of us, the one who is empowering and compelling us to live out his love. Not that we’re gonna be perfect in loving like this, but this type of love should be present, which we’ll talk about more when we get to verse 35. Fifth, with all this being said, I do think it’s important to understand the principle that Jesus is preaching to us here from this passage, which we are to love others in ways that we want others to love us. Right? Once again, verse 31 because this is a principle to love others, the main principle that Jesus is stressing through these examples that he gives in verse 27 through 30.

We do actually have a little bit of discernment here. So one of the commentaries I read this week, I rightfully wrote that this call to love in the sermon by Jesus. So Jesus is not advocating for suspension of like like normal civil justice procedures. Likewise, Jesus is not teaching this sermon some type of like hyper passivity in the face of evil. Rather, Jesus is teaching us the lengths by which we are willing to go to love other people, the rights we’re even willing to give up in order to love other people.

Another commentary I read this week posed a question. Is Jesus abrogating to leave all personal self defense and rights to private property? The commentary no. Rather he’s demanding a loving attitude that’s not vengeful but is generous and giving. A loving attitude that is so real, so tangible.

As mentioned, we’re even willing to lay down our rights in order to love others who do not love Jesus with hopes that through this radical love, not only will it bring glory to God, but God will use our love to bring our enemies to Himself. Okay, so keep that in mind as we think through this. So keep going. Verse 32 so after Jesus set the bar on the depths by which his people are to love even their enemies, we see him then in the text address maybe some pushback that his listeners were having in their own heart with this call to love. Maybe even pushback that some of us might even have on our own hearts.

Jesus continued the text. If you love those who just love you, which is a pretty easy thing to do, we don’t need God’s strength to do that. And the text really what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good just to those who do good to you, also pretty easy to do something we can do on our own once again, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same. Verse 34 and what if you lend to others who you expect to receive a payment back? What credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. So giving to others, knowing you’ll get back, that’s also pretty easy.

That’s not hard. But in the sermon, what is hard, verse 35. But to love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing back in return, friends, that’s hard. That’s not something we can easily do in our own strength and power. Once again, we need the Lord’s help, his strength, to be able to do that.

In the text, by the help and the strength of the Lord. Indeed, we do these things. Jesus said, your reward will be great, a reward that will indeed bring benefit to you, which is you learned last week. Verses 20 through 23. This reward found in eternal life, a reward that will actually last for all eternity, where God will greatly reward his people for all their acts of faith, for all of their acts of love.

And not only will we be rewarded for our acts of love and our acts of faith in the text, these acts of love actually prove to be the fruit of being this true disciple of Jesus Christ. So in the day that is to come, everyone will see, everyone will recognize, you’re a son of the Most High, who in the text is the very one who is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Thus, for his people, in verse 36, they are to be merciful, even as your Father is merciful, meaning if you receive such love, such mercy from God, it’d be hypocritical if we did not show love and mercy towards others. Keep going in the sermon on the plane. If loving our enemies is not an easy thing to do, or we need God’s strength to be able to do that, what is easy for us to do where we don’t need God’s strength is judging others, which is kind of the opposite end of loving.

Verse 37. You want to take your eyes there, Jesus, people, judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Instead, forgive and you will be forgiven. Give it’ll be given to you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.

Be put into your life for with you measure, for the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Okay, let me hit pause here and try to explain it. Try to explain a few things from that portion of the passage. So first, there seems to be a shift in who Jesus is referring to in verses 37 to 42 in terms of application. So application, verses 27 through 36 is clear to those who are not Christian.

Right we are to love our enemies, show love and mercy and kindness towards others, even if they are putting hardship on us because of our faith in Christ. But now, Starting in verse 37, seems like Jesus now shifted the application and he’s speaking towards how we are to love each other in community, which New Testament expectations are primarily done like in a local church setting. So as this people live in community with another, they’re not to judge one another, they’re not to condemn one another, they’re not to hold forgiveness from one another, which, say it again, is not not always an easy thing for us to do. Even in church life. Even though we all follow Jesus Christ, even these things in church life, in community, Christian community, we need God’s strength and be able to do this command faithfully.

By the way, just a little bit, we were taking the Lord’s Supper together. And one of the great purposes of why we take this meal together as a church instead of just like privately as individuals, is this meal has helped to remind us of our common faith in Jesus Christ. To help protect us against judging and condemning one another, to help us to live with forgiveness towards one another. Remember that Jesus was judged and condemned for us on the cross to forgive us of our sins. Second, I do also think it’s important to distinguish between judging and discerning as you think through this passage here.

So as Christians we should have discernment when it comes to those around us like even others in the Christian community. So Jesus is not advocating to drop any type of discernment of right or wrong here, of like wise or foolish discern that between is like healthy or toxic. Rather, Jesus is telling his people to flee from these types of attitudes where we like want the worst for others, where we hold like bitterness towards others. Different commentaries I read this week where we’re like almost like eager to like fault find where we have like this like sensorious spirit where we want to like bind others up in our community rather than help them find like freedom and joy in Christ. By the way, this is one of the many reasons why it kind of continually cautious us when it comes to like how much like social media and podcasts that we can consume.

You know, there’s so much of those things are just littered with nothing but like judgment, condemnation, fault finding. If we start consuming them, some type of attitudes can start to bubble out of us. Third, I do think it’s important for us to see the reciprocal reality that takes place in community, even Christian community. So look back at verses 36 through 38 and see the reciprocal principle here. So if you are a person who’s clearly not going around Judging others, guess what?

Others are not going to go around judging you. If you are a person who is clearly not going around condemning others, guess what? Others are not going to go around to quickly condemn you. If you are a person who is quick to forgive, that’s your reputation. Guess what?

Others will be quick to forgive you as well. If you’re one who has a reputation, who is quick to give when times of need comes up, guess what others are gonna be quick to give to you in your time of need. In fact, not only be quick to give in your time of need, in the text, they’ll be like generous towards you. This is what Jesus was speaking towards in that phrase. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap.

So you’re kind of confused with that. So maybe think of a picture of someone holding a sack and like someone’s pouring grain into it and the person is like so generous with the grain, they’re pouring the grain down, they’re like pressing down, they’re shaking the sack, they’re squeezing as much grain as they can. But even in their attempts to do that, the generosity is so much, the grain is still like pouring over, filling your lap. When we consistently do good to others, where we know that others are for them, not against them, friends, that’s a picture what others will be for us as well. Reciprocate back to you for the measure you use, it will be measured back to you by the way we know this.

This reality is not only true in the positive, but also in the negative. If in our hypocrisy we’re like judgmental, condemning, unwilling to forgive, unwilling to show any type of generous spirit towards others in the community, in the end, that hypocrisy will be turned against us as others in the community will reciprocate those types of attitudes and actions towards us. By the way, kind of on this note, if you’re kind of wondering on how well you’re treating others, a very real indicator could be how others are treating you, both positive and negative. Finally, we’re going to end our text today. Verses 39 through 42.

Jesus continues to challenge his disciples, like to basically flee hypocrisy. We read that Jesus gave a parable to help illustrate what like judging, condemning, unforgiving, a non generous person can look like, as well as how we can like fall into the traps of being that type of person. Verse 39. He also told him the parable with a question at the start of the parable. Can a blind man lead A blind man with the obvious answer to Jesus question of no.

Because in the text, if a blind is leading the blind, they both will fall into the pit. In this parable, Jesus is using this illustration to talk about teachers and disciples that they’re leading. We’re in verse 40, a disciple is not above his teacher. The teacher is the one who leads and trains so that everyone who is fully trained by his teacher in the end will be like his teacher. Which can also be on the negative or on the positive, but quite closely to the text on the negative.

