Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/25/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 35 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Luke 18:18-19:10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/18/2022 in Novato, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Today, I’ve chosen again to preach through a larger section here so we can appreciate the bigger theological theme that Luke is developing. Since chapter 15, Luke has been working on this theme, and it really comes to a climax today. What theme do I refer to? Well, back in chapter 15 Jesus had been criticized by the Pharisees for his ministry to tax collectors and sinners. Jesus defended that ministry in teaching God’s heart to seek and save the lost such as with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus then turned things back around in chapter 16 admonishing the Pharisees for their love of money such as with the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Jesus went on to criticize their self-righteous attitude such as with the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector in 18:9-14. All this comes to a vivid climax in our passage for today when we read it all together. That is why I am preaching from this whole text instead of what might be a more common approach to break it into separate sermons on the multiple scenes that are here. So then, our outline for today’s message will generally follow the text. I’ll have us start with considering the rich ruler, then the blind beggar, and then Zacchaeus.

We begin then with the rich ruler of verses 18-30. He comes to Jesus in presumably genuine interest in a central question for life. He wants to know how he can inherit eternal life. This question could also be asked “How to enter the kingdom of God” as Jesus effectively equates down in verse 25. It’s a question of salvation. It’s a question Jesus so often addressed in his teaching ministry. It’s the question we all should be asking. We know we will die. Our life here is limited. God has revealed that after this life comes the judgment. From there we will ultimately end up in the hell of eternal punishment and damnation, or in the heaven of eternal life and glory. This rich ruler wants to know how we can enjoy such a blessed life in the resurrection. It’s the right question. It’s the question every human needs to know the answer to.

But we see the failings of this rich ruler to here come to truly understand how to receive eternal life. Notice how his question, good as it was, actually was a little off. He asked what he had to do in order to inherit this eternal life. See this in context. The very last verse from last week’s passage said that the kingdom of God must be received like a child. Children don’t do things to earn what they have. They are freely given it and receive it. This man begins the conversation with the wrong approach, by asking what he must “do” to be saved.

Jesus then begins to try to help him course correct by how he responds to the man’s kind words that called Jesus “Good Teacher.” Jesus is truly a Good Teacher and worthy of that title. But Jesus challenges the man’s usage of it by saying “No one is good except God alone.” Jesus then asks the rich ruler to evaluate his deeds against God’s commandments. The man does so and says in verse 21 that he has kept them all since his youth. Do you see what happened there? Jesus told him that no one is good but God, but the man then concludes that he himself is good, that what he has being doing is worthy.

So then, Jesus challenges him with a test. He calls him to sell all he has and give it to the poor, so he can know treasure in heaven, and to begin to follow him. At that, this man could not at this time accomplish that.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/18/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 35 of the Belgic Confession.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/11/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 35 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Luke 18:1-17 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/11/2022 in Novato, CA

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Prayer is to be such a fundamental part of the Christian’s life. But according to the Bible, prayer is also a skill to be learned and grown in as part of discipleship. So then, we have three unique sections in today’s passage that all help teach us something about how we should pray and approach God. Let us then feast on this teaching today on prayer, and let us also look to put this teaching into practice in our prayer lives.

Let us begin in our first point today as we consider verses 1-8 on this Parable of the Persistent Widow. While this teaches an application about persistency in prayer, let’s begin by noting the context for such prayer. Jesus envisions people praying for justice and help against adversaries. In the parable, the widow is envisioned as going to the judge and asking for justice. She is seeking justice because someone has wronged her and she is looking for the judge to force her adversary to make things right. Likewise, when Jesus applies the parable to us in verse 7, he says “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him.” So, the parable and its application says that the context of prayer that this parable is addressing is the context of praying for justice. Another example of this was back in Exodus 2. That’s when God’s people were in Egypt and the Pharoah enslaved them and they cried to God for help, and God heard their prayers and rose up Moses to deliver them. God’s people at times have found themselves afflicted by the godless and we are taught to cry out to God for justice and help. This is a general truth for our everyday living with our everyday struggles. When we find affliction in this life, we should pray to God for justice and help from our opponents.

But in context of our passage, we should especially see the big picture that Jesus presents. Last chapter spoke about how he, the Son of Man, would one day return to save his people from the wicked. This section then references this again at the end in verse 8. After promising that God will ultimately hear our prayers and give us justice, he asks, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In other words, when Jesus does come back at the end of history to deliver his people from the wicked world who stands opposed to them, will he in fact find a people waiting in faith for his return? So, as we think about this Parable of the Persistent Widow we should realize that the chief application here of Jesus is about him coming back at the end to save us from this fallen world, when he brings them in judgment on all his and our enemies. While we can make applications to our prayer for our daily troubles, we shouldn’t miss that Jesus especially draws our attention here to the big picture. That means our prayer life should especially include praying for Jesus to return to make all things right.

