Thy kingdom come; Luke 17: 20-37

The Bible says in Luke 8 that Jesus began to go about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.  Jesus said about His ministry in Luke 4:43 that “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”  Now this has been the ongoing theme of Jesus’ message; “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Up until this point, Jesus has been preaching regarding the requirements to enter the kingdom, and the characteristics of those citizens of the kingdom.  His miracles were done to illustrate that the kingdom of God was being manifested on Earth.  The power to do these wonderful miracles should have been evidence that Jesus was in fact the King of the kingdom of God who had come to Earth to establish His kingdom.

But obviously, there was still a great deal of confusion about the kingdom on the part of the people that were following Him in the first century.  And I would suggest that there is a great deal of confusion even today among 21st century followers as well.  If I were to ask you to describe the kingdom of God, I’m sure that I would get several dozen different answers.  It’s one of those phrases that is very familiar, and yet perhaps has not been thought through to the point of really understanding it.

The Pharisees obviously had many questions regarding what Jesus was teaching about the kingdom.  And even the disciples had misunderstandings as to the nature of the kingdom.  So as we look at our text for today we see the Pharisees initially asking the question of when will the kingdom of God come.  And then as Jesus is answering that question He turns to the disciples and gives a more detailed explanation in response to what must have been their unasked questions.

Jesus begins to answer this question concerning the coming of the kingdom of God in vs. 20, saying, ““The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”  Here is what Jesus is saying;  the kingdom of God is an invisible kingdom.  It is a spiritual kingdom.  Jesus says it isn’t with signs that can be observed.  It is not physically apparent.  But He says the kingdom of God is in your midst.  It’s right in front of you and you can’t see it.  Jesus was no less than the King of the kingdom.  So He defines the kingdom.  And the citizens of the kingdom are those who recognize Jesus as Sovereign and that have submitted to be His servants.  It is a kingdom where Christ rules and reigns over our hearts and minds and wills.

I feel for this to really be understood I must try to show you the big picture of the plan of God.  Because the kingdom of God is eternal, it extends from Genesis to Revelation.  And there are different stages of it.  Different ways it is manifested at different times.  But perhaps it will help if I go back to the beginning and explain the best I can how the kingdom of God has come.  So to begin with we will consider the purpose of the kingdom.  Secondly, we’ll look at the institution of the kingdom, then the realization of the kingdom, the manifestation of the kingdom and finally the consummation of the kingdom and some characteristics of what is called the day of the Lord.

First the purpose of the kingdom. It really starts with Genesis, with the creation and the purpose of God.  It says in Genesis 2 that when God made man, He said it was not good for man to be alone.  And yet, right after that God gave Adam the job of naming all the animals of creation.  So Adam names each creature that God created, thousands upon thousands of them were ushered past him and he examined them and named them all.  And the scripture says that there was not found among all the animals a mate suitable or like unto him.  And so God put Adam to sleep and took from his side material from which He made woman.  She was like him, compatible to him, desirable to him, a helper suitable unto him whom he could love, and that would love him in return so that the scripture says that they would be as one flesh.  He could have fellowship, communion, love, companionship.  This was God’s design for man.

But actually, this was also a picture of the purpose that God chose to create man.  God looked around the universe, at all the creatures that He had made, the worlds that He had created, all the various forms of angelic creatures of which I believe the scripture indicates were millions upon millions, He looked at all that He had made and He found no one that was a suitable mate for Him.  No one that was like unto Him that could choose to love Him and respond to Him in the way that He desired for fellowship, for communion, for companionship.

And so God said in Gen. 1:26, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Now when God made every other thing in the universe, He simply spoke it into existence.  He simply spoke and millions upon millions of stars instantly took form and began to burn, lighting up the heavens.  He spoke and millions of varieties of plants and fauna instantly appeared.  He simply spoke and the sea was instantly teeming with millions of fish of every conceivable shape and color and size.  Yet when God said let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness, God didn’t simply speak us into existence.  This pinnacle act of creation was actually an act of love.  God got down on His hands and knees in the dirt of the earth and began to form with His hands the body of man.  He lovingly shaped us into His image, into an image that was like Him, compatible to Him with His own hands.  He caressed us and shaped us into a body that He would love.  And then when He had formed us in His image, it says He breathed the breath of life into that body and man became a living soul.  God bent down and placed His lips upon man’s lips, and kissed into man the breath of life.

The purpose should be quite clear, man was made for God, just as woman was made for man.  Mankind was made to be the bride of Christ. Eph. 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.  John chapter 1 says that Christ was in the beginning with God and all things are made by Him, and without Him nothing was made.  We were made to be the companion of Christ.  To become one with Christ.