If the teacher is like a blind man going over the pit, disciple will follow and also go over the pit. And this illustration here, this parable here, this is Jesus hopes trying to protect his disciples false teachers was in the context he’s particularly speaking towards, like the Pharisees, who are like teachers of the law, who were judgmental, condemning, unforgiving, having a lack of generosity, who Jesus often called out for being hypocrites. So Jesus is warning his people to avoid such teachers, to not sit with men of falsehood, or to consult with hypocrites, because false, negative, judgmental, condemning, unforgiving, non generous teachers will raise up those who are just like them. Which by the way, for those like me who teach particularly God’s word, this is a real warning for us to hear that we are not hypocritical blind compassion guides. As mentioned, this is also a warning for all God’s people to hear to ensure they’re not sitting under those who are teaching, who are hypocrites, who hypocritically did not show love and mercy for others in verses 27, but instead they show the things listed in verses 37 through 88, where they’re always on the attack, always fault fighting, always belittling, always tearing others down rather than trying to build them up.

Well, is always doing the things. Listen, verses 41 through 42, if you always want to look back there as false, judgmental, condemning, unforgiving, non generous teachers both exhibit and train their disciples to do the same. We see that they go around, they try to spot the speck in a brother’s eye, more than willing to tell everyone even their smallest faults. But in this parable, this judgmental, condemning, fault finding person, while they can spot the speck in the brother’s eye, yet somehow cannot not notice the huge log sticking out of their own eye. And not only that, if that’s not bad enough in verse 42, the judgmental, condemning fault finder has like the gall then to go over to his brother with a speck in his eye to tell him, brother, let me take that speck out of your eye.

I mean, what nerve to say that to someone when there’s like this obvious plank in your own eye. It’s like almost hard to find words on the gall the nerve to do something like this. However, in the sermon on the plane for Lord Jesus, he was able to find a word. The end of verse 42. If you take your eyes there, you hypocrite, how dare you do that?

How can you be so prideful, so full of yourself? First take the log out of your own eye and then from there, sure, with love, tenderness, compassion, humility, then sure, you will clearly be able to take or see and take out the speck in your brother’s eye. For us, as we’re in our text today, before we close, there’s one thing I do want to leave us with, which is actually not necessarily some ideas on how we can like better love our enemies or better love or show mercy towards others, or even how to like avoid like false teachers, like blind guides, or how we can keep our community free from like judging and condemning fault finding within each other or even give you thoughts on like having planks in your eyes. You know, to me, this sermon from Jesus really needs no help for us on that end. I’m sure we know what these things look like.

So what I wanted to do in this time is I just want to invite all of us just to simply put away any and all hypocrisy that we know we are currently living with friends. Living with hypocrisy obviously does not unlock honor the Lord. It is not how we worship Him. It does not reflect the love and the mercy that we have been given through Jesus Christ. A hypocritical life is not one that result in a great reward given to us by God in eternal life.

Rather, a hypocritical life is really a wasted life. One in the end will only bring us harm. We’re going to feel like anxiety and worry of others, like finding out who the real you is.

You can just leave us exhausted, always trying to cover things up. A hypocritical life will lead to more and more others from the community actually pushing away from you, reciprocating towards you in negative ways. Hypocritical life also brings just harm to other people, particularly those who are closest to you, who maybe can see through the hypocrisy. So to say it again this morning, I just want to invite you to trust God, confess your sins, make no provision for the flesh. Repent of your hypocrisy and come to the Lord for forgiveness, for healing, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is loving towards those who come to faith in Him.

If you come to faith in Jesus, he comes, or he’ll meet you full of his mercy, a mercy that is greater than all of our sin. So what should you do today for the glory of God, for your own good, for the good of others?

Would you repent of your hypocrisy and come for healing? If I go back to the story I started with. So after my hypocrisy was exposed, it really did put me into a tailspin. And I tried to run from everything, which not only led me to some real depression and isolation from others, but actually it actually led me to transfer schools. I was just eager to just get away from what was exposed.

But now, looking back, as painful, as embarrassing as it was to have the hypocrisy exposed, I could now see how the Lord’s hand of love and mercy was on me, like through it all, because as the exposure of my hypocrisy put me on the run. So I ended up in college, a different college, where I met a friend who invited me to a Bible study. We’re at that study I felt the love of Christian people where I heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ in ways that by the grace of God, it landed in my heart so I could repent and believe in Him. So one last time, as painful, as embarrassing as it may have hypocrisy exposed, let that pain, let that embarrassment lead you to Jesus, the One who is perfect in every way, who has no hypocrisy in himself, where he actually perfectly fulfilled this passage that he preached on the plain, wherein his love and mercy gave his life over to his enemies who cursed him, who struck him on the cheek, who tore off his clothes before they nailed him to the cross, where on the cross, Jesus even prayed for those who nailed them there, praying, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Yet it was on the cross where we see the greatest act of love and mercy and generosity.

Because Jesus laid down his life for his people and died for them, even hypocrites. Jesus died even for hypocrites to take on the just judgment of God to provide forgiveness, that we need forgiveness of sin, whether they’re big plank sins or little speck sins, so that through his death resurrection we would know his love. We know in ways, and not only that allows us to love him back, but we know it. And now we can love others as well, even our enemies. Church May the greatest act of love found in Jesus, may that affect us in ways that would push out hypocrisy where his love would fill us so we could love him and we can love others.

Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for loving hypocrites like us.

Thank you for Jesus, who is no hypocrite, but who is true and right and faithful without sin in all that he did.

And Lord, I do pray that you would help us today to push away our hypocrisy wherever it may be found, that we take it and we nail it to the cross.

And Lord, I pray that the hypocrisy that we carry would just be so nailed to the cross that you just give us freedom, that you fill us with your love and your joy. Pray this on Jesus name. Amen.

The post Love Your Enemies – Luke 6: 27-42 appeared first on Red Village Church.

All right, well, beautiful singing. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here. And we’re glad you’re with us. I know sickness is kind of spreading around right now, and so I’m glad that you’re well enough to be with us this morning.

So if you have a Bible with you, could open up to the Gospel of Luke. Our texture study today is going to be Luke 6, 2020.

If you don’t have a Bible with you, there are pew Bibles kind of scattered throughout if you want to find your way there to Luke 6. Also, the word should be on the screen on either end of the stage if you want to follow along there. And if you’re visiting, if you open up your Bible, please do keep them open. So we do a style of preaching here. Actually, we talk about this in a sermon called Expository Preaching.

So I’m going to read the passage, we’re going to pray, and then I’m going to walk us right back through the text. And so please do keep your Bibles open in this time. So Luke 6 starting verse 20. So please hear the words of our God. So Luke wrote, and he lifted up his eyes on disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven.

For so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, thank you for your word. And Lord, please help me to be a good communicator of your word today. Please give the congregation ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. I pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay, so if you’ve been around here, you know every story starts out, at least for mine. So there we were. So there you were, myself and a man from our home church in Greenway, Wisconsin, and we’re getting together for breakfast. And this is Shortly before my wife, Tia and I were about to move to Louisville, Kentucky for seminary. Now, the man I got breakfast with that morning from our home church is actually a very influential, strong leader in his field.

Before he retired, actually, he was the CEO of one of the largest and most profitable companies in the state. Over 7 billion in annual sales. And we got together that morning for breakfast. My friend had a bit of a surprise for me that was very much tied to sobering encouragement that he wanted me to have. Surprise he had for me was an autographed baseball.

