The Christian Arsenal

Transcription

1 LUKE 13:1-35 Again, we have way too much rich teaching than we have the time to cover in Luke 13. Verses tell us about a little lady who had been crippled for eighteen years. She was bent over double for eighteen years. I marveled recently that our dear sister Gwen could spent three weeks looking down at the floor. And she did this by God s grace! But, this little lady had spent eighteen years looking down at the floor! And the wonderful thing about this is that she still went to the house of the Lord to worship! And I want to tell you this. I m looking at ladies here who are battling illness. I m looking at ladies here who have family problems wayward children financial problems children in harm s way in the military. And to those of you who are sick and in pain and upset and concerned about things going on in your life over which you have no control I want to say that it blesses my heart to see you come to church regularly! It blesses my heart to see you being so faithful to the Lord! And if it blesses my heart, I know it must honor God and bless the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ! I want us to see three things quickly before we go on to the next portion of Scripture. And bear in mind all this took place on the Sabbath. Verse 12 tells us that Jesus saw her. And I want to say this to you today. No matter where you are, Jesus sees you. God sees the brokenness of your heart. God sees the sickness in your body. God sees the tears in your eyes. God sees the worry in your soul. God really does see! Verse 12 also tells us that Jesus spoke to her. There was a day when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to you and said, You are a sinner and you need a Savior. There was a day when He spoke to you and said, I am the Savior. There was a day when He spoke to you and said, Why don t you believe in Me and confess Me and allow My blood to wash away all your sins? And I want to tell you this He still speaks to us! He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing Jesus says to you today, Cast all your cares on Me for I care for you. Verse 13 tells us that not only did He see her and speak to her, but He straightened her up. And it was instantaneous! And what did she do? She began glorifying God! The Bible tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people and I think if we really believed that, we d praise Him more! When God saved you He straightened you up, didn t He? Now, it may have been instantaneous positionally speaking. I mean, you were made righteous in His sight right then. But, practically speaking you are being made righteous little by little you are being sanctified little by little! Page 1 of 9

2 Well, we know that the rest of this passage tells us that the synagogue official became indignant and told the multitude that Jesus should have healed this woman another time. I mean, He had six days of the week to do this, couldn t He have chosen one of those days? Why did He choose the Sabbath? Well, let me tell you it was because He wanted to show the people He was Lord of the Sabbath! Matthew tells us Jesus had already told them that the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. I think another thing Jesus was teaching them is this today is the day of salvation. The ruler of the synagogue was saying, You could have done this yesterday or You could have waited until tomorrow Well, tomorrow this little lady and the Lord Jesus may not have been in the same place. He sees us today! He speaks to us today! He longs to straighten us up today! Did you know there is not one place in the Bible where we re ever taught or encouraged to be saved tomorrow? The Bible says, Today is the day of salvation. The Bible says, Now is the accepted time. The Bible says, Don t boast of tomorrow. It may not come. May God empower us to see the urgency of today! Verses These four little verses contain two parables. One comes from the garden. And one comes from the kitchen. One deals with a man and one deals with a woman. One parable deals with the external and one deals with the internal. The grain of mustard seed that was cast into the garden grew into a great tree and the birds of the air were able to lodge in the branches of it. What does this mean? It simply means that the kingdom is to expand and it s to expand externally it s to expand in numbers. The book of Acts tells us the number of disciples after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ numbered one hundred twenty. A little further down in Acts 2 it tells us 3,000 souls were added. A little further down in that same chapter it tells us folks were added daily to the church. In Acts 5 we see that multitudes of both men and women were saved. Acts 11 tells us much people or considerable numbers were added. Now, why does Luke tell us all this in Acts? Because it is God s plan for His church to increase, to multiply in numbers. But, not only that, it is God s plan for the church to grow internally. And that s what the parable of the leaven is all about. How many of you have decided to make a cake or biscuits or bread and you forgot the leaven? Page 2 of 9

