COMPLACENT CROWD OR COMMISSIONED CHURCH

#498                                  COMPLACENT CROWD OR COMMISSIONED CHURCH                                                         

Scripture Luke 14:16-24, NIV                                                                                                                           Orig. 5-26-68

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 7-18-91 

Passage: ¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ ²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ ²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Purpose: Addressing my people on the need for the followers of Christ to confirm in daily living all things vital in showing ourselves committed followers of Jesus.

Keywords:          Christ                    Lord                       Commitment                    Complacency

Timeline/Series:               Luke

Introduction

                The article stared back at me from the daily paper (Town Talk, 5-24-67).  The dateline, San Francisco, should have given it away at once.  Weirdness seems to regularly first test its mettle there.

                I read on anyway.  “A well-proportioned brunette tiptoed through a hushed room decorated with a stuffed rat, two crows, and a skull.  She took off her clothes and lay down on a leopard skin covering a mantle. All was ready for the baptism of a child.

                “Anton Szandor Lavey,” continued the article, “who calls himself a sorcerer and the high priest of the First Church of Satan, baptized his gum-chewing three year old daughter Tuesday night as a hooded organist played ‘The Hymn to Satan.’”

                We read such things with measured disgust, and tense up trying to pat ourselves on the back:  “I thank God that I am not as other men.”

                Do you suppose there is a difference in the mind of God?  Think you that He sees this Satanism ploy any differently than He sees people in a Baptist, Methodist, etc., church, whose only telling influence is that they are gathered around an altar?

                Here we are in our Sunday best. Some of us.  Seated here in our comfortable, contemporary, even conservative pews.  Add to that our disdain for what Lavey and his crowd conjure up.  Is that enough to earn for us the favor of God?  Or does it take personal response, commitment even, to be a follower of Christ?  

I.             The Signs of Complacency are Clearly About.  V18 “And they all with one consent began to make excuse.”  Actually, the three major concerns of life figure into this parable.  One addresses his occupation, another his fascination, the last his adoration.  So we examine one’s vocational life, the avocational life, the invocational life.  See it as job, as fun, as church.

                Remember, this is a parable, and therefore, contains teaching meant for our ears, too.  Jesus was out touching lives: down-and-outers.  He was at a feast in the home of a prominent Pharisee.  It all started with a pontification.  One of the guests said, V15 “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.”  He was inspired, perhaps convicted.  Now he would inspire others.  Jesus’ response was to direct his teaching to their complacency.  Excuse, job-related: this piece of land has to be put to proper use. Excuse, avocation: pull-off involving five yoke of oxen, a tractor-pull.  Excuse, religious devotion: “I have married a wife.”

                Deuteronomy 24:5 tells us, “When a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business, but he shall be free at home . . . to cheer up his wife.”

                So, in the parable, these guys have been honored by one more honorable than they.  It was to be a festive occasion.  They wanted, expected, to be invited, and would be insulted not to.  The corollary, I would remind you, is our invitation to the faith feast honoring God’s Son.  “I want, expect, to be invited,” you say, “but it must be convenient.”

                We could spend a lot of time here talking about excuses.  We could lose our jobs.  We have let pleasure take us where it would; in the tractor/taffy pull, “Go for the gold!”  We even use our religion as an excuse.

II.            The Expectation Here is Commission.  V16 “A certain man made a great supper and bade many.” V21 “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither.”  The oriental feast had a special dimension.  The invitation was for an appointed day.  It was understood that the hour awaited preparation.  They were to stay ready.  They were to come when called.  As they had accepted the invitation, they were to keep themselves available.

                The wealth of talent in the contemporary church is extraordinary:  People capable of turning the wheels of industry; professionals, teachers, gifted laborers. Imagine, all those talents dedicated.

                Hey, I have an idea.  Let’s dedicate our avocations to the Lord also.  Did you see that delightful piece about Darryl Strawberry?  He became a Christian, and he doesn’t play out of anger anymore.  But how many athletes, musicians, entertainers, entrepreneurs, have a new mountain to climb?  Christ is the Lord of what they are doing. 

                Very little of what it takes to be a Christian takes place here from 11 to 1.  Does it bring you back at 7pm?  What is your prayer life like?  The worst excuse of all is blaming the pulpit.

                Friendliness is an avocation: earnestness, enthusiasm.  When you are out of your place, you have left a void that cannot be filled.

                Leave some room for commitment invocationally, also.  The chairs at the feast are going to be filled, not by the most worthy citizen, but by the most enthusiastic, the most responsive.

III.           Finally, Do Not Overlook Intent.  V24 “None of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.”  Make no mistake, we are dealing with the purview of God here.  The invitation went out clear to all in nature.  Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, . . . so that they are without excuse."  Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

                But God’s invitation came yet again.  Romans 8:1 “There is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ.”  Here the meaning came clearly.  The second invitation came, the clearest of directives.  The feast is prepared, you must decide.  Romans 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things, if God be for us, who can be against us?”

                To ignore the summons, to be complacent about the invitation is to court disaster. V24 as above—“none that were bidden shall taste of my supper.”  Romans 10:1f “My heart’s desire . . . for Israel is, that they might be saved. . .  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness. . . , and going about to establish their own righteousness. . . , have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”

                The message then of the parable is fourfold.  It tells of the provision of the feast.  It tells us of the people invited to the feast who think themselves worthy, who know themselves unworthy.  It tells us of the prospect of complacency.  It tells us of punishment awaiting negligence.  So it is a promise of provision through faith.

Conclusion

                A young man is said to have approached a holy man of India standing by the Ganges River.  “How may I find God?” he speculated.  The holy man seized him and thrust him violently under the water.  “Why did you do that?” he sputtered.  “When you long for God as you longed for air, you will find.”

BIBLE STUDY

#477                                                                         BIBLE STUDY                                                                                                

Scripture  Luke 14:1-24 NIV                                                                                                                             Orig. 3/13/68

                                                                                                                                                                 Rewr. 3/1971, 12/1974

Passage:  One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ² There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. ³ Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴ But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. ⁵ Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child^[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” ⁶ And they had nothing to say. ⁷ When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹ If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹ For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” ¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ ²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ ²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Keywords:          Banquet               Disenfranchised

Timeline/Series:               Bible study

Introduction

                Luke records four of the seven occasions of Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath.  (1) In Chapter 4, the  healing of Simon’s mother-in-law; (2) in Chapter 6, the man with the withered hand; (3) in Chapter 13, the woman with an 18-year infirmity; and (4) here, a man with dropsy—an excess of body fluids, known today as edema.

                It would seem that anyone so intent on upgrading man’s physical and spiritual condition would have drawn the immediate acceptance of the people.  Jesus, however, was hated by many. 

                Jesus’ Attitude at the Supper. 14:1  Jesus never refused any man’s invitation to hospitality.  He went into the house of one of the Chief Pharisees on the Sabbath day to eat bread. They watched Him: Jesus never lost patience with men even in times of stress.

                Jesus’ Action at the Supper.  14:2-6  His first responsibility is the alleviation of human suffering. V4 And He took him and healed him and let him go.  Attention is called to the Pharisees’ lack of value judgment.  “Which of you will not remove your beast from a pit on the Sabbath day?”