Now time will not allow me to elucidate all the details of the fall.  It should be familiar to you all.  But suffice it to say that God created man to be His bride, to love Him and have fellowship and communion with Him, and to share in His glory, to share in His kingdom, even to rule and reign with Him.  But when given a choice between God and evil, mankind chose evil.  Satan and His angels seduced man to sin against God in an attempt to overthrow the rule of God.  Man revolted.  And so sin entered the world, and death through sin.

That leads to the second stage, the institution of the kingdom. Though sin had entered the world, separating man from God and causing death, God was still in control.  The creation was still under the Sovereignty of God. God still had a plan by which He would redeem from fallen humanity a people who would love Him.  And so God instituted that phase of the plan by calling Abraham to come out from the world and go to a place where He would eventually disclose Himself to the children of Abraham.  God chose a man, who gave birth to a tribe, who formed a nation, so that He might disclose Himself and reveal Himself to them, that He might love them and provide for them a way to escape the death which was a result of sin. It was to be a theocracy, a nation ruled by God. But once again, mankind rebelled against God’s rule.  Rather than submit to God as their sovereign, man chose another king, a mere man to rule over them.  And a succession of kings subverted the peoples love and submission to God towards themselves.  Throughout history though, God always kept a remnant.  A small minority of people on the earth that loved God, that served God, that recognized His sovereignty, that served His kingdom and looked for the day when the kingdom would be realized.

That brings us to the realization of the kingdom.  The long awaited day came when at just the right time, Jesus was fathered by the Holy Spirit, born of a woman in a non descript small town called Bethlehem.  God authored this next phase of the kingdom, when no less than the Creator humbled Himself to become a man like us, to take away the penalty of sin so that He might make it possible for all of mankind to be reconciled to God.  And God did this by sending Jesus to become our substitute, to live the righteous life that we could never live, and pay the penalty for sin that we could never pay.  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “God made [Jesus] who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Yet as it had been prophesied in Isaiah 53, the world did not recognize Him as their Savior. “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be drawn to Him.”  But God loved mankind so much, that He poured out His wrath upon His only Son, the spotless lamb of God.  “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.  The chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”    But as Isaiah prophesied, He came unto His own and His own did not receive Him.  Jesus wept over His nation, saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!”

Jesus Christ was the realization of the plan of God to bring about reconciliation of those who would enter the kingdom.  John 1:17 says that “the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”  This was the way that God designed to bring about the righteousness that He required to be a citizen of the kingdom of God.  Only a righteous, holy God could atone for the sins of the world.  And God has ordained that by faith in what Jesus has done for us, by confessing our sins, and submitting to His Lordship over our lives, we might be saved.  We gain entrance into the kingdom of God.  When we survey all that God has done for us, when we realize all that Christ suffered for us, then they that have submitted to Him in faith and repentance should respond by loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our might.  This is what we were made for.  And that relationship that was planned from creation can now be realized as we live in the Spirit and not in the flesh as sons of God.

When Jesus died and rose again God brought about the next phase of the kingdom.  This phase came through the Holy Spirit and is known as the church age. The church is the manifestation of the kingdom.  God was no longer just revealing Himself through the nation of Israel, but to every nation and tribe on earth.  As the Apostles were indwelled by the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost,  men and women from every nation in the Middle East heard the gospel preached, and 3000 people were saved in one day, starting the first church.

The church is the manifestation of the kingdom of God because God sent the Spirit of Christ to live in us as we live in the world. Having been made holy by the transference of Christ’s righteousness, we now receive the Holy Spirit to dwell in our holy of holies as we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.  As Paul said in [1Co 6:19-20 NASB] 19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

The church is now the manifestation of Christ to the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in those who have given their hearts to God.  That is why the scripture says we are to be holy even as God is holy.  We are ambassadors for the kingdom of God to the world, serving God through the power of Christ living in us.

Then finally, we come to the consummation of the kingdom.  This is what Jesus addresses in the remainder of the chapter.  He has alluded to the consummation, or the day of the Lord in various parables and teachings. In chapter 12, Jesus compares the consummation of the kingdom to a master who gives to his servants a stewardship.  That means that he gives them an assignment, a responsibility, something that they are supposed to do until He comes again.  And Jesus says that there are two types of servants in this kingdom.  Those that are faithful, and those that are unfaithful.  When the master comes back and finds the faithful and sensible steward who did his master’s will, he says that steward will be blessed and will be put in charge of all his possessions.  But those servants who lived according to their own desires and disregarded the commands of the master will be cut into pieces and assigned a place with the unbelievers.

Jesus makes it clear in multiple illustrations that at the consummation there will be both a day of judgment for the lost and a day when the king will return in glory for his bride.  Those that are found righteous will be swept up with the Lord and the rest who are unsaved left to face the wrath of God.  So now Jesus turns from the Pharisees and addresses the unspoken questions of the disciples.