3 I remember one time I make a chocolate sour cream pound cake and put baking powder instead of baking soda in it and it rose up and fell! Why? Because I used the wrong type of leavening. See, the leaven works from the inside out. And when we came to the Lord Jesus Christ, He placed the dear Holy Spirit inside each one of us. Listen, we don t have to go through life downcast! The same power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead lives inside each one of us! He came in and He baptized you into the body of Christ. He comforts you when your heart is broken. He chastises you when you go astray. He guides you into all truth and teaches you all things. There are three things we must do, however, in order for the Holy Spirit to do the work He wants to do in our lives. 1) We must spend time every day with God. You can do this in the morning. Some folks operate much better in the morning than at night. But, you can do this at night if you re a night person. If you re too busy to spend time with the Lord in the morning or at night, I want to tell you you re just too busy! 2) We must spend time in the Word of God. The Bible is a supernatural book but it is not a magical book. It doesn t just jump from the coffee table or the bedside table or the bookshelf or wherever your Bible is at home it doesn t just jump into your heart and mind automatically. We must pick it up open it up and read it! And may I say to you that you must read it prayerfully and expectantly. And I want to tell you again, if you re too busy to read God s Word you re just too busy! 3) We must spend time with spiritual believers. I love to be with folks who laugh. My husband makes me laugh. He finds humor in the strangest things. EX: when the gas gauge was on empty and he said it says, hurry. But, my husband is also spiritual. And he and I can have some very good theological and spiritual discussions. The point I m trying to make is seek out spiritual people at your work or at your church or in your neighborhood and spend some time with them. Discuss spiritual things and God doesn t mind if you laugh a little while you re at it! Last week we talked a little about evangelism and discipleship and I believe we see in these little verses a perfect example of each. Evangelism is external growth it is converting the lost and adding them to the church. Discipleship is internal growth it is equipping the saved how to walk each in the light of the Word of God. Our church s logo is Exalting the Savior, Evangelizing the Sinner, Equipping the Saints. And that s a very good logo, isn t it? I believe God is pleased with our logo. Verses This chapter has really been a series of questions, hasn t it? Page 3 of 9

4 Here someone said, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? I believe this person wanted Jesus to say something like, Well, only a few elite will be saved. I m just going to save a few chosen ones. But, Jesus didn t do that. Jesus immediately turned it around to that person and made it a personal matter. I believe in essence He was saying something like The question isn t how many will be saved, but whether or not you will be saved! Get that settled first, and then we ll be able to discuss the others. Jesus said, Strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you will seek to enter but won t be able. Why? The parable that follows tells us why, and it focuses primarily on the Jewish people of that day, but it has application for us today. Jesus pictured the kingdom as a great feast to which they had been invited but they hadn t RSVP d. They had not responded to the invitation. They had just taken their chances and shown up at the door and the door was shut and they couldn t get in. They had waited too long for several reasons, Jesus said. These lost Jews weren t willing to walk the narrow road and go in at the narrow gate. Hey, it s just more fun to walk the broad and easy way. I mean, it s the cool thing to do. Everybody s doing it! Another reason is they had a false sense of security. They had eaten and drunk with Jesus they had had a casual fellowship with Jesus, but they had never trusted Him with their eternal soul. God is long-suffering but there comes a time when God shuts the door. Another reason the lost Jews of Jesus day didn t come to repentance was because of their pride. They thought they were automatically saved because they were Jewish! But, Jesus said, Some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last. And I believe Jesus was speaking of the Gentiles when He said that. But, the main reason is found in Verse 34 Jesus said, you would not Now, there are those who teach that God will save some folks one way or the other. I mean, God has selected some folks to be saved and they will be saved regardless. But, this tells us that it was God s will for Jerusalem to be saved. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together What did Jesus want to do? What was Jesus will to do? To gather the children of Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings And you would not have it! Jesus says, I would, but you would not. Page 4 of 9