                Jesus’ Analogy About a Supper.  14:7-11 His teaching is always relevant.  V7 He marked how they chose out the chief rooms.  His teaching here is in regard to humility. V9 When you are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room. Humility is retained by examination and by comparison.

                Jesus’ Advice to His Host at the Supper. 14:12-14 His advice is to examine our motives.  V12 Do not invite your friends, your brethren, your kinsmen, thy rich neighbours, lest perhaps they also invite you.  Their motives would be, perhaps, a sense of duty, self-interest, vanity, or an effort to befriend.  The result will be blessing from God rather than men. V14 And thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee.

                Apposition: Jesus Was Rebuffed By a Guest at the Supper.  14:15 The guest who said “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God,” was perhaps incensed at Jesus’ word to the host.  What right had He, through healing, to contradict the Law? What right to instruct the spiritual leaders? What right to advise the Chief Pharisee?  The guest might have said, “What do you know about blessing? He is blessed who is of the spiritual heritage of Israel.”

                Application: Jesus Rebuked False Claims of the Jews at the Supper.  14:16-24 Even a word spoken to a cynic is spoken in kindness. 

                But those to whom the kingdom was offered, rejected it: Because of vocation, and so immersed in work that there is no time for fellowship—“I have bought a piece of ground”; because of avocation, so taken with some novelty—“I have bought five yoke of oxen” (Did you know that 80,000 people a week see the Saints play football?!); because of invocation, in that the Mosaic Law says a man with a new wife will not go to war or be charged with business for one year—“I have married a wife.”

Closing

                There are those to whom the Christian life is a melancholy and a dread.  Swinburne, the poet, wrote, “Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean, The world has grown gray from thy breath.”  John Ruskin, an English author, told of a jumping jack given to him as a child, taken away by a pious aunt with the remark that toys were not things for a Christian child.  It’s little wonder that his brilliant mind turned to socialism and nature.  Wesley founded a school where the rule was no play, “because he who plays as a child plays as a man.”

                Jesus, however, pictured His Kingdom in terms of a feast.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS BIBLE STUDY HAS BEEN LOST***

NO MORE CHANCES

#463                                                                  NO MORE CHANCES                                                                                         

Scripture Luke 13:6-9 NIV                                                                                                                                  Orig. 2-16-68

                                                                                                                                                                                Rewr. 10-26-81 

Passage:  Then he told this parable:  “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down!  Why should it use up the soil?’”              

Purpose: Continuing the series on the parables to remind my people of the teaching of Jesus relative to our responsibility to use our opportunities.

Keywords:          Grace    Judgment           Providence        Revival                 Uselessness

Series:  Parables

Introduction

                As Jesus continued his teaching, one of his Judean listeners raised a question.  There was no great love lost between the Judeans and the Galileans, and a report had been recently circulated that Pilate had stormed out against their rebellious character by having his guards strike some of them down even while they were offering sacrifices.   The one who raised the question was implying that they probably got what they deserved.  If there is any place that a right-thinking person ought to be safe it is at the appointment of sacrifice.  If, therefore, harm fell to them there, it simply means that they are guilty as charged and got their just deserts.

                Jesus then answers directly.  Do you think that those Galileans were the chief sinners among Galileans because that happened to them?”  Jesus then laid the burden of sin right at their feet.  “No!” he said, “They were not necessarily the chiefest of sinners just because they were killed.”  Then, addressing their own disdain of God’s purpose for them, he continued. “Unless you repent, you will also perish.”

                Then he brought up the case of a recent natural disaster.  The tower of Siloam in Jerusalem had fallen causing the death of 18 people.  He implies that if such as this can happen in Jerusalem, then the people must think that these victims were somehow deserving what happened to them.  Again Jesus addresses their own sin problem.  “That is not the case.” He says, but unless you repent of your sin, then you will ultimately perish just as violently as they did.

                He does not deny that these Galileans and these workmen in Jerusalem were sinners.  There is just not anything that he can do for dead sinners.  His concern is for the living and for their errant rationale that allowed them self-justification.  They were not safe from judgment simply because they were Jews.  They were not to be excused from the necessity of repentance simply because of the chance of their birth to a Hebrew mother.  Thus he shared with them the parable of the barren fig tree.

I.             The Parable Addresses Opportunity: The fig tree owned a special providence.  V6 “He came seeking fruit thereon.”  Perhaps the significance of a parable needs to be restated.  It is a story with a hidden meaning.  The significance of such a story is never in what is obvious.  It is not about a fig tree, but what the tree represents.  It must somehow relate to productivity. 

                If this is just about trees, then there are many factors to be considered: size, fertility, climate, etc.  If about trees, it can produce only what it is.  But if its meaning is about people then we startlingly discover that a person can do much more than just produce another being like unto himself.  Not only can he improve upon what nature has given, he can do more. He can produce a thought, an idea, a word, and a deed which, by the way, may be good or evil.

                It is a consuming thought to come to realize that the master of the orchard is conscious of every plant.  He expects no more that the plant, or that which it symbolizes, is capable to produce.  Of a fig tree, he would expect a fig.  But of one created to produce more and better things, he would expect that also.  The master of the orchard knows the opportunity of each of us and expects that of which we are capable.

II.            The Parable Addresses Obstructions to Opportunity.  The fig tree reminds us that uselessness invites disaster.  V7 “Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.”  Some would like to apply the parable to Jesus’ hearers, thus the Jewish nation. It is true that Isaiah foresaw such an eventuality. He describes the beloved’s vineyard “on a fruitful hill” and marks its destruction.  Isaiah 5:1-7 “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.  He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.  Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.  Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.  That more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?  When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?  Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard:  I will take away its hedge and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.  I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there.  I will command the clouds not to rain on it.  The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in.  And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness but heard cries of distress.”

                We dare see not see it, however, as relating to other than ourselves.  Judging a tree we examine its leaves—right size and of good texture; its roots deep and strong; its fiber soft, pliable, moist; but if it bears no fruit, cut it down.

III.           The Parable Asserts Offensiveness.  The fig tree will understand that nothing which only takes and does not give can survive.  V7 “Cut it down, why doth it cumber the ground?”  The literal meaning is why does this plant allow the ground to be reduced to inactivity?  Not only is the tree useless, the soil beneath it is rendered useless.  An interesting parallel exists with other parables: Prodigal—“Lost,” loss of wellbeing; Strait Gate—“Destruction,” loss of wellbeing; Fig tree—“cumber,” loss of wellbeing; Fig tree—“cut it down,” loss of wellbeing.

                The message is a twofold one, for empires and for individuals. We must never passively keep someone else from achieving their spiritual best, and we must anchor our lives to a bold, assertive spiritual activity.

IV.          The Parable Speaks of Obligation.  By the grace of the keeper of the orchard, a second chance is extended.  V8f “Let it alone for one year more.  I shall dig about it, and if it bear fruit, well.”

                We are not directed to do something about our past, for we cannot; Thomas Hardy wrote in The Ghost of the Past, “We two kept house, the past and I.”  We are not to be dazzled by the future, for we cannot grasp what it may hold; Longfellow wrote in A Psalm of Life, “Trust no future howe’er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act, act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead.”