A baseball that I actually received through some personal connections to a legendary player who signed it for me, a former player, an all time great player named Hank Aaron, who played a good portion of his career for the Milwaukee Braves before that team relocated to Atlanta and then finished up his career for my beloved Milwaukee Brewers. And Hank Aaron not only is one of the greatest players of all time, but he also was my dad’s favorite player when he was growing up. A player that he just adored when Aaron played for both the Braves and the Brewers. In fact, my dad loved Hank Aaron so much that I was born. He named me Aaron after him.

And this is something actually my friend knew, and this is one of the reasons why he got this autographed baseball for me, because he knew that it meant a lot to me to have that ball. It’s a pretty sweet gift, pretty thoughtful. But what made that ball even more sweet, even more thoughtful was the sobering encouragement tied to the ball that my friend also wanted to pass on to me. And that sobering encouragement from my friend was reminded me of a different man named Aaron. Not his last name, but his first name, Aaron.

Aaron from the Old Testament, who was the brother of Moses. You may remember that now if you remember Moses. So he’s a great leader and prophet, but he also had a stuttering problem. So much so that Moses actually pleaded with the Lord to provide someone who could speak on his behalf, which ended up being his brother Aaron. As Moses spoke on behalf of, or as Aaron spoke on behalf of Moses the prophet who was speaking on behalf of God himself.

And for my friend, his sobering encouragement to me through this ball, as I was about to head off to seminary to hopefully get trained to be a preacher, was that every time I look at this baseball, which is currently sitting amidst all my sports treasures in my basement ball, that I see often, by the way, college students, if you’re planning to come to my house next week for pass the pass pastor’s house, I’ll show it to You. But as I look at this baseball with the name Aaron on it, my friend hoped I had the sober encouragement that as I preach like Aaron for Moses, as I preach, I’m speaking on behalf of God from His perfect holy word. Now, obviously, I’m not a prophet like Aaron was as a preacher, but preaching still is speaking God’s word to his people, which, my friend, he wanted this to be a sobering truth for me, sobering as I went to seminary to study there, to study hard, to put forth my best effort in that seminary experience. You also want to be sobering for me one day as I write sermons, as I prep for sermons the way I should, to never cut corners, to give my best effort each sermon I write. You want to be sobering for me as I deliver sermons every time I stand behind the pulpit, that there should be a real, sober sense of what I’m doing, because the weighty responsibility and privilege it is to communicate God’s word.

Now, I tell you all this this morning, so sobering this should be for me every time I do this, but maybe even more sobering for me this week, because this week and actually the next couple weeks, my assignment is to preach you from God’s perfect holy word on a passage that is often viewed as the greatest sermon of all time. Meaning my attempt is to give you a sermon from the greatest of all sermons, a sermon that was given by the Lord Jesus Christ, one that he actually gave on more than one occasion. If you’re with us, last week Wes actually mentioned this. I’m going to mention it again today. The sermon we’re about to go through is often referred to as a sermon on the plain, as we learned in our text last week.

Verse 17. If you want to take your eyes there, that Jesus gave this sermon, he was standing on a level place. And this sermon on the plain that Luke records is very similar in content to perhaps the most famous of all sermons, that Jesus gave, the Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded in Matthew 5, where Jesus gave that the side of a mountain. Now, I will mention that for some, the Sermon on the Plain here in Luke 6, as well as the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. Some believe this actually is like the same event of the exact same sermon.

So perhaps there was maybe like a little bit of a plateau on the mountain that gave a level ground for Jesus to preach. And while it is possible that Matthew 5 and Luke 6 record the same event, the exact same sermon, there’s enough little details between the Sermon on the Mount and the sermon on the plain that led many, myself included, to believe these are actually two different events where Jesus preached to two different people, but basically gave the same sermon two different times. You know, as mentioned, to two different people groups, which, by the way, this is actually not a problem. Jesus gave the same sermon at least two times, so. So in this time frame, rabbis are annoying, giving like the same teachings on multiple occasions throughout history, church history, many pastors, myself included, have preached the same passage more than once, where the sermons are very similar.

In fact, maybe the most famous sermon, at least in our culture here, that God used to help ignite the Great Awakening first Great Awakening, the sermon titled Sinners in the Hands of Angry God. Maybe you heard that one by Jonathan Edwards. He actually preached that on multiple occasions. So it’s not an issue that Jesus preached the same basic sermon more than once. In fact, knowing that Jesus preached this same basic sermon more than once probably just highlights how important of a message this was from our Lord, which for me further underscores why this is often viewed as the greatest sermon of all time.

Okay, now before we get to the text, the sermon that Luke records, just a few things, just a reminder where we’ve been the last few weeks. So. So the ministry of Jesus is now very much in public view. He’s become like the trending topic all over the region, leading more and more to come to him as great crowds were forming around our Lord. And from these crowds included some who Jesus uniquely called to himself to be his disciples, which included some fishermen who we met in chapter five, a despised tax collector who we met in the beginning of chapter six, as well as those listed in our text.

Last week, in the middle of chapter six, where none of the disciples seem to be like popular people or influential people, rather they just seem to be like normal, everyday common people like you and me. Yet in his grace, in his wisdom, that is who the Lord Jesus called uniquely to himself, where he’d use these men to become his apostles that in time would like, he would use to completely set the world on his head. Furthermore, as mentioned in previous sermons, but I wanted to mention this again here, as the public ministry of Jesus is in full swing, as the crowds of people are coming to Him. No doubt a large part were coming because of the signs and wonders that Jesus was performing through various healings as well as like exorcism of demons. But the primary reason why the crowds were forming around Jesus because of the primary ministry he had, was actually preaching and teaching, which by the way, would also be the primary ministry that his disciples would have as disciples would be used by God, as mentioned, to turn the world on his head through preaching.

So all the different things happening around Jesus, all the things signs he was performing, yet preaching, teaching, giving sermons like the one that we’re about to look at in the text, this is at the center, this is at the focal point of Jesus’s ministry. Which actually leads to the second thing I want to mention here this morning as it relates to sermons and the sermon on the greatest of all sermons of Jesus. The main focus I have to you this morning is to communicate to you from the text, what does the text say? However, as we work through this sermon, the sermon on the plane, I also want to just give you something that I did for myself personally this week was to try to pull insights from the sermon when it comes to preaching. So this is actually a good exercise for me this week as one who preaches often and I thought it would be a good exercise for us as a church as a whole today just to kind of help us think about preaching.

What does it look like? What does that mean? Why is it so important mentioned? This is at the heart of the ministry of Jesus and hopefully it means it’s at the heart of our ministry here at Red Village Church as well. We desire preaching and teaching to be the focal point of our church.

Not that other things in church life are important, but the pulpit is to me remains central. Many others throughout church history have said as the pulpit goes, so does the rest of the church. So as members, yes, pray for sermons, keep the pulpit accountable. And for some, you at some point you maybe are moving out of Madison. You have to look for another church.

Unite to. There are many factors for you to consider discern as you’re trying to find a church. But the pulpit, the sermons really ought to be at the top of your priority list where there’s a steady diet of expositional Christ centered preaching. I hope I do feel for us in this time. So if that is a little bit longer intro, look back with me in the text on the sermon on the plain, they would be looking at just the start of the sermon, verses 20 through 26.