5 Listen, I believe we need to understand that we cannot understand all there is to know about the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. God is sovereign yes! But, God has also given man a free will! Can we thwart the will of God? Yes. God s will is thwarted every time someone is not willing to come to God. God is not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. And every time a person rejects the great salvation Jesus provided by shedding His precious blood at Calvary, God s will is not done. Jesus goes on to say that their house will be left to them desolate and it was. In 70 A.D. Titus of Rome came in and sacked the city, burned down the temple, and dispersed the people! That s the bad news, but the good news for the Jews is that God isn t finished with them. One day, Paul tells us in Romans 11 all Israel will be saved. The same thing Jesus said about Israel can be said about unbelievers today. Unbelievers let their love of this world hinder them from coming to Jesus. Unbelievers let their sense of false security hinder them from coming to Jesus. Unbelievers let their pride hinder them from coming to Jesus. And Jesus looks at an unbelieving generation of folks today and He longs for them to come to Him so that He gather them together as a hen would her chicks and they will not. We ve heard a lot lately about Christian culture or the Christian world view. The post election talk on the networks has centered around the cultural divide in our country. But, I want to tell you Christianity is not a culture. Christianity is not a world view. Christianity is a living and vital and vibrant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ! God is not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance so they may have that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ! Having said all that, let s go back to the first verses of this chapter. Apparently folks had come to Jesus and asked Him about some Galileans who had died at the hand of Pilate. These people had somehow deeply offended Pilate and while they were sacrificing, Pilate had them slaughtered and their blood was mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. And these folks wanted Jesus to agree with their own mindset. The mindset of these folks was that calamity in the life of a person was a sign of judgment on that person. In other words, these people deserved their fate. But, Jesus did what He often did He answered their question with another question. He said, Well, do you really think these folks were more sinful than all the others? And by the way, do you remember when the tower of Siloam fell and killed eighteen folks from Jerusalem? Do you believe these eighteen were more sinful than all the other men who live in Jerusalem? Page 5 of 9

6 The point Jesus was making with the people was this Don t compare yourself with other people. Don t suppose because someone has died suddenly and you haven t Or because someone has gotten sick and you haven t Or because someone has suffered hardship and you haven t Don t believe you are a better and more spiritual person than they. We stand in good stead with God only by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because we have accepted His invitation because we were willing to be gathered under His wings And then Jesus said twice in verses 1-5, Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Well, what was the sin they needed to repent of? Verses 6-9 Now, I know the fig tree here deals first with Israel but I believe we can also apply this parable to our lives today to Christians today. What is the sin these folks and you and I today need to repent of? I believe it is the sin of taking and taking and taking and receiving and receiving and giving nothing back It s the sin of producing nothing of taking up space of breathing up air of eating up food of taking up ground and producing nothing Listen, we need to see ourselves as God s own personal possession and as His own personal possession, He has the right to expect fruitfulness from us. Now, does this mean soul winning? yes, but more than that Does this mean the fruit of the Spirit? yes, but more than that Fruitfulness may be defined this way: The outward expression of the inward nature and the inward nature of the believer is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christlikeness in all we do obedience, giving, witnessing, getting right with a neighbor or family member, loving, forgiving, forbearing These things should be produced in our lives on a daily basis. I mean, if all we do is come to church and take in and never give out we are sinning against God. He has every right to expect more from us than that! For three years this man had expected this tree to bear figs. Now, he wasn t expecting too much was he? I mean he wasn t expecting this tree to bear apples or bananas or pears He wasn t making an unreasonable demand! And is God asking too much from us when He expects you and me to act like the Jesus who died for us and lives within us? Page 6 of 9