                Be sure only of this, that God in Christ gives to each of us, to all, a second chance.  Christ, on the cross, prayed “Father, forgive.” The foundling church offered to Israel a second chance to believe. Acts 13:46, First to Israel, “But seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”  The nation, the denomination, the individual church, the believer, likewise understand that our very being (wellbeing) is “second chance.”  The mind of the Father and the Son is the same that repentance spurned.  The soil must be cleared for one who will repent.

V.            Finally, the Parable Acknowledges Oblivion.  The fig tree testifies that there is coming a last chance. V9 “If it does not bear fruit after this year, then, cut it down.”  The judgment made by the gardener is based on its fruitlessness.  It is not the fault of the gardener.  It is not the fault of the soil.  The fault rests only upon the agency judged.  Understand this, please, of the judgment of God: It will always be upon spiritual potential denied.  He will not judge any person for something they were incapable of doing. What one is capable of, and what one “wills” to do with that capability is, sadly, too often, two different things.

                We, who have been favored to live in a part of the world graced by the finer things of life must accept a responsibility to do with these things to the glory of God.  Who then must face a more severe judgment? The Russian who grew up being taught that God was a capitalist plot? The remote tribesman whose only notion of God is the predictability or unpredictability of nature?  The third world refugee who knows nothing so completely as he knows hunger?  Or the polished citizen of a western culture who has the best of all things, but who ignores the clear warnings of sin, and judgment, and last chances?

                Make no mistake, we are accountable.  The divine gardener pleads “spare.”  It is he who finally declares “cut it down!”  Recall please the message of John the Baptist, the forerunner.  He admonished Israel to repent, and then warned, “and even now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees: Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.”

Conclusion

                We are called therefore to believe.  That belief requires repentance, for we have sinned, and in spite of our sin the second chance has been given.  Finally, acknowledging that second chance means that we choose to live in such a way that others understanding our commitment to life in our Lord Jesus Christ will begin to reckon their own lives in relation to Him.

THE PARABLE OF THE LOVING FATHER

#379                                                THE PARABLE OF THE LOVING FATHER                                                                       

Scripture  Luke 15:11-32 NIV                                                                                                           Orig. 6/30/63 (10/81)

                                                                                                                                                                                    Rewr. 8/6/87 

Passage:  ¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.  ¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.  ¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.  “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  ²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.  ²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’  ²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’  ³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Purpose: In a series on the New Testament parables, here sharing with my people on the theme of human intemperance beset by God’s great love.

Keywords:          Disobedience                   Forgiveness        Revival                 Self-righteousness         Sin        

Timeline/Series:               Parable

Introduction

                Once upon a time there were two young children who went to spend the summer with their grandparents.  Their names were Billy and Sally.  They lived most of the year in the city, and a few weeks on their grandparents’ farm in the summer was a wonderful experience for them.

                Billy, like many little boys, was exceedingly curious.  He enjoyed all the different things, and animals that he encountered.  One day Grandfather had some work to do in the hayloft and it was too hot for Billy to help.  He was free to roam.  He picked up his slingshot and went out to play hunter.  Out beyond the barn, almost out of sight of the house, Billy had armed his weapon and had it ready.  Suddenly, Grandmother’s pet duck waddled around the corner of the barn.  Without so much as a flinch, Billy let fly his artillery.  His aim usually wasn’t very good, but this time he was right on the mark.  The duck lay dead.  He looked to see if anyone was in sight.  Then, scared though he was, he quickly buried the duck back of the barn.  That night at supper he couldn’t eat.  His grandmother asked if he was sick.  After supper he and Sally went to wash dishes. She said she wasn’t going to help, and if he complained she’d tell about the duck.

                You can imagine what the next week was like.  Billy was miserable.  Finally, one afternoon Billy went to his grandmother’s sewing room.  He stood around, picked up trinkets in which he had no interest.  Shuffled from one foot to the other.  “Billy, if you need to know it, I love you.”  Then came the flood of guilt and confession.  “Billy, I was sitting here by the window and saw the whole thing.  I wondered how long you would endure this bondage to Sally before you came to me.”

I.             First, Parables are Often Unique in Their Setting.  We can back up a couple of chapters.  Luke 13:22. “. . . Jesus went through the towns and villages . . . as he made his way to Jerusalem.”  Jesus is clearly conscious of the precious commodity of his dwindling days.  Luke 17:11 “Now on his way to Jerusalem”—his last.

                More directly, the scribes and Pharisees were murmuring about his friendship with sinners.  Luke 15:2 “[They] muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”  Aren’t you glad Jesus is like this?  You know where we would be otherwise.

                Thus Jesus shares 3 parables of lost possessions.  There is a lost sheep (15:3).  It doesn’t will to be lost. It just wanders away.  The shepherd seeks it until it is found.  It is lost! It is sought! It is found!  The finder rejoices.

                There is a lost coin (15:8).  It has no capacity to lose itself, or to understand its lostness.  The one discovering it lost, holds other things incidental until it is found.  It is lost! It is sought! It is found! The finder rejoices.

                There is a lost son.  He is lost, not because he wandered off, or was impassively misplaced, but because he chose to leave, to separate himself.  He was just as lost! He was sought! He was restored! His return causes joy for his father.

                The elder brother does not joy in return.  Nor does he find joy in his father’s joy.

II.            Next, We View the Lost Son As a Principal Character in Our Story.  V11: “A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.”  It is noted that Jesus does not call this young man a prodigal.  Keep in mind the religious bigots listening.  They are vindictive of Jesus’ openness to sinners.  We can measure both sons and their sin.  The younger was callous and rebellious; the older was censorious, retaliatory.

                We can learn that there are good things about this young man.  He is his own person.  He is ready to strike out on his own.  But he handles it poorly.  His immaturity shows he gives his father no chance to counsel him.  He is seeking only what is rightfully his. Deuteronomy 21:17 The right of the firstborn is a double portion.  He seems to be a man of simplicity and responsibility.  He discovers his mistakes, and blames himself.  He knows his best chance is starting over. At home? Enslaved?

                The Bible describes three kinds of enslavement: Bondsmen—respected family extensions; servant—subordinate but with status; hired servants—temporarily indentured.  The younger son is a man to whom repentance is not an unreasonable alternative.  V.17 “And when he came to himself, he said . . . I will go . . . and say . . . Father, I have sinned.”

                Don’t make the mistake of accusing him as an unthankful delinquent.  There is a mind sustained by childhood teachings.  There is a heart with gratitude for a loving father.

                There are interesting interpretations. Augustine: the “far country” represents the forgetfulness of God. “Came to himself” suggests restoration from madness.  Paul’s description in Ephesians 4:18, “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance . . . in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

III.           Then, We Must Consider the Older Brother Just as Lost in His Condescending Attitude.  V28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in.”  The elder brother stands in the parable for the hardhearted Pharisees who necessitated its message.  They did not share Christ’s concern for sinners.  We must consider our own attitudes.  As the younger was riddled by an uneasy conscience, this one purported to be without fault. V29: “I never disobeyed your command.”  He was unforgiving.  One-third of the estate has been lost.  His ledger-book mentality demands censure.  Even brotherhood is too high a price for acquittal.  Add to his other wrongs that of betraying his father’s joy.  Father: “this thy brother.”  Son: “This thy son.”