In all the remaining verses He relates the coming of the kingdom as the day of the Lord.  He says first of all that the day of the Lord will be something longed for by the righteous.  In vs. 22, “And He said to the disciples, ‘The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. “They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them.’”  Jesus is saying that He will not return immediately.  There will be a time of longing, of looking for the coming of the Lord.  And of course, there will be many deceivers, many anti Christs, many false Christs who will attempt to deceive the world.  Jesus wanted His disciples to be aware, to be on their guard against false Messiahs.

Next He emphasizes that the day of the Lord will be public, it will not be something that is private or secret.  But Jesus says in vs. 24, “For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.”  Lightning lights up the entire sky, doesn’t it?  It’s shocking, it’s electrifying.  It can be terrifying.  But one thing for sure, when you’re outside in the dark and lightning crashes, you see the entire sky light up from one end to the other.  There is booming thunder.  Jesus is giving a very vivid illustration of the way that He will come in power at the consummation of His kingdom.  When He came the first time, no one recognized Him.  But when He comes the second time, Rev. 1 says “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.”

Thirdly, Jesus tells His disciples that the day of the Lord will not come until He suffers many things and His gospel is rejected.  This was a real issue for the disciples.  They couldn’t accept that the Messiah would have to suffer and die in order to usher in the kingdom.  Their understanding of the kingdom was in militaristic or political terms.  They expected a revolution, a socio/political solution that would usher in a time of peace and prosperity.  And unfortunately, that is the same expectation a lot of false teachers are espousing today.  They teach a social gospel, a prosperity gospel, and they want nothing to do with “take up your cross and follow Me.” But Jesus says suffering precedes glorification.

Then Jesus says the day of the Lord will be a day of sudden judgment.  He uses two Old Testament examples to illustrate that it will be business as usual right up until the day when He returns.  Vs. 26, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed."

Listen, not only does He imply the suddenness of the coming of the Lord, but He is emphasizing in a very dramatic way the judgment with which He comes.  In the days of Noah, mankind had managed to so defile itself and become so corrupted that the only solution that God had to correct it was to wipe every living thing off the face of the earth save those that were in the Ark.  One of the things that we are looking at in our study in Genesis this week is found in chapter 6, when it says the fallen angels took for themselves wives among the daughters of men. So you have a form of sorcery that spawned a demonic race.  Satan once again was trying to overthrow creation by producing an unredeemable offspring.   And that union produced a race of men that were exceedingly evil.  6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

The interesting thing about the flood was that God gave the people of the earth 100 years to repent.  Peter says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.  And Jude says concerning that preaching that the patience of God kept waiting for people to repent.  But in 100 years, no one was saved. They rejected the message. So the day came when God closed the door, and the heavens broken open and the fountains of the deep broke open.  And God wiped the face of the earth clean.

The other example Jesus gives is that of Lot.  Lot was living in the lap of luxury.  It was a well watered city, a flourishing civilization.  And yet the evil of that city grew so great that God sent His judgment against it.  The great defining sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was that of homosexuality.  It was so blatant, so open, so prevalent that the entire town turned out to try to take the two angels that came to warn Lot. And so God rained down fire and brimstone upon the city and destroyed every living thing.

I can’t help but see parallels between those two illustrations and the current situation in the world today.  You know in Revelation 9:21 it says concerning the people at the end of the age that oppose God that they will “not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”  Immorality is translated from the Greek word pornea, which means illicit sexual intercourse such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.   Isn’t that the state of affairs today?  Society wants to redefine God’s laws to say that such things are not sin any more, because we don’t want to admit it’s sin.  But God says it is sin. Changing the law does not change the fact that it is an abomination to God.

And it’s interesting that the Greek word for sorceries used in Revelation is the word pharmakea, from which we get the word pharmacy.   The characteristic of the end times is that they  won’t repent of their drug use.  And once again we see society attempting to make what is a sin legal by legalizing marijuana.

Listen folks, I am confident that we are living in the days of Noah.  We are living in Sodom and Gomorah.  The patience of God has been waiting, the gospel has been preached and yet they will not repent.  And soon Jesus Christ the King is coming back in judgment.  The world wants to limit God to only love, and equate their immorality as on par with God’s love.  But they have failed to understand that God is  holy and righteous and must render justice against all unrighteousness. [Rev 19:11-16 NASB] 11 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

Then in vs. 31 Jesus says that the day of the Lord will discriminate against those who love the world and the things of the world.  "In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."