So verse 20 we see in the passage that as Jesus stood on the level place, the plain, we see in the text that he began the sermon by lifting up his eyes on his disciples. Okay, not ready. Just a couple things. So first the lifting up of eyes. So commentary is read this week signified from Jesus that there’s like resolve in him, like he has resolve as he’s about to speak mean this is going to be some type of like casual conversation from his pulpit on the plane.

Rather, Jesus is about to speak in ways that carried weight significance. Let’s go back to the story I began the sermon with. That’s what my friend was trying to impress upon me. When it comes to preaching, there ought to be a real weight significance that preachers are to understand as they communicate God’s word. By the way, as a church, this is why we pray for those who fill the pulpit, myself included, the preachers will preach with like resolve, resolve to you, the congregation that you have resolve.

Actually you take in sermons, right? This should not be something that’s like casual lackadaisical for any of us. A lot of different points. The sermons can have some light hearted elements tied to them, but overall the tone, the tenor should have like sober minded resolve. That’s what Jesus has as he looks up as the disciples.

Second, the sermon that Jesus was about to give was primarily meant for his disciples, those he named, verses 14 through 16 that Wes gave us last week. Now I assume other people are there who are listening in. In fact we get the sense when we get to verse 24 does seem like Jesus changes the primary audience that he’s talking to for just a bit there. But the first primary audience of this sermon was to disciples, those who were followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the risk of trying to push this too far, but unless the sermon is clearly intended for those who are not Christian, with some type of evangelistic thrust to it, which Scripture tells us is a thing, sermons, particularly in church life, the primary audience is meant for disciples to teach disciples of Jesus, those who are trusting in him, what it looks like to joyfully follow and obey him, which is certainly the case in this sermon that Jesus gave on the plane, right?

This is not a sermon on how one becomes a follower of Jesus, which comes through repentance and faith. Rather, this is a sermon for those who are disciples, those who have repented, who have trusted in Jesus, as Jesus is going to help them to know how to live out their faith in ways that honor him. As Jesus looks at his disciples, we see him begin the sermon, which in our time today this will be in two parts. So the first part will revolve around the blessings that comes by faithfully following after him. Which by the way, this is why this sermon started.

It as well as the Sermon on the Mount is often referred to as like the Beatitudes of Jesus with the beatitude word for like blessing. So the first part of the sermon are blessings from Christ. But then the second part, this is a series of woes, strong rebukes for actually not following after him. And we get to the woes. This is the section where I think there’s a little bit of a change in who Jesus is communicating to, as the woes have actually a bit of evangelistic thrust to them, to those who are on the plane who are not yet disciples of Christ, as Jesus is warning them that if they do not repent and believe in him, what would happen?

Let’s go back to the blessings, and I want to say I’m going to read them as a whole again with the hopes of like kind of rereading these as a whole. Just capture some of the weight, momentum that I think is there in the sermon of Jesus. And after rereading it again, let me just point out a few things. So look back with me again. John, verse 20.

He, Jesus told them, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry, for you should be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you should be satisfied. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, and when they revile you and spur your name as evil on account of the Son of man. Verse 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for your reward is great in heaven.

For so their fathers did so, for the fathers did so to the prophets. Okay, now just to break this up, a few things I want to point out. So first, just this term, blessing or blessed. So this is a term or phrase that’s actually scattered throughout Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament, where the word blessing is often correlated with wisdom, particularly wisdom in this life. Now, this week I thought about Psalm 1, and I did kind of wonder if Jesus maybe had this passage in mind as he gave this sermon.

So in Psalm 1, so blessed or happy is the man who walks in this life in the wisdom of God, where this blessed happy one in this life does not associate with evil. Rather, the blessed happy man is the one who delights in God’s word and obeying God’s word, what plants him like a tree by streams of water. And while the sermon on the plain, this teaching of Jesus on wisdom certainly is tying to some stuff in this life. But it’s a little different in that Jesus connects the ultimate blessing, the ultimate happiness, not in this life, which so much of the Old Testament is, but rather in the life that is to come, the eternal life that Jesus would usher in. So look back with Me again just to see the forward pointing blessedness that Jesus preached on that was to come for his people.

So verse 20. Yes, you’re poor now, but for yours is the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of God that is, yes, here, now. But a kingdom, the fullness of, of it is still yet to come. And when the fullness of kingdom comes, that’s where the fullness of blessedness, happiness will be found, in the life that is to come. Verse 21.

Sure, you are hungry in the here and now, but look ahead, you will be satisfied. The future will come and you will be satisfied. Yes, in the here and now, in this life you weep, but in the future, there is a time that is going to come that you will laugh. Yes, in the here and now, in this life there might be people who hate you and exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil because of your faith in Christ. But look ahead to the future, you will rejoice, you will leap for joy, because in heaven there awaits a reward for you.

And for us, this is actually really important for us as we think about being disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, in this life we live with wisdom, but we do so even more with our eyes towards that which is to come. That is where wisdom is set to faithfully live out this life with an eye towards that which will last forever. And this is actually so much of the teaching and preaching of Jesus on, on the better country that is to come, the heavenly one, as Jesus reminds us, the scripture reminds us that we’re simply sojourners, pilgrims headed to the promised land. And that’s where the blessedness will fully be experienced, this eternal reality that waits God’s people. Which by the way, this is why we strive to seek up, to store up treasures in heaven.

This is why we poured our lives as offering, as an offering to service to God and others. This is why we’re even willing to suffer in this life for the cause of Jesus. Because we know that our suffering is not in vain. To know that one day our eyes will be our tears and our eyes will be dried. That this will all be temporary.

And as that day comes, we’ll be replaced with blessedness, with joy, with rejoicing. Second, in this sermon, Jesus is helping his disciples understand the reality that as we live out our faith like in this life, it might bring some painful, unpleasant realities that we’ll have to endure. In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus talked about the reality of potentially being poor. In the Sermon on the Mount speaks Of being poor in spirit, which is tied to humility and as maybe this is what Jesus is referring to here, the sermon on the plain. But to me this actually feels like Jesus is speaking towards like financial poverty of being poor.

Where many throughout church history, including the 12 disciples falling after Jesus in his life, would bring like financial hardships for a host of different reasons which because of financial hardships at times in this present life, in this sermon, God’s people had to battle real physical hunger. Although we mentioned here, the hunger here could also be a hungering for righteousness with the sermon the Mount speaks to. However, I do think that Jesus is actually speaking towards like physical hunger here where plenty throughout church history, including his disciples. They didn’t always know where their next meal might come from, which adds meanings to like the Lord’s Prayer and give us our daily bread. Furthermore, in this life many Christians have faced hardships for being disciples of Jesus.

Hardships that even the prophets had to endure. Hardships in the text has caused many to weep. Weeping that has come because of others have hated them or excluded them from certain things.

Weeping because of how their name has been reviled and spurned as evil simply because of their faith in Jesus, the Son of Man. Yes, as a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, we live with the joy of eternal life that is to come, which is a joy that we can even experience in different measures in this life. However, that being said in this sermon, for disciples of Jesus, if we faithfully live out our faith, pain, difficulty, hardships, they can be a reality. A reality is part of the cost of following after Christ. A cost that we must count.

A cost that many throughout history, including many today face. For us, this is like a hard truth that Jesus is giving to his disciples in this sermon on the plain. This is not like an easy thing for them to hear or for us to hear, which by the way also should be part of what preaching should have. Where at times, as the text calls for it, hard things need to be said, hard things need to be heard. Scripture warns us that sermons just can’t be there just like to tickle our ears, to just maybe tell us what we want to hear.