                The theologian George Buttrick wrote: “The far country is measured in motives rather than miles.”

                Finally, the parable shows no evidence of repentance for the elder brother.  Some suggest that it is a true story.

IV.          The Parable Remains Forever that of Loving Father.  V22 “But the Father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found.”

                There were some things that the father could do. The robe, best or first, showed honor and restoration.  The ring established the relationship and oneness (Wedding Ring, Class Ring, Super Bowl Ring).  The shoes, not worn by the lowest servants, were provisioned to sons.

                There were other things, however, that the father could not do.  He could not erase the wrong done: Billy could not revive the pet duck. He could not promise a second part of the estate.

                He depicts all the characteristics of the heavenly Father.  He waits patiently and lovingly.  He recognizes the repentant pilgrim.  He goes out to meet the weary son.  He interrupts the confession.  God is no stickler for law for law’s sake.

                A totally new picture of God emerges.  We saw the shepherd search for the lost sheep.  We watched as the homemaker searched for the lost coin.  We sense that the father is brooding for his lost son.  God’s concern for the lost is the brooding concern for what is of eminent worth.

Conclusion

                I have had recent occasion to reconsider the different attitudes allowed my Dad and myself in regard to God as Father.  When he was a lad, his dad deserted them.  He tried to run the tiny farm, but in failure, lost the only holding they had.  He has lived out his life without owning property: fearful of loss.  But the greatest disparity is that he knew no human counterpart to depict for him the true picture of God as one of zealous good will.

ON TO JERUSALEM

#121                                                                   ON TO JERUSALEM                                                                                          

Scripture Luke 9:51-62 NIV                                                                                                            Orig. October 12, 1985

Passage:  ⁵¹ As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. ⁵² And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; ⁵³ but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them^[a]?” ⁵⁵ But Jesus turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶ Then he and his disciples went to another village.

⁵⁷ As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

⁵⁹ He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹ Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Purpose:  Continuing a series from Luke, declaring the way of discipleship

Keywords:          Bible Study         Discipleship

Timeline/Series:               Luke

Introduction

                As Luke opens the door for Jesus to begin His  journey to Jerusalem, he opens a whole new segment of the story  that he intends to tell.  Not only that, he begins accounting what is not otherwise told of the life of Jesus.

                Through Luke 9:50, Luke’s account is a parallel account with Matthew and Mark.  From here on to chapter 19 he will tell vignettes of the life of Jesus which are told only by Luke.  Perhaps as much as 90% of these ten chapters do not otherwise appear.

                This phase of Jesus’ life is called the Perean Ministry of Jesus.  Up to now, it has been the Galilean ministry.  Perea was across the Jordan River from Samaria.  Its name comes from the Greek word for “across,” peran.  It was the ancient name for what is now called Transjordan

                As Jesus started for Jerusalem, He determined to take the shortest route which would have been straight through Samaria.  He sent messengers on ahead to arrange lodging for them.  However, when the Samaritans with whom they talked discovered that they were Jews on their way to Jerusalem, they refused to accommodate Jesus and His disciples.  We have heard much of this bad blood between Jews and Samaritans.  Jesus intends a kindness, which they quietly  rebuff. 

                We talked of John recently and his change from “son of thunder”  to “disciple whom Jesus loved.”   We see evidence here of what he was originally.  He and James wanted to call down “fire” from heaven on these wretched Samaritans for daring such a discourtesy.

                This detour is not the way convention dictates but the way conscience demands.

I.             A Brief Look at Old Prejudice and New Anger.  V 53 “But they did not receive Him because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.”  We should not read into this any sentiment against Christ.  They probably knew little. They opposed these Jews expecting lodging.  All of us need to learn to be careful in what we shut out of our lives.

                Jesus used the opportunity to teach.  First note that the believers were as misguided as the unbelievers.  The Samaritans concluded that Jesus was a typical Jew.  The disciples concluded that Jesus shared their anger at such intemperance. Perhaps they were recalling II Kings 1:10-12, when Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume messengers of King Ahaziah. 

Jesus’ advice to them is to examine their spirit.  V55 “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.”  This is not contained in the Greek.  Could it express their strongly negative approach to the Samaritans?  He rebuked their discipleship.  Lincoln said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

II.            Here Jesus Begins a Segment of Teaching About the “Way.”  These are Three Tests of Discipleship.

 First is the test of consecration.  V57 Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.”  He has already addressed this in 9:23 “If anyone desires to come after Me, let  him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”  The word “follow” is the verb form of “attendant.”  Now one spontaneously responds.  Wherever you go, I will go.  Have you ever  thought about your response to Jesus?  Jesus reminds him of the variables.  He has observed popularity. He has seen the crowds, hoopla.  What happens when the fun is gone? John 19:30, “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.”

                Second is the test of obedience.  V 59 “Follow me.”  “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  We need to examine the picture that forms.  Is it of a man whose father is in a coffin, a man who wants to attend the funeral?  Look again! The oldest son had the responsibility of funeral arrangements.  He wanted to postpone Jesus’ invitation until a more convenient time.

                William Barclay tells of a brilliant young Arab who was offered a scholarship at Oxford/Cambridge, whose response was “I will take it after I have buried my father.” His father was forty, and in excellent health.  The heart of the question to all of us is “What are we doing that is more important than the Kingdom?”  Discipleship demands obedience.  Soldiers are called to make sacrifices.

                Third is the test of authenticity.  V62 “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.”  Following Jesus is for “keeps,” as someone says.  It calls for  sincerity of purpose.  But one must give up his family? No, but his priority must be the Kingdom.  The ancient Oriental “farewell” might last for weeks.  In Genesis 24:55, after Abraham’s servant identified Rebekah as God’s chosen for Isaac, her mother and brother asked for her to stay 10  days. But the servant said, “do not delay me, since the Lord has prospered my way.”  And Rebekah went with him.

                Too many people say “I will follow…

                …but…”

                …when…”

                …if…”

                Too many Southern Baptists say “You can’t be my friend unless…

                …you believe in inerrancy.”  The  inerrancy card is inflammatory.

                …you deny ordination of women.”

                …you went to an unconventional seminary.”

Conclusion

                Jesus advised His disciples to understand of  what spirit they were.  When the sermon is five minutes over; or the special message didn’t gel;  or someone you don’t care for shares your pew; or you are reminded of some little deed done, or big deed not done.  “What spirit are you of?”

                When the Scottish Presbyterians first came to Northern Ireland, their faith was unacceptable. Their ministers were considered dissenters and were not allowed.  These people  of faith chose to row the miles back to Scotland on each Lord’s Day to take Communion and to worship.  What spirit are we of?

SALUTING THE LIBERATED WOMAN

#108                                                   SALUTING THE LIBERATED WOMAN                                                                          

Scripture Luke 1:46-55; 2:4-7, 33-35, 40 NIV                                                                                             Orig. 5/10/64

                                                                                                                                                                       Rewr. 5-9-86 (5/77) 

Passage: Luke 1 

⁴⁶ And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

Luke 2

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

⁴⁰ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Purpose:  On the occasion of Mother’s Day, to share with my people a particular understanding of the meaning of Women’s Liberation

Keywords:          Dedication          Duty      Liberation            Marriage              Motherhood                      Special Day

Introduction

                Before allowing Mary to testify to us of a truly liberated woman, may I call your attention to her Old Testament counterpart, named Esther.  History paints a rather dim picture of woman’s place during her day.  There were no feminine aspirations to equality, and the men were intent on keeping it that way. Esther and others like her lived in the crucible of inequality.