So then, verse 1 tells us the point of this parable. Jesus wants us to always pray and not lose heart. In the context of the troubles we face as God’s people, we need to keep calling out to God for help. We can infer a couple important things from such a statement. One, our prayers aren’t always going to get the answer we hope right away. Sometimes we find an answer to prayer after just the first time we pray for it. Other times we pray and pray and pray for something before we finally see the answer. I remember the prophet Elijah who prayed for rain seven times before God finally sent the rain,

Sermon preached on Luke 17:20-37 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/04/2022 in Novato, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Jesus’s earthly teaching ministry largely focused on teaching concerning the kingdom of God. Today’s passage answers some more questions for us about the when, what, and where about the coming of the kingdom of God and its king, King Jesus. The passage is divided up into two sections, with verses 20-21 recording Jesus speaking to the Pharisees about the coming of the kingdom. And then verses 22-37 record Jesus speaking to his disciples about his future second coming as king of the coming kingdom. This passage will then give us opportunity to think about the coming of the kingdom, both in the ways it has already begun to be realized, and the way it will yet come in its fullness at the end of this age.

So, let us begin in our first point by using this passage to teach us a little history lesson of the time between Christ’s first coming and his second coming. So then, starting with the time that Jesus was there on earth, right here in our passage, we see the Pharisees ask him this question in verse 20 about when the kingdom would come. That’s the question, “when.” They are asking about at what time they will see that it comes. Jesus doesn’t answer that exact question, though, and surely it must be because he is saying the question is a little off.He answers them by saying that, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed”. He explains what he is addressing when he goes on to say, that they won’t say “here it is” or “there it is”. In other words, the kingdom’s coming is not something that they need to be on the look out for some special set of signs to observe in order for them to find it and enter into it. Rather, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” So then, Jesus is challenging the premise to the question that the Pharisees are asking. He understood them to basically be saying, “We know the kingdom is not yet here, so what special signs do we need to watch, in order to correctly know that it is here when it finally comes.” Jesus then challenges the premise that the kingdom is not yet here. While, yes, Jesus will go on to speak of ways in which the kingdom’s fulness yet lies in the future, Jesus wanted these Pharisees to realize an important truth they were missing. There was a real access to the kingdom right then and there.

You might note that some translations put a footnote here for when it says that the kingdom is in the midst of you, and suggest another possible translation for “midst” is “within”. If that was the intended meaning, that would suggest Jesus is speaking of how the kingdom of God is something that right now can be realized in your heart. While that is a truth we can find taught elsewhere, what seems most likely intended to me is that Jesus is referring to how right now the kingdom is in their midst and available for them to even now receive and be received into. Let me state how we know this is true according to Luke’s gospel so far. Jesus spoke in Luke 4:43 that his teaching ministry was to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God from town to town, elsewhere his preaching is literally summarized that the kingdom was at hand. In Luke 6, when he gave his beatitudes, he spoke how people could right now have the kingdom of God, saying, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom.” In Luke 7, he compared the old covenant prophets ending in John the Baptist as inferior to even the least in the kingdom of God, implying that right now one, through Jesus’ message, could enter into the kingdom. In Luke 10,

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/04/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 34 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Luke 17:7-19 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/28/2022 in Novato, CA.

Sermon Manuscript

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

We have two different scenes but complementary messages. The first scene, verses 7-10, speaks to how servants shouldn’t expect reward. In context, we remember how Jesus has been admonishing the Pharisees who loved money and thought their acquisition of money was God rewarding them for their supposed faithful service. The second scene, verses 11-19, speaks to how servants ought to thank their masters when their masters show mercy and kindness to them. In context, we remember how Jesus has been showing us the quality of mercy as something that we should be showing to others and so we see that theme picked up here again. So then, two scenes, that taken together express a sort of common truth about masters and servants. A master is not obligated to thank faithful servants, rather it’s for servants to thank merciful masters. These are the truths we find taught in our passage for today. Let’s us dig into them and think further on how they apply to us and our relationship to Jesus and our pursuit of godliness.

We will begin in our first half then to consider scene one in verses 7-10. Notice that it starts out with a parable. The parable is told by Jesus in verses 7-9. Verse 10 is then the application of the parable. The parable is about the relationship between a master and his servants. In the parable, Jesus begins by asking if a master would ever invite his servants who have been working hard in the field to then afterwards come and sit down and join them together at the dinner table. We see that this is a rhetorical question. The answer is no, as verse 8 goes on to express. Jesus continues by saying that instead the master will have the servant first attend to making and serving a meal the master. In fact, the parable says that the master will even require the servant to first dress properly. In other words, this servant spends all day working hard in the field, out in the hot sun, getting dirty, probably stripping off clothes in the process. But when they came back into the fields, the master would expect to them to get properly dressed and assume the role of serving him his meal. Only then, after the master has enjoyed his meal, would the servants finally get a chance to rest and eat a meal themselves. That’s a rough summary and explanation of this parable by Jesus.

Now, at first glance, this parable might be harder to appreciate because our society no longer has any institution of slavery. Our society has gotten rid of such slavery due to the many historic abuses that happened. Too often in history masters have treated their slaves harshly and inhumanely, which the Bible condemns of course. Also, too often in history, people were forcibly made slaves by manstealing, which again the Bible also condemns. So, it is hard for us nowadays to see past such historical abuses and to imagine any scenario where people might have entered into such a master-servant relationship. But we need to be careful to read a passage in its proper historical context. This passage doesn’t commend masters treating their servants harshly. Nor does it do us any good here to miss the point of the passage because we today don’t practice this form of servitude anymore. But this institution of the master-servant relationship was commonplace back then and so let’s look for what Jesus teaches here.

So, Jesus’ parable makes the simple point to say that there is an authority structure involved in the master-servant relationship which meant servants owed obedience t...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/28/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 34 of the Belgic Confession.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/21/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 33 of the Belgic Confession.