Rather to tell us the hard truth like this, the sermon that we need to hear. As you keep going. As hard as it would have been for disciples to hear this, how being a disciple could bring a lot of hardships towards them in this life, hard things could come their way, but it actually would have been a harder truth for those who are like listening in, who are not yet his disciples, which, by the way, I do recognize might be somewhat true for some of us here this morning. That you’re here, we’re grateful you’re here, but you’re here, you’re not yet a follower of Christ. So in this sermon, after the four blessings, blessings that come for those who by faith follow him, we see in verses 24 through 26, we now see Jesus pronounced four woes, woes that come for not following him.

Woes. If you’re not a Christian, I actually want to plead with you to hear hears. It’s almost like ice water, like running down your back, back that causes you to like to wake up and to by faith run to Jesus and the blessedness that he is. So let’s read through the woes again. I want to read them the same way I read through the blessings and ways that hopefully create some momentum and weight that the sermon Jesus had.

And then I want to circle back to give some details, details on the Wo. So verse 24 says, but woe to you who are rich, for you received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did, the false prophets.

Okay, now a few things here. So first, the four woes, these obviously stand in sharp contrast to the four blessings that Jesus started his sermon with. And this woe here, this is actually used by Jesus in very forceful ways where he’s still having like, resolve in his eyes as he communicates these woes, where through these woes, Jesus communicated like a declaration of like, judgment and misery from God on those who reject him. So I mentioned this in the past, but I want to mention this again. So in Scripture, there’s.

There’s really only two ways that one can live. There’s a blessed way that comes from following Jesus, that will result in eternal life with him. But then there’s the woeful way of judgment and misery that will come with eternity apart from Jesus. Since Scripture does not give us some type of middle ground option, yes, this is a hard but important truth for us to hear to understand. This life is headed to two different, very different realities.

The blessed way, the woeful way. Second, this word woe is actually something we also see throughout the Old Testament, much like we see the word blessing throughout the Old Testament, where throughout the Old Testament there’s actually woes given to God’s people for entertaining false prophets. What the sermon speaks upon and for us, I think maybe a little bit more subtle ways. So Jesus was giving his sermon here on the plain. This is like a sermon based on scripture, as Jesus is expounding, expositing scripture in light of himself.

And this is actually one of the main reasons why we believe expository preaching is so important. If Jesus preached God’s word, should not every preacher and every sermon preach God’s word? Third, do you notice how the four woes, like the four blessings also are grounded in what? That. That which lies ahead.

We’re in the kingdom of God as it fully comes. Like everything’s like turned around. We’re in this life. For the Christians who are suffering through hardship, in the end they’re going to be rewarded with blessing upon blessing, the fullness of joy and happiness for all eternity as you get to be with Jesus. But for those who reject God, who might be like receiving some benefits here and now, but in the end, not only will those benefits be removed, but with misery that will never wane.

So back to the text. So sure, in this present life one can get rich without God in their life and enjoy some of the temporary benefits that wealth can offer. Where yes, those riches you can use to fill up your stomach. Where yes, in this life one can laugh it up and receive some type of like worldly praise. But if that’s all you have in this life, that’s all you have without God.

In the end, not only will those things all vanish, but as mentioned, they’ll be replaced with misery. A couple things just on this back to winter earlier. So poor and hungry. This is why I think real physical poverty. Hungry is what Jesus is speaking to here.

Not speaking about some type of poor in spirit or hunger and righteousness. This is how the rich and the full are used. So I think it’s meant to be. In contrast, second, having wealth, a full belly, laughter, reputation, others admire. So none of those things are wrong in themselves in this life.

Okay, so don’t be mistaken there. In fact, in this life, those things actually be like blessings from, from God. In this life, the problem lies if we have those things apart from Christ, where these things almost become like idols to us that we’re putting like our hope and our trust in like wealth or reputation. That’s the problem, A problem that we actually must be warned of because those idols in the end will be idols that proved to be vain, where in the end they will not satisfy you, they will not in the end make you happy, they will not deliver to you what you need, which is forgiveness of sin and eternal blessedness of heaven. Only Jesus can offer those things through his death, through his resurrection from the dead, right?

Those things in himself are not wrong. In the end, if you do not have Jesus, they’re in vain. They will not satisfy. They will lead you to misery. Which, by the way, kind of on that note, this is why every sermon should point us to Jesus Christ as the only one who will satisfy, as the one that we do desperately need, the One who loves us in such a way that he would die for us to take on all of the woes of God on the cross, where Jesus bore all of the misery, eternal misery upon himself to bear the punishment of our sin, so that through him we could find forgiveness and eternal life and joy forever and ever.

Which leads to the conclusion of our sermon today. So let me just get a couple just summary thoughts on this greatest of all sermons of Jesus. So the first two will just be from the text and the last one is just from sermons. So first let God’s Word teach us that which is true.

This is why the preaching and teaching was at the center of Jesus’s ministry, right? Jesus is the the way, the truth and the life. And he came to teach us the truth so that by the truth, the truth of God’s Word, that’s how we can be set free. So that by the truth we could have life, abundant life, both now and in eternity.

While a sermon might be hard for us to digest, maybe some of the truths here in this passage might be hard for us to digest. These are truths that we need to hear, truths that we need to know, truths we need to believe in, truths we must obey, right? These hard truths are connected to the blessings of God. These harder truths are also connected to the woes of God. So we must hear that which is true.

Second thing to where these truths of this text are pointing us to is we’re to live our life in light of eternal life that is to come and the kingdom of God that Jesus promises one day to usher in. So if this is it, just like just this life, nothing more, then sure, eat, drink, be merry, live for self, enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. But Scripture is so clear, including the sermon here from Jesus. The truth is, there’s so much more than just the here and now. There is an eternal life that is to come that for those who have faith in Christ will be the blessed life.

Living with Christ in the heavenly places, experiencing the fullness of his joy in the new heavens and new earth. Let’s say it again. For those who reject him, there’s a life of eternal misery and judgment of sin for us. We must live our life in light of this eternal reality that is to come. Even though there could be a great cost in this life for doing so.

Cost like suffering and pain. However, we must trust what our suffering that we might suffer for our faith in Christ and eternal life. Not only will Jesus fully comfort us in the text, he will even reward us when the sermon says even a great reward which reward whenever suffering we have in this life. As we get that rewards we’re with Jesus. Any suffering will feel slight and momentary in comparison to the weight of glory that awaits.

And by the way, if you’re looking for some help on maybe how to think ahead, like how to live your life with an eternal like view. So there’s great ministry that is called Eternal Perspectives and I find it pretty helpful. So established by a former pastor named Randy Elkhorn who wrote one of my favorite books. I haven’t mentioned this in a little while, so I’ll mention it again. Book called Heaven.

And so if you’d want some help to try to think through, you know, how do you live your life in ways that’s looking ahead, you know, I would look to eternal perspective ministry. Read the book on heaven. Especially now if you’re looking to try to read a book for the stretch run of winter that we have left, that’s one I’d recommend. Okay, last one. So be sober minded about preaching.

Which brings us back to the start, what my friend wanted me to have as a preacher. But it’s actually not just preachers who are to be sober minded when it comes to preaching. The congregation should as well. Now, when it comes to preaching, obviously none of us can preach a sermon like Jesus. In fact, even the Apostle Paul referred to his preaching as folly, which is true for all preachers.

Even more so, right? None of us are apostles like Paul was. It’s folly. Folly where every sermon is like soon forgotten. Almost like a meal that we consume.