                Just before Esther makes her timely appearance, the beautiful Vashti was queen.  But now she has been deposed.  She embarrassed her husband and benefactor, the powerful King Ahasuerus, of Media/Persia and “125 other provinces from India to Ethiopia.”  Vashti had been summoned to come and parade her beauty before the lustful eyes of the lesser princes of the realm.  She refused.  Now there is liberation.  However, the menfolks decided that unless the king acted swiftly, this kind of uppitiness was sure to catch on with their wives.  We are not told that she was punished, only that she was deposed, stripped of her royal estate.  My knowledge of the period is limited, but Vashti would have been better off dead.

                Herein steps Esther.  That’s like following Nixon in the White House, or Edwards in the State House.  Esther, did you learn anything?  Esther, did you learn anything?  Do you know to come when you are called? Otherwise, enjoy yourself in the lap of luxury.

                Esther had an older kinsman who saw her in this new role as a standard bearer for Hebrew liberation.  Perhaps a dark-skinned Joan of Arc.  She just wanted her skin left intact.  Don’t forget that it was Mordecai, the kinsman, who was at fault in this mess.  The Jews were in the hotbox they were in because Mordecai would not bow before and reverence one of the king’s princes.  So, Mordecai challenges Esther, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  It is to the truly liberated women who have functioned with queenly honor in a man’s world that this salute is addressed.

I.             The Liberated Woman’s Devotion of Faith.  Luke 1:46 “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.”  It is the devotion to achieve what she can, while she can, where she can, to the glory of God.  You have the privilege of living in the world’s finest hour for women’s rights.  Don’t forget the achievements of your sisters: Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, Esther, Mary, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale.  Do those at the forefront today deserve the credit? It was an idea whose time had come.  Many think equality discounts God because He is male.

                The New Orleans Times Picayune printed an article written by a nun about God the Mother.  Did she believe it, or was it cleverness?  We have some right to get away from terms of God’s sexuality.  God the Father still says something that God the Person never will.  He is wholly Other.

                So, we are making peace with old and often outmoded concepts.  There are men who want to keep their women subservient.

Genesis 2:18, King James Version: “I will make him an helpmeet for him.”

Me: “I will make him his counterpart to complement and complete him.”

Society is not dependent on “family as we have known it,” but on family.  In the dimension of faith, if woman chooses equality, she loses uniqueness. 

Statistics show greater equality, also, lung cancer, sclerosis, heart disease. Statistic: Less than 100 of 1000 women between 15-44 are married; babies are having babies; abortion on demand; etc.

Women’s truest liberator and liberation is in the dimension of faith.  Some go for headlines: “Six Woman Basketball Illegal,” “All Boys’ Choir Falls Victim to Women’s Lib.”  But the real discovery is that of Faith: “My soul magnifies the Lord, My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”  Therein she becomes the enabler—the Christian mother.

II.            The Liberated Woman’s Detachment for Her Husband.  Luke 2:4, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, . . . unto Bethlehem, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.”  The consensus of concern remains that the husband be the provider of sustenance.  It becomes more difficult for one income to suffice.  In either case, the wife becomes the principal enabler.  She is more often the one called upon to make sacrifices to complement her life to that of her husband.  The Biblical record sustains this.

                But the place of authority figure is not the intent.  The first compulsion of God on female or male is faith.  I like what a sainted seminary professor used to say, “The wife submits, not because she has found her master, but because her heart has found its rest.”

III.           The Liberated Woman’s Duty in Motherhood.  Luke 2:7, “She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”  She was called upon, as mothers often are, to make fullest use of circumstances.  A cattle stall became a castle under a loving mother’s hand. 

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to begin as early as possible to complement and supplement spiritual instruction. Knowing what they are learning that is potentially harmful is half the battle.  Tipper Gore fought for moral responsibility in popular music. 

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to pray unendingly for God’s sustenance, encouraging them outside the nest while knowing the dangers and counteracting.  Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, . . . in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that from all these, God will bring you into judgment.”  But, you see, this is a happy eventuality when the child has learned that the judgment of God is to be trusted.

She was called upon, as mothers often are, to challenge to seek and follow God’s will as He reveals it.  Liberation for its own right is a basket of summer fruit, rotten and contaminated.  One can make peace with God’s will.

Driving from Alexandria to Baton Rouge, I met a young man on his way west about twenty miles out of Baton Rouge.  He was a rover.  Across his chest was a guitar.  On his back he carried his backpack, complete with a map of his itinerary.  All of this while he pedaled a monocycle.  He claimed liberation.  Some might claim that he was being victimized by this roving spirit.

Conclusion

                Devotion to Christ!  Detachment for husband and family!  Duty!  These are the clarion calls of true liberation.  Someone has said, “When a woman is possessed by Jesus Christ, something more significant happens to her than could ever happen to a man.”

                Khalil Gibran, in his book, “Jesus, the Son of Man,” includes what he interprets to be the feeling that Mary Magdalene had for Jesus.  “Then Jesus looked at her and said, ‘You have many lovers, yet I alone love you.  Other men love themselves in your nearness, I love you in yourself.  Other men see beauty in you that shall fade away sooner than their own years. I see a beauty in you that shall not fade away, and in the autumn of your days that beauty shall not be afraid to gaze at itself in the mirror, and it shall not be offended.’”

THE PREACHING OF JESUS

#008                                                            THE PREACHING OF JESUS                                                                                   

Scripture  Luke 6:39-49 NIV                                                                                                                      Orig. July 4, 1985

Passage:  ³⁹ He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.  ⁴¹ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.  ⁴³ “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. ⁴⁴ Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  ⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. ⁴⁸ They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Purpose: Continuing a Wednesday night series from Luke emphasizing the preaching of Jesus

Keywords:          Luke, Christ, Preaching

Timeline/Series:               Luke

Introduction

                From the preaching of Jesus we have an example of preaching in the mold of Hebrew preaching in that day.  It not only helps us to understand the context of preaching in the way that He experienced it, but it also shows the variances that He added to for others to follow.

                Our text contains eleven verses.  There are at least six distinct ideas contained therein.  The themes are: Following those who don’t know where they are going; relationship of teacher and pupil; reality therapy; a tree and its fruit; good and evil persons; and building a house.

                Herein is the essence of Hebrew preaching.  The Jews had a word for it: charaz, meaning “stringing beads.”  The preacher, in order to maintain interest, was taught to hurry from topic to topic.  The Book of Proverbs is a fairly good example of such preaching.

                Here, we have an example of using this kind of contemporary communication.  But He was not limited to this.  We find Him broadening the base of preaching by using it to convey specific truth through teaching.  He controlled the manner of His preaching as surely as He did the message.