7 If you need to forgive someone, is God being unreasonable to expect you to forgive those who have offended you? Is He expecting too much for us to give when we look at what He has given? All He s asking us to do is to behave like our new nature! We need to realize that because we are His personal possession because we have been bought with a price that we have a purpose and that purpose is to produce fruit to be Christ-like. Not only do we have a purpose, but we also enjoy a privileged position. This fig tree wasn t growing out in the wild. I mean, we could understand it if this fig tree was some scrawny little wild thing that came up because a bird happened to drop a fig seed? (Do figs have seeds?) No! This fig tree was planted with loving care in a vineyard! The vineyard-keeper had invested his time and his energy and his care in this tree and he had a right to expect a return on his investment! And I want to say this to you today. God has invested a lot in you and me. Of course, the first thing we can think of is the blood that was shed at Calvary for us. But, let s think for a moment about something that goes beyond our initial salvation. Think about the sermons God has allowed us to hear preached, and the books He s allowed us to read The more privilege we have as God s children, the more He expects from us! We don t come to a liberal church that teaches and preaches politics or current events or a social gospel. Our church preaches truth! And we re going to be held to a much higher standard than the churches all across our city that teach this fluff. Listen, have you ever wondered why God treated Moses so severely? I mean, Moses was a friend of God! And God kept Moses from the Promised Land because he lost his temper! Have you ever lost your temper? We all have! I ve heard it said that the temper is the only thing you can lose and still keep! But, you see, Moses talked face to face with God! Moses knew things from God and about God that no one else knew! And God held Moses to a higher standard than He did anyone else! The punishment of Moses didn t mean he lost his relationship with Jehovah. And the discipline you and I will suffer for not producing fruit in our lives isn t that we lose ours. But, the book of Revelation says tears will be wiped from our eyes in heaven and it just may be that some of those tears are tears for fruit that we failed to produce times we failed to witness times we failed to give times we failed to forgive times we just simply failed to be Christ-like in our behavior! Will we lose our salvation? No! But, when we stand face to face with the dear Lord Jesus Christ we ll be aware of the opportunities we wasted and the rewards and crowns we won t have to lay at His feet! God has invested so much in you and me and He expects a return on His investment! The owner of the vineyard said, Cut it down. Let s plant a tree in its place that will produce. The vineyard-keeper said, Give it one more year. Page 7 of 9

8 We have a camellia bush by our garage. It s not a huge bush now, but there was a time when it was really struggling and it looked like it was going to die for sure. My husband realized it was in a bed where there were also boxwoods and azaleas and even a pecan tree, and these plants were sapping all the energy and nutrients away from this camellia. And he dug around it and fertilized it and gave it some extra nourishment and that little bush has grown and produces the prettiest dark pink camellias! At a time in the fall and early winter when little else is blooming we can count on that little camellia bush to give us lots and lots of joy! Why? Because my husband tended to it and it responded to his tender loving care! And that s what this man said. He said, Let me tend to it. And if it bears fruit fine but if it doesn t I ll cut it down. Have you ever in your life felt like God was giving you another chance to produce? Have you ever blown an opportunity to witness to someone or to forgive someone or to just be the Christ in another person s life that you need to be and God said, My child, you missed it! But, I love you so much that I m going to try to do a work in your hard heart and see if it can t do better next time. Aren t you glad God is the God of the second chance and the third and the fourth? I know there have been times when I ve heard God say, I m going to give you one more year one more chance to live for Me consistently! Even Paul said, I keep my body in subjection lest having preached to another I myself might be a castaway. My prayer is that everyone in our class everyone in this room is certain that we have accepted God s gracious invitation to His banquet. God forbid that there be anyone in this class who doesn t have that sweet, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He has invited us to be spiritually healed and straightened up! He has invited us to a banquet and He wants us to attend! He has invited us to come under the shelter of His wings! But, in addition to that, He wants us to bear fruit for His kingdom. He doesn t want us to continue day after day and year after year to take in and take in and receive and receive and never give out! Let s bow our heads Has God said something to you lately that you need to act on? Some sin? Some attitude? Some act of forgiveness? Some act of restitution? Some act of testimony or witness? Is there something God has put His finger on this morning that perhaps you ve managed to shove back in your mind? Something you need to deal with this morning? Let s just take a few moments this morning to present to the Lord what He has laid on your heart and let s make things right and determine to leave from church today and do what He has called us to do! Page 8 of 9

9 (Give a few moments of silence so that the class can pray silently ) Father, the last thing we want to be is a fruitless Christian. The last thing we want to do is to take and take and never give. If there is anything in our lives today that we need to deal with, would you show us? Is there someone we need to forgive? Is there restitution called for in our lives or is there someone we need to help or someone we need to witness to? Whatever it may be would you just tell us and then enable us to live in obedience to You each and every day? We look forward to what You will show us today and tomorrow and in all the days ahead. In Jesus name, Amen Page 9 of 9