Soon forgotten. However, scripture tells us that it’s through preaching. That’s how God chooses to manifest His Word in ways that through His Holy Spirit he speaks to his people in ways that we can see. The Lord Jesus Christ that God is using preaching to bring people to faith, to grow us in our faith, to sustain us in our faith, to persevere us in our faith all the way to the life that is to come. So be sober minded when it comes to preaching.

If a preacher should have resolve in his eyes, a congregation should have resolve in your ears. So say it again. Please pray for the preaching here at Red Village that God would use it to communicate truth, even hard truth. Please keep the pulpit here at Red Village like lovingly accountable that the word is preached in season and out of season. As a congregation, we never settle for anything less than God’s words exposited in ways that point us to Christ, who he is, what he’s done for us.

Have a longing in your heart to hear the word preached. We’re actually seeking to prepare your own heart to receive sermons. By the way, this is also one of the reasons, maybe a primary reason, why we hope you’re actually here every Sunday to take in a steady diet of the word preached. I say it not to guilt you or shame you. Things can happen.

But just imagine if you went weeks without feeding your physical body or if you just happen to feed your physical body just like every so often as is kind of convenient, just imagine how weak, how malnourished your body would be. As important it is to feed your physical body to the steady diet, how much more important to feed your souls week in, week out with God’s Word. Yes, most sermons are like meals. You consume them and you forget them. But yes, say it again.

That is how God is revealing himself to us, to grow us, to sustain us, to persevere us in the faith. So church, whether you’re preaching God’s word or taking it in, may we all be sober minded when it comes to the word that is preached. Knowing that in the grace of God, the preached word is a pretty sweet gift, a pretty thoughtful gift from a kind and generous God. Let’s pray.

Lord, I do pray that you’d help us to not only hear your word but heed to it.

Lord, please help us to live rightly in ways that you defined are true for blessedness.

God, help us to live in light of that which is to come.

I pray for those who might be here this morning, who are not yet disciples of Christ, that today you would open up their eyes to see the beauty of Jesus, that they would turn into him. And Lord, I do pray just for just this pulpit, the sermons that come from it, whether it be me or others. Lord, please help us to rightly divide the word of truth. And Lord, please bless the preaching of your Word for our good and your glory in Jesus name, Amen.

The post The Greatest Sermon of All Time – Luke 6: 20-26 appeared first on Red Village Church.

Yeah, Full house this morning. There we go. So, yeah, it’s good to meet in God’s house and to sing praises to the Lord. So today we are going to continue our sermon series in the book of Luke. And so if you have a Bible, you can go ahead and open up there.

And if you don’t have a Bible, there should be some blue Bibles in the chairs that you can go ahead and grab. And so we are in Luke chapter six. And we’re going to be reading verses 12 through 19. And so this passage is focusing on the calling of the 12 disciples and the events that follow right after their calling. And so I’m going to read this passage and then I’ll pray and we’ll get started.

So here’s what the word of the Lord has for us this morning. Luke 6:12. In these days he went out to the mountain to pray. And all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named Apostles Simon, whom he named Peter and Andrew his brother, and James and John and Philip and Bartholomew and.

And Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. So that’s God’s word for us.

Please pray with me.

God, thank you that you speak to us through, through your holy word that you have preserved so that we might hear from you. Now I pray God that you would indeed speak, and God you would help me to speak your word and that you would give us hearts and ears to receive what you are saying this morning. It’s in Jesus name we ask these things. Amen. All right.

So up until this point in Luke’s eyewitness account of Jesus life, Jesus has done a lot in the region of Galilee and in Judea. And in the very beginning of Jesus ministry, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, followed by a supernatural phenomenon with the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove and the voice of the Father declaring, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Jesus was then led into the wilderness for 40 days, where he was tested and tempted by Satan and where he overcame the devil through God’s word. Jesus taught in the synagogues throughout the surrounding area of Galilee, teaching that the scriptures were now being fulfilled in him. Jesus declared that he is the Son of man, who has authority to forgive sins.

The Bridegroom of God, the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus had casted out demons, proving his authority over spiritual realms of darkness. Jesus had healed many people of a variety of sicknesses and malformities, including fever, disease, leprosy, paralytics, withered hand and and much, much more. Jesus had called forth specific individuals to begin following him that nobody would expect, including outcasts and fishermen and a tax collector. And with all of these things Jesus had done and continued to do, he was doing the will of his Father.

But now a shift in Jesus ministry strategy was about to happen. So no longer was Jesus going to continue his mission in solidarity. And although Jesus certainly could have done this, that’s not what God planned to happen. Instead, Jesus would now choose 12among those who had been following him since the baptism of John, and they would become his personal disciples. And so understand, like this is no small thing for the ministry of the Son of God this moment here in our passage, as we know that these 12 disciples would go on after Jesus to establish God’s church for the edification of the saints and for the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

So the establishment of God’s kingdom for generations would come, beginning with these 12 disciples. Through these 12, by the power of God, lives would change and the world would change. So how does Jesus make this very big decision? Looking at verse 12 in our text, it says in these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. So before choosing the 12 disciples, we learn that Jesus removes himself from all distractions by going to a mountain in Galilee and he goes there alone to pray to God the Father.

And Jesus did this actually early, early on in his ministry that Luke mentions. And he’s doing this at the days when the Pharisees hate for Jesus was only increasing more and more as we learned about from last week’s sermon. And as Luke had mentioned, Jesus had done this in the past. What is unique here in this passage is that this is the only time Luke records Jesus takes all night to pray in isolation. Like the only other time Jesus comes close to doing this is in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion.

And so there’s two Reasons why I think God’s Word gives us this information and why Jesus prays all night. The first reason is to show us the humanity of Christ. Jesus is fully God and fully man. And therefore during his time on earth, there are times when Jesus knowledge or power were willingly limited in order for him to be fully human. And so to put it another way, Jesus subjected himself to the Father’s will by choosing not to exercise the full limit of his divinity during his life and ministry on earth.

So Jesus never stopped being God, but also he was man. And Jesus dependency upon prayer with his heavenly Father shows us the humility of Christ as he had to depend on his Father at times to reveal to him what the Father’s will was. And since this is such a large decision happening here, Jesus spent the entire night in prayer seeking the Father’s will. The second reason I think Jesus did this is to teach us about the vital importance of prayer. So when faced with a large decision that Jesus knew was part of God’s will for his life, he didn’t say like, I’ll pray about it and then like walk away and like forget to pray about it or just kind of briefly mention it to God in prayer and then just kind of go further about his day.

Like actually Jesus, like knowing that he was going to choose the 12among this crowd of disciples, like took, made the disciplinary action to step away from the busyness of ministry to be alone with God and to pray not for five minutes, not for 15 minutes, and not for an hour, but all night long until the text tells us like the sun rose the next day. Like, let that sink in. This is vitally important what Jesus is doing and taking this time to pray. And if the Son of God felt that prayer was this vitally important for his ministry, then how much more vitally important is prayer for God’s people and determining God’s will for our lives? Jesus is the perfect example of what it means to be a Christian and what it means to walk by faith in the living God who hears and answers prayer.

And so we as God’s people, we must do the same and carve out devoted time to pray to God individually as a family and corporately if we want to carry out God’s will for our lives. And so if your prayer life is lacking, then let the example of Jesus encourage you to make time for prayer this week. Make some like, attainable goals on how you can devote more time to prayer this week so that God’s will may be done in your life. For God delights in hearing and answering the prayers of his saints. And if the perfect Son of God depended on His Father to lead and direct him while on this earth through the power of prayer, how much more do we need to depend on our heavenly Father through prayer?