Rule #1—We can Share Effectively Only What We have Come to Grasp Sufficiently.  V39 “Can the blind lead the blind?  Will they not both fall into the ditch?”  The blind person is totally helpless with anything he has not experienced.  The blind person is helpless.  It is remarkable what some have achieved within their limitations.  There are golf tournaments for the blind.  A blind woman named Vera painted her house in New Orleans.  To try to take another where we have not been is a risk.  There are compensations for sighted persons, such as maps, aids. 

                There is room for consideration of both literal and metaphorical blindness. The Greek word tuphlos refers to either kind of blindness.  Its use here seems to suggest a literal blindness (physical).

                There are variances of blindness.  Some don’t see; some won’t see; some can’t see.  Helen Kellen spoke at Southern Seminary and said, “The worst thing is to have eyes and not be able to see.”  V40 “A disciple is not above his, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.  Perfect/perfected—katertismenos in the Greek—suggests mending torn or broken nets.  In Matthew 4:21, “He saw James and John, . . . mending their nets.” Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a trespass (fault), you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.”

                There are compensations for blindness whether literal or otherwise. If literal, there is a cane, guide dog, surgery, miracle; if none of these work, there is always the arm of a friend. It is  so for metaphorical blindness, but the helper must first be able to see.

                The Golden Rules of Teaching

• A teacher is a hinge on which one’s future swings.
• We teach more by our walk than by our talk.
• Sometimes, an ounce of Christian living before a pupil is worth a ton of talk.
• It is not what the pupils remember that constitutes knowledge, but what they cannot forget.

Rule #2—Misshapen Attitudes Affect Us both as Teachers and Learners.  V41 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?”  There is another consideration of “don’t, won’t, can’t.”  What these two have in common:  Both have been rendered incapable of sight; both have seemingly correctible conditions.  Now, a look at the ways they differ: a speck v. a plank or sawdust v. a saw log; accident v. carelessness; knowledge v. ignorance; beyond control v. self-control.

                Dr. Criswell told about preaching in an Oklahoma revival.  Members came, but a wife and husband went to sleep. When the power suddenly failed, the husband woke up in the dark.  “Dr. Criswell,” he shouted, “Stop preaching and pray for me!  I’ve gone stark blind!”

                Don’t work to change others until you’ve made room for change in your own life.  A psychiatrist is an M.D. who goes through psychoanalysis himself.  As Edward Wallis Hoch wrote, “There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.”

Rule #3—Good and Evil are Alike Products of Human Personality.  V 45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of the heart brings forth evil.”  Obedience to the highest good we know is the final test. Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  Psalm 1:2 “His delight is in the law of the Lord.” 

                The tree is known by what it produces.  I have two plums in my yard.  One is surrounded by little plums from last year’s fallen plums.  The other I race the birds to them. My tomato plants are not producing.  In the same way, the human heart produces what it is.  Does God see the maliciously evil differently from the ignorantly evil?  The evil done in the name of religion? The hostages! [1979-81]

Rule #4—What is in the Human Heart is Given Expression with What We Say.  V45 “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”  What does one say under pressure?  What does one habitually say? What do we say when no one hears?

Rule #5—They Are Happy Who do not Exchange Future Advantage for Present Pleasure.  V48 “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.”  The house builder is a useful illustration. He built his house during the dry season in the river bed.  When the rains came it was more difficult and more expensive. 

                We often have a choice between immediate convenience and long-term good.   Many people have trouble choosing what can’t be seen, such as the essence of spiritual decision.  Let us rebuke carelessness of spirit, as the University President whose goal was to raise a Christian family.  Let us require steadfastness; 1 Timothy 6:19, “Storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”  Let us restore hope.  Storms do come.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***

JESUS FOLLOWERS

#002                                                                    JESUS FOLLOWERS                                                                                          

Scripture  Luke 5:27-39                                                                                                                                      Orig. 7/14/63

-                                                                                                                                                                                Rewr. 4/10/85 

Passage: ²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.  ²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  ³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  ³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”  ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? ³⁵ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”  ³⁶ He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Purpose: Continuing a study from Luke, calling attention to some who early came to be followers of Jesus

Keywords:          Bible Study

Timeline/Series:               Luke

Introduction

                The first part of our study has to do with the call of a tax-collector to be a Christ-follower.  The scripture makes clear that they were a hated breed, and the reason is clear.  The Romans didn’t have an IRS.  There were  no computers to foul up, and there were no refunds to grant.

                They assessed a certain district the amount of taxes that were to be paid, and then sold the collecting rights to the highest bidder.  The officials didn’t care how much or how little money has actually collected, just so long as they got their assessed gross.

                It is easy to see how such a program could be abused, and how thieves with strong-armed tactics would tend to become the tax-collectors; and how they could become hated by the people.

                U.S.A. Today did a piece this week on numbers of assaults on IRS agents.  It’s up 50% in the last five years.  The article centered around a citizen’s going after some agents with his unregistered AR-15 rifle as they were about to seize his Cherokee in lieu of payment.

                The point is that tax people still are not all that popular, especially this time of the year.  We all know that it has to be done, and that our system, while not perfect, is the best available.  Yet tax people are not popular folks.

I.             The Selection of Matthew.  V27 “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

                At this point there were only four who were followers of Jesus—Simon, Andrew, James, and John (Matthew 4 and Luke 5).  Jesus already envisioned calling more.  But He must teach even these four.  A lesson they need to learn is based on human worth and repentance.  These were simple men, and thus were easily teachable.  Both Mark and Matthew include the disciples at the feast.

                Jesus’ method was to reach out to people who needed Him.  It had nothing to do with “who” they were, or “what” they had.  It had to do with “how” the perceived themselves in relation to God.  There are down-and-outers and up-and-outers, but chances are the ones walking alone are  more open to spiritual profferings.

                A major purpose here is to communicate the need for repentance.  Remember, his link with John in Matthew 3:1: “John, preaching, saying ‘Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17: Jesus said “Repent,  for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

                At the feast Jesus will have occasion to illustrate repentance. Levi the publican becomes Matthew.  Many  publicans are at the feast to hear Jesus.  They need repentance.  Many religious leaders are contemptuously looking on.  They need repentance also.

                There is a terrible danger in the lives of many contemporary religious folk, that their religion becomes a shield against repentance.

II.            Secondly, A Question to Jesus About Why His Followers Are Different.  V33 “Why do the disciples of John fast, likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”  We need to try to get to the real question.  Why don’t your followers fast?  Why don’t your people commiserate rather than celebrate?

                Don’t disdain fasting.  I don’t know but one other thing that would more for the pastor and people of Transylvania Baptist Church—That’s prayer.

                The time comes when Christians ought to fast. Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?  To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.” 

“Yoke” is used to gain advantage.  Orthodox Jews like orthodox religionists of today believed that religion was supposed to make one appear uncomfortable.  They endured the Sabbath.  We take it in two hour units.  They fasted on Monday and Thursday (6a.m. to 6p.m.).  They put ash on their faces to show their fasting.

Anytime we are in such stricture of soul that our time with God is not interrupted for nourishment, whether by design or by forgetfulness, it is fasting.

Jesus uses the occasion of the question to share three parables:

(1) The true spirit life is like a wedding feast.  V34: “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?”  We are not compelled to do what we wish not to do.  We are not denied things because they are pleasurable.  We are simply promised that living life in faith based on the Word of God is what brings true happiness.