That being said, moving to verse 13, it says, and when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named apostles. So the sun rises after Jesus long night of prayer, and Jesus knows who he is going to choose as his 12 student. 12 students. The meeting that Jesus had with his heavenly Father in prayer made it clear who would be chosen and what he would teach them that morning. It’s important to note that the only reason the disciples are made like one of the 12 is, is because Jesus graciously chose them to become his apostles.

Like, this isn’t something that they signed up for, but rather something Jesus called them forth to do and chose them to do. And with that line, like John the Baptist understood this as well. John the Baptist said this about his own ministry. A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven. It is by the grace of God and his choosing that these men are made into 12 disciples for the purposes that God set long ago.

And the word apostle that is here in our text that Luke points out, it literally means to send. And so this is signifying the mission that was given to these men, to these disciples from Jesus. So in both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, Jesus choosing of the 12 apostles involves giving them authority to be sent out to preach, to cast out demons, and to heal every disease and affliction, which is exactly what Jesus is about to do in the next few verses. And so the 12 apostles were God’s chosen disciples in whom he gave authority to carry out his great mission. Jesus was instituting a new office of apostleship for the early church, who would serve as his official representatives.

And the way he would teach his apostles is by spending time with them. 24, 7. Because of this, these 12 disciples would get to know their teacher and their Lord on a much more personal level from this point on, which is such a privilege for each of these 12 disciples. And then in our text, verses 14 through 16 gives us a list of these apostles names. And so A list of 12 disciples is also given in Matthew, Mark, and Acts.

And in each of these lists, Simon Peter is always listed as first. And then Judas Iscariot is always listed as last. This is because Simon, who was renamed Peter, which literally means rock, is whom Jesus said, on this rock, I will Build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus chose Peter to be the leader in whom he would begin to build his church after his resurrection. And Jesus words are actually fulfilled later in the Book of Acts we read on the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches a sermon of repentance to all who gather to hear him in Jerusalem.

And about 3,000 people profess faith in Jesus that day and are baptized. And so hence, Jesus uses Peter to begin to build his church. So overall, there’s not actually a ton of information known about each of these apostles based on what God gives us in His Word. We know that, like, four of these guys were just simple fishermen and they were called to follow Jesus. And this was Peter and Peter’s brother Andrew, and then two other men named James and John, who Jesus called the Sons of Thunder.

We know that John was called the disciple of whom Jesus loved, and that John wrote the Gospel of John and as well as three epistles and the Book of Revelation. And then we know that John was exiled to the island of Patmos at the end of his life. We know that Matthew, also known as Levi, was a tax collector who wrote the Gospel of Matthew, which we just spent some time learning about him a few weeks ago. We know Bartholomew was also known as Nathanael, and he was described by Jesus in the Book of John as an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. We know Thomas doubted the resurrection of Jesus until he saw him again, which, honestly is kind of a bummer thing to be remembered as.

But I’m pretty sure as we get to heaven, we’ll learn like, there’s some other great things that Thomas did in faith. We know that Simon was a zealot, in which the zealots was like a zealous religious group who are committed to the fall of Rome. And then we know about Judas Iscariot, who was the money keeper for the apostles and who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. And after betraying Jesus, Judas hung himself in the field of blood and was later replaced by a man named Matthias, who became the 12th apostle in his place. And as for the rest of the disciples in this list, like, the Bible actually doesn’t give us a ton of information about them.

And from what we know, these apostles, like, they did not come from noble or wealthy families. They weren’t priests or scholars. They weren’t even like, really educated. They were like untrained, ordinary people like you and me. And so don’t miss this with this list that is provided here.

By Luke, these guys were just ordinary men. And yet they were called and chosen by an extraordinary God. And because they were chosen by an extraordinary God, by Jesus, their names will stand as pillars in heaven for all of eternity. Which is wild to think about. Just listen to what Revelation 12:14 says concerning the new Jerusalem that represents the city of God in the new heavens and new earth.

It says this, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. So these apostles, they may have been just ordinary guys before Jesus called them to himself, but because they were called by an extraordinary God, their names will be remembered as pillars in heaven forever. And the Bible doesn’t tell us much about the apostles, but that’s because it’s not about who the apostles are, it’s about the extraordinary God the apostles were called by and who followed for the sake of Christ’s kingdom. That’s what matters here in this passage. And because Jesus chose these 12 disciples who gave up their lives for the sake of the Gospel, according to church tradition, today there is a foundation that the household of God’s church stands upon and will forever stand upon, namely, because Christ is its cornerstone.

And so we, Red Village Church, we are in debt to the way that God used these 12 disciples. And that is something incredible to think about. God chooses ordinary people like you and like me for extraordinary purposes that make ripples into eternity. And we would do good to never forget that. Moving on to verses 17 through 19, our text says, and he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them.

So after Jesus chooses his 12 disciples, he now comes off of the mountain that he was on in prayer with these 12 at his side, to what Luke said, a level place. Now, this description of a level place, it’s important because it seems to be signifying that this is a different place from the Sermon on the Mount, where Matthew clearly says Jesus went up on the mountain, and then he began preaching the Sermon on the Mount after he had ascended the mountain. And so the sermon, this sermon right here, it differs from the Sermon on the Mount in that it doesn’t focus on the Jewish law, but instead its focus is on love and fruit that a disciple’s life should have. And so although this like sermon is very similar and it’s actually using the same information that Jesus uses on the Sermon on the Mount, it’s actually only half as long as the Sermon on the Mount. And because of this, this sermon is often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain, in which many scholars agree was a similar sermon to the Sermon on the Mount, but it was given a different.

It was given at a different time, likely before the Sermon on the Mount. So before Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Plain, Luke tells us a great crowd of Jesus, other disciples, and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon. They all gather to Jesus for these three reasons that Luke gives us. To hear Jesus preach, to be healed of their diseases and to be freed of unclean demonic spirit. So it’s important to note that Jesus fame, like it’s now spreading beyond just the region of Galilee and Judea in which Jesus has been up to this point.

And so now, like Luke says, great multitudes, which is most likely in the thousands, are now coming from the sea coast of the cities on the Mediterranean, which means these were Gentile cities. And so Gentiles are now coming in to gather around Jesus to hear him teach and to be healed and to be freed by demonic spirits by Jesus. So we know that this is the reason why Jesus came is to redeem and to save not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles from every tribe and language and tongue on the earth. And as people came from near and far, their diseases were healed. And the demons that oppressed those who were troubled were cast out and cured.

And those who came wondering like, could this be the long awaited Messiah that we have been waiting for? Truly they heard and they seen that this is the Christ. Verse 19 tells us that as people began to be healed and cured, others in the crowd who had not been healed simply made it their mission to just touch Jesus. Because Luke says divine power was radiating out from Jesus that healed them all. Now this is like an incredible scene that Luke is portraying for us.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of people pressing in just to simply touch Jesus. For just by touching him, lifelong illnesses, chronic pain, infirmities, and agonized demon possessed people who have been dealing with this for who knows how long are instantly healed when they touch Jesus. Like that is incredible. All because the Son of God, the Christ, was standing on level ground on planet earth and from him was radiating this life restoring power to whom all were healed. That came to him like, what a sight this must have been.

This, this had to been incredible to witness, especially for the 12 disciples that are now called to join in with Jesus ministry. Like this had to be mind blowing. And the word for power here that Luke gives is actually the Greek word dunamis, which is where we get the English word for dynamite. And so this is the same power that Luke describes Jesus having in Luke 4:14, where Luke says, and Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit to Galilee. So this power that Jesus has coming from him is directly related to the Holy Spirit who we see brings life and restoration both to creation and to all of mankind throughout the Bible.