(2) The true spirit life is like a piece of new cloth.  V36 “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one.  It will tear, and they do not match.” The Greek word for “tear,” pronounced “sxisma,” is our word for “schism.” The first three usages are about religious division. There is a present struggle in the Convention.  Jesus is not demeaning of the Old Testament but, rather, the way they looked at it.  They could not repair it by  attaching some new ideology over an old error.  Jesus was certainly not certifying that the new is better than the old.  He wanted to get to the heart of truth and build thereon.

(3) The true spirit life is like fermenting juice.  The life situation is that these were not bottles but goatskins. The Greek word pronounced “bota” is our word for “boot.”  Old skins are weak, cracked.  Fermentation will penetrate.  What Jesus is teaching is that people who know will  not choose the new wine over old. The value is in the aging, the changing.  The good comes from the new in the process of change.  Work through a new thought for it to become truth.  Leave room for repentance to be contained in your vessel of speculation until it ferments into truth.

Closing

                George Whitefield, 1700’s, said in one of his sermons, “You see, brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, what great blessings are treasured up for you in Jesus Christ and what you are entitled to by believing on His name. Take heed, therefore, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.  Think often how highly  you are favored; and remember, you have not chosen Christ, He has chosen you.”  (Whitefield’s Sermon Outlines,  Eerdman’s Publishing 1956, p.122)

A WORD OF PROMISE (Second Word from the Cross)

#069                                                                A WORD OF PROMISE (Second Word from the Cross)

Scripture  Luke 23:39-43, NIV                                                                                                Orig. Date  3/18/62 (3/80)

                                                                                                                                                                    Rewr. Dates  3/12/87 

Passage:  39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[a]”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Purpose:  The second of a seven part series with an emphasis on the meaning of the crucifixion.

Keywords:          Christ, Redeemer             Easter                   Cross                     God, Word of

Timeline/Series:               Words from the Cross

Introduction

                It is interesting that the antagonism faced by Jesus was the antagonism of the religious.  Oh, there was some  of the other kind, but Jesus had been friend to sinners.  He was on the cross now to die for sinners.  He has taken His place between two thieves.

                The religious leaders had been careful to create an atmosphere of suspicion relative to Jesus, and many of the people were afraid to look with openness at what He was doing.

Mark 15:31 “the chief priests . . .said . . . with the scribes ‘he saved others; himself he cannot save.’”

Luke 23:35 “. . .the rulers also scoffed at him.”

Matthew 27:41 “. . . the chief priests mocking him.”

                Of these two men with whom Jesus is dying, one “railed” v39 blasphémeó —"to speak evil of.”  The other “rebuked” v40 epitimaó—charged.

                It was not by accident that Jesus came to die between these two.  Two nameless souls, they, who were suddenly thrust into the gaze of eternity.  All of Jesus life He had been the friend of sinners.  He would not be separated from them in death.

                Who they were, no one knows.  Bandits perhaps, like those in Jesus’ story of the Samaritan.  It has been put forth that they were associates of Barabbas.  Insurrectionists, like him.  He was the one released by Pilate (Matthew 27:15).  The insurrectionist movement was begun to oppose Roman domination but it had degenerated into a habitat for thieves and criminals.

                In this context, one suddenly faced up to himself, and then his accomplice.  This man between them was also dying.  But He was doing so courageously.  There was even something regal about His bearing.  He prayed for the soldiers “Father, forgive them.”  For His antagonists among the leaders and on-lookers, “Father, forgive them.”  He suddenly perceived Jesus to be, not an enemy, but a friend.  It is that awakening  that has brought untold millions to the awakening of faith over the centuries.  He no longer saw a cross, but a throne; not thorns about His brow, but a crown; the blood he saw no longer meant death, but life.

I.             In This  Context, We Must Note First a Promise Defied.  V39 “And one of these criminals blasphemed him saying, ‘Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself, and us.”

                This man seems almost to believe.  We know that Jesus could have done so.  Could relieve them of this dying sting.  But this man!  Can he believe this of Jesus?  Like so many, his first thought is of his fleshly body, not his eternal soul. 

                His anger at being here confuses the promise.

                Anger is not of itself a bad thing.

James 1:19 “be slow to anger.”

Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry and sin not.”

Matthew 5:22 “Whoever is angry without cause.”

Anger, and the anguish it espouses, can be a good thing for the believer.  Emily Brontë wrote in Remembrance—“Once drinking of that divinest anguish, how could I seek the empty world again?”  Anguish, you see, can be an ally leading to honesty, and faith, and Christ.  And not that only, it is the truest friend of repentance.

                But this man’s anger and anguish turn to arrogance.  He stands ready to sacrifice everything to his own self-interest.  Proverbs 26:12, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.” 

                Anguish, born of arrogance, will find no relief.  Not unlike Oscar Wilde in his poem Ballad of Reading Gaol,

                “The vilest deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air;

                It is only what is good in man that wastes and withers there:

                Pale anguish—anguish—keeps the heavy gate, the warder of despair.”

                I Peter 5:5 “. . . All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.”

II.            Notice Now a Promise Subscribed.  V40 “But the other answered . . . 42 Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.”

                Some who had approached Jesus, and some at the cross now, insisted on some sign of power.  Just a sign, Jesus, and we will believe: Many in the world today, some in this room today. 

                But Jesus had spoken all that there is to say.  “The only sign that you will be given is that of Jonas”: a sign of death, a sign of submergence and submission, a sign of dependence and selflessness.  And too many of us, like too many of them, will have none of it.

                “Give us something to help us remember Golgotha.”  Give us proof or forget it.  Write out a check for the bottom line.

                Here was one man who needed no further sign.  I remind you, it was not death that converted him.  It was life, Jesus’ life.  He saw through new eyes.  In fact, he saw through no eyes at all, but through his heart.  John 6:40, “This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.”  John 4:42 (Samaritans) “We have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

    He, here and forever, makes himself accountable to Christ.  Have we done so? You and I?  “Well, no,” you say, “But I am not a thief.”  When you keep for yourself, what belongs to another, you are a thief.  This has nothing to do with possessions.  It has to do with us.  We belong to another. But we selfishly, greedily withhold what He desires the most: ourselves, our friendship, or time and presence and growth.

III.           There Is a Final Element to the Promise.  It Is a Promise Supplied.  V43 “And He said unto him, Truly I say to you that today you will be with me in paradise.”  It was a promise of compassion.  Without hesitation the promise is made for Jesus recognizes faith.  He opens Himself to the hurting offender.  The one who sincerely seeks will always find.  He will find all that he wants and more.

                But it is essential to see Himself as He is.  If we would know Jesus, we would, as well, know our sin, our need. In that comprehension of self, Jesus stands the more revealed.  Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest.”

                As it was a promise of compassion, it was also a promise of comprehension.  Jesus meant every word that He spoke.  It was a promise of God’s blessing.  He didn’t have much of that left.  For us, it is a promise of life purpose.

                It was a promise of forgiveness.  Story of adoptive parents who used an old, tattered, dirty pair of shoes to remind the child from what he came as discipline.  Our heavenly Father does not bring out the tattered memories of the past, but promises that through Jesus “our iniquities He will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34).