And this is the Holy Spirit’s life changing power being poured out from Jesus to everybody who is coming to him and to everybody who is touching him. And so this picture is certainly painting for us. A picture of the nations coming to Jesus in great physical and spiritual need. And Jesus is at the center, allowing all to come to him and to be healed as they believe and touch the Son of God, who is the supply and source of the Holy Spirit’s power, which knows no bounds. And it’s important to think about this scene in relation to the 12 disciples who were just chosen.

Like up to this point, they’ve listened to Jesus teach, they’ve watched him heal and cast out demons. But this, this is on a completely different level. Directly after being chosen to be Jesus apostles and given authority to do the same work as Jesus, this scene unfolds. And so this is the work that Jesus is doing and will continue to do with all of his 12 disciples at his side. People will be drawn to Jesus in both physical and spiritual need, both Jews and Gentiles.

And Jesus will continue to restore and change lives through the power of the Holy Spirit living in his disciples. This is what Jesus Kingdom looks like. And he invites his 12 disciples to join in on this work. For it is only the beginning and that ends our passage. And so from this I have three applications for you that I want to give you from this passage of Scripture that I think speak loudest.

And so the first application I have for you, if you have put your faith in Christ, remember you are chosen by Christ for the purposes of his kingdom as his disciple. In the same way that Jesus chose the 12, he has chosen you that all may be drawn to Christ. Ephesians 1:4:5 says this. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to Himself as the sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

That being said, there is purpose in the will of God as He calls his people from death to.

So if you are a Christian here this morning, meaning that you have made Jesus like the Lord of your life, then just like the 12 disciples, remember that God has purpose for your life. As his disciple, he wants to use you to draw others to himself by sharing the gospel and by living as Christ’s ambassador, not because of what you’ve done, but because of who God is. And that is really encouraging to know that if you are in Christ, God created you for good works to do today, tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and the next day that will ripple into eternity. When I was in college at a fall retreat for a collegiate ministry that I was a part of, it was in New Mexico. This was a collegiate ministry called the Christian Challenge.

And the director there was named David Engelhardt. And so David led us out from this little Bible camp in the mountains of New Mexico. And he had all these students, including myself, gather around a little pond that was about 50 yards wide. And what David taught me that day and the rest of the students, I will never forget. With everyone gathered around this pond, he picked up a rock and then he just threw it into the pond and told all of us just to be silent and to watch.

And so David does this. The rock goes. Splashes into this pond. And then ripples are sent out from this rock that go out all the way to the edges of this pond and. And then bounce off of different things in the pond until they all begin to go completely still.

And so, in silence, everyone, including myself, watches these ripples go out. And after the ripples disappeared, David said this. Serving Christ is a lot like ripples in a pond. You, by faith, make a splash in obedience to Christ. And ripples are sent all across the pond, but the rock is at the bottom of the pond.

And often the rock does not see the ripples that are going on up above. But God, he sees all that his hand is doing with these ripples. And so what he is saying is, God has purpose in every splash, every good work, every step of faith, every Gospel conversation, every Sunday service that we gather. God says he is working. And even if we can’t see it, God is building his kingdom through his chosen disciples, and that is through you.

If you have put your faith in Jesus, he has chosen to use you to make ripples that will last for eternity. An extraordinary God calls ordinary people like you, like me, to follow him so that they might live with extraordinary purpose for the glory of God. So first application is, do not forget this. My second application from this passage is very simple, and that is to seek to make disciples of Christ Jesus. Master plan of evangelizing the world started with investing more time into just 12 disciples.

And then Jesus spent even more time in just three of those disciples who were Peter, James and John. And so Jesus intentionally invited these disciples to not only join his ministry, but to also get a glimpse into his personal walk with God. And we are called to do the exact same thing. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave the great commission for his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded his people. And so if you’re here and you believe in Jesus as the Lord of your life, then you are his disciple.

And you too are called to make other disciples through baptism and teaching other followers of Jesus to observe all that Jesus has commanded in the Bible. So if you’re a believer, my question to you is, who are you discipling right now? Who are you helping to follow Christ? Discipleship can look like a lot of different things. It can look like serving in kids ministry to help teach kids about the Bible and how they can know God.

It can look like having a daily time of family worship with your kids and teaching them about the Bible and how to walk with God. It can look like inviting people to church so they can hear God’s Word preached and then grow in their faith through community with other believers. It can look like meeting together with a believer who is new to the faith or with someone who is considering the claims of Christ and to study the Bible with them and teach them about Jesus. It can look like leading a small group Bible study that is teaching others God’s Word and how to put it into action. Or it can look like inviting a college student to your home for a meal to see how you are following Christ while encouraging them to do the same.

Which is what I personally am praying that God will do with Adoptive Student Day today. And so, regardless of how we do discipleship, what’s important is that we do seek to do it no matter what it will. No matter what it will require you to be intentional and to invite another person into your life and into the church so that they too may become a disciple who follows Jesus and who keeps his commands and if you’re not sure where to start, then I encourage you to do what Jesus does here in our passage of scripture. Carve out some intentional time to pray to God that God would give you someone to disciple and to show you who that person is. And if you do this, then God will guide you in the right direction and he will equip you with what you need to help others grow in Christ.

This is the work that God is doing and what he’s called us to do. And it’s not about who you are and how good you are at teaching or helping others. It’s about just seeking to be faithful and God using you to build up and raise up other disciples. My third and last application from this passage is point all people to the life restoring power found in Christ alone. Our passage ends with human need, both little and great being met in the person of Jesus.

So Jesus is the only one with the power to change a person’s life from spiritual death to spiritual life. Only in Jesus can the Holy Spirit change a dead heart to beat for God and to live the extraordinary life that God calls us to live by faith. Jesus lived the life that we could not and died on a cross in our place. And then three days later, Jesus rose again from the dead and is victorious over sin and death. And today, Jesus is alive.

That’s why we gather here and that’s why we continue to worship God. It’s because Jesus lives. And if you repent today and believe that Jesus truly is the Lord over all the earth who rose again from the dead, then scripture says you too will receive the resurrection power by the Holy Spirit who will come to live inside of you and who guarantees that you will be with God in heaven for eternity. Which is incredible. This is the gospel, the good news given to mankind.

And so no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done, the power of God can change your life today. And I believe that wholeheartedly, because I am a walking example of that. God has changed my life from death to life through faith in Him. And so, in summary, point all people to the life restoring power that is found in Christ alone. May we never grow weary in doing that and in seeing that our Savior is the one who has life life restoring power so that all who believe may find new life and joy in him for eternity.

That being said, please pray with me, God. We believe that Jesus truly is alive. And we believe, God, that you can use us as you use these 12 disciples to bring about life for others, to bring about Godliness, to bring about godly fruit that is good and righteous and holy. And Lord, that you call us to make other disciples. And so I pray, help us to be faithful in trusting Lord in your choosing and being faithful, to step out works of faith and to be intentional with others so that others may grow in Christ and be able to know and love you and walk with you and God, that the Gospel by your grace, may go to the ends of the earth, that you would use our small little church to fulfill your great commission.

And God, that we would never grow weary in pointing people to the all powerful Christ who is alive and who gives new life to all who believe in him. And I pray God be with us as we continue our service today. And it’s in Jesus name we all pray. Amen.

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