                It was a promise of death-watch.  Jesus has already told them to weep not for Him.  He will next “commend” His spirit.  He has spoken to the thief urging upon him this new life.

                It was finally, then, a promise of salvation.  Heaven is a place.  It is immediately accessible.  It is presided over by Christ.  It is a place for sinners.

Conclusion

                Thus, Jesus herein sets His final seal of satisfaction on what He had given His life to fulfill and declare:  “This day thou shalt be with me.”  It is not fantasy, but reality.

                As declared by James S. Stewart, “The Life and Teaching of Jesus” (p. 170), “. . . that in a single moment from the dust heaps and cinder heaps of life any ruined, hopeless soul, bound in affliction and iron, may pass straight to the perfect release of forgiveness, and wear the white robes of a saint.”

A WORD OF PRAYER (First Word from the Cross)

#068                                                                  A WORD OF PRAYER (First Word from the Cross)   

Scripture  Luke 23:33-34 NIV                                                                                                             Orig. 3/11/62 (2/80)

                                                                                                                                                                     Rewr. March 4, 1987 

Passage:  33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[a] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Purpose:  Beginning a series on the words of Christ from the cross, and therein to speak to my people about the prayer of Jesus, and his role as intercessor.

Keywords:          Christ                    Mediator             Easter                   Prayer

Timeline/Series:               Words from the Cross

Introduction

                There is no better place to begin a study of Jesus’ intercessory prayer on the cross than to examine other places where we find Jesus engaging in prayer.  Clearly, his prayer-life and his spiritual purpose are tied strongly together.

                Go, in your mind’s eye, and take a position where you can view Jesus at prayer.  Go first to the Jordan and watch His baptism.  Luke 3:21f “As Jesus was baptized and prayed, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came in the bodily form of a dove.”  God crowns Christ’s surrender in death with the dove which is the symbol of peace.

                Then in the wilderness view him praying and fasting.  In Matthew 4:1f the devil sought to tempt Jesus to find a less painful way, and less effective, to work at the objective of God.  It was through prayer and fasting that Jesus achieved.

                Observe occasions when Jesus was beset by weariness. He sought a place of prayer.  Mark 1:32f “And at even  . . . they brought unto him all that were diseased, . . . and all the city was gathered at the door. . . . And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”  We have different ideas today about “resorting,” but for Jesus it meant “to pray.”  When Jesus ministered to the needs around Him, He gave of his spiritual vitality and strength.  It could only be reclaimed in communion with God the Father.

                On the occasion when the apostles were called, Luke 6:12f, “  . . . he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.  And when it was day . . . he chose twelve.”  How much of this dependence and helplessness on the part of Jesus must we see revealed before we reckon with our own dependence?”

                So, now at Calvary, the crowning achievement of Jesus’ life, and again, we find Him at prayer.

I.             The Word of Prayer Speaks First of Priority.  V34 “Father, forgive them.”  This crisis hour requires strong intervention.  Pain seems to bring out the best in people who are the more oriented to it.  We who seldom experience it are more taken with self-pity.  Too easily accepting sin likewise creates a fantasy of rationalization.

                There is a correlation between suffering and sin.  It is not always the sinner who suffers.  The sufferer is not necessarily the one who has sinned.  Behind it all is grace, pointing us through the crisis to forgiveness and peace.  Here is Jesus, suffering unto death.  His suffering is sin-related, but it is not His crime being exorcised on the cross.  He chooses to submit to the will of God that we, you and I, might know His strong intervention in our behalf.

                Such suffering, related to the will of God, has eternal consequence.  Philippians 3:10 “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable to His death.”

                The priority of the moment is that this historical event must express the ultimate will of God.  We betray ourselves doctrinally by over-zealous denominationalism.  Christ died for our sin is priority.  Satan tricks us morally with issues: equality; sexuality; drugs.  Being morally right delivers not from sin.

                Thus, in prayer on the cross, Jesus teaches us this tremendously important lesson of priority: His determination to do the will of God.  Luke 22:42 “Not my will, but Thine.”  John 1:13 “Born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor . . . man, but of God.”  Jesus sought for all to know that the Father was to be trusted. 

                Paul admonished Ephesians (6:4) fathers, and Christians in general, that they were to be related to their children in trust.

                The means of forgiveness is set forth.  We must know of “the more excellent way.”  We must know that it is attainable: by whom, through whom.  We must know the cross is the means.

II.            The Word of Prayer Speaks Next of Persistence. V34 “Father, forgive them.”  Here is a beautiful illustration of the expressiveness of the Greek language.  The English translates, “Then said Jesus.”  The Greek, however, contains intense repetition.  “He kept on saying, over and over, ‘Father, forgive them.’”  As He completes this death-dealing passage through Jerusalem: “Father, forgive them.”  His hands and feet are nailed: “Father, forgive them.”  The Cross is roughly seated, “Father, forgive them.”  Of the jeering crowd, “Father, forgive them.”  Of the gambling soldiers, “Father, forgive them.”  And the disciples would never be able to forget this scene at Calvary.

                Such persistence is typified by His fellowship with the Father.  Jesus was content to do the will of God. In Deuteronomy 3:25f, Moses sought to go over the Jordan—God said to Moses, “Speak no more unto me of this matter” (wroth).  In Jeremiah 20:7, Jeremiah’s dreams of awakening were quashed. “I have been made a laughing stock all day long.”

                Jesus encourages us to this same fellowship with the Father.  Samson is an Old Testament example. Judges 16:28 “Give me strength only this once, O God, and let me at one stroke be avenged on the Philistines for my eyes.” A New Testament example is Stephen: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Acts 7:60.

                We must also note here for whom Jesus prayed: those believers with breaking heart who accompanied Him here; but as well, the soldiers, the temple police, gloating Sadducee, and grimacing Pharisee; Roman and Jew alike; and for us today, South African of Cape Town or Soweto, Lebanese, of whatever extraction.  God seeks our forgiveness and Christ arranged it.  The them is us, and we must pursue it.

III.           The Word of Prayer Speaks Lastly of Performance.  “Father, forgive them.  We are guilty beyond measure.”  Our guilt is multiplied.  We are guilty of sin as charged.  Matthew 15:18 “Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.” 

                We are made twice guilty when we pay only lip service to the Christ of the cross.  I Peter 4:13 “Rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”

                The real performance of our lives revolves around the cross of Jesus.  Do you understand why He went to the cross?  Do you understand it was with your sin (not sins) in mind?  Can you grasp that unless you allow His death to cover your sin, nothing else ever will?

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,

Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb is spilt.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide, What can avail to wash it away?

Look! There is flowing a crimson tide; Whiter than snow you may be today.

                                                Grace Greater than Our Sin, #164

                The prayer of Jesus performed one thing more.  It eased the agony through which He was going.  It was not the agony of raw nerves, untended wounds, or insult, or indifferent masses, then and now.  It was the agony of separation from the Father.

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, That calls me from a world of care,

And bids me at my Father’s throne, Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief,

And oft escaped the tempter’s snare, By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.

                                                Sweet Hour of Prayer

                Lest we forget, nothing shows His consciousness of His Sonship like this prayer:  God’s will first, and dealing with man’s sin effectively. 

                What remains is obedience on our part.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***