Can you imagine the futility and the foolishness of the people in the days of Noah running into their houses to try to save their possessions?  The judgment of the earth in the consummation of the kingdom is going to be absolute. [2Pe 3:7, 10 NASB] 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. ... 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

In vs. 34 Jesus says that the day of the Lord will be a day of division. "I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left."  In other words, God knows those that are His.  He will take His people out of the judgment.  But it will be a division even to the point of separating two in bed, one will be taken and the other left.  No one gets into the kingdom on the basis of their wife or their husband or their family.  God will judge every man and woman according to their deeds.  God knows those who are His.

And finally, in vs. 37, the day of the Lord will come in response to the increase of corruption of the earth.  “The disciples answering said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”  The disciples must have thought that this would be a judgment that would be limited geographically.  Perhaps they thought it would be on the rest of the world but Israel would be spared.  But it should have been pretty clear that the judgment of God will be universal, that is the picture of the lightning flashing from one end of the sky to the other.  So Jesus gives a rather obscure answer to their obscure question.  Where the body is the vultures will be gathered.  I believe this is a reference to the spiritually dead.  You can usually tell when something has died in the country by the fact that vultures are circling around up in the sky above it.  And I believe that is what Jesus is indicating here.  That when the stench of the decay of the spiritually dead rises up to heaven, then the vultures will come.  Judgment will come upon the whole world when sin reaches a certain final state of corruption.

Folks, I’m afraid that the corruption of the world has already paralleled the corruption found in the days of Noah.  We are living as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The patience of God has kept waiting for 2000 years, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  But the fact is the same today as it was in the days of Noah, the days of Lot and even the days of Jesus and the Apostles.  They will not repent of their sins, but revel in their rebellion against the King of Kings.  And one day soon, without warning, Jesus Christ will suddenly return.

[Mat 24:29-31 NASB] 29 "But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Listen, today is the day of salvation.  The way unto the kingdom of heaven has been revealed through Jesus Christ.  The penalty for our sins has been paid by Jesus Christ.  All that remains is for you to repent of your sins, and by faith commit to serve Him and follow Him with all of your being, to love Him with all your heart.  Jesus Christ is coming again, not only in judgment against the rebellious, but also to deliver, to take up His bride which has been redeemed by His blood and to present them faultless before the throne of God.  You have a choice today.  Who will you serve?  Who will you obey?  I pray that you will be found the faithful and sensible steward who on the day of the Master’s return was found doing his Master’s will, and who will receive the blessing of God and put in charge of all His possessions.

The ten lepers, one saved; Luke 17: 11-19

Rather than simply presenting an historical narrative, every story, every parable that Luke records is teaching a particular facet of the gospel, or reinforcing a particular principle of the gospel, or adding another layer to the gospel.  In other words, these stories are not just a random biographical detail in the life of Christ.  They may fulfill that biographical function, but more importantly they enrich the gospel message by means of an illustration.

As in the story of the prodigal son and other accounts of healing etc, this story is a real story, an actual historical event, but with allegorical implications.  I don’t think it’s coincidental that there are 10 lepers in this story.  In chapter 15 there were 100 sheep and one is found, there were 10 coins and one is found, there are two sons and one returns.  And so in this story there are 10 lepers and one returns.

What is always the focus of Jesus’ preaching is the nature of salvation.  Jesus went about preaching the kingdom of heaven.  And the point He repeatedly makes is that entrance into the kingdom is only through salvation.  He stresses that entrance into the kingdom is not by heritage, not by nationality, not by family, not through religion, and not through works.  Now there are several facets or doctrines of salvation.  And Jesus keeps revealing these doctrines progressively as He is traveling towards Jerusalem.  And it is apparent that if you are going to fully understand the doctrine of salvation then you must continue to follow Jesus Christ, continuing to learn from Him and continuing to be obedient to Him.  He doesn’t explain every doctrine in every teaching, in every illustration. But He keeps revealing more and more as people continue to follow Him in obedience.  And the same principle of progressive revelation is true for us today as we are obedient to what He shows us.

I’m always kind of bemused by these people that come for a while, and they say we like your teaching, you taught us a lot, you taught us about salvation, but I’m good now.  I got it.  I’m good to go.  And so off they go.  The truth is they only got as far as they wanted to go.  They don’t want to deal with any more, because they don’t like where you are going.  Well, Jesus experienced the same thing.  A lot of people followed Him for a while, but when they found out He was going to be crucified, they got off the bus.  They didn’t want any part of “take up your cross and follow Me.”

Now this story illustrates a great problem in modern evangelical Christianity.  The modern evangelical movement has tried to reduce the doctrine of salvation to embracing a couple of catchwords in hopes of being more seeker friendly.  They have tried to reduce discipleship to maybe working with Habitat for Humanity for a week or two, or maybe going on a short term mission trip.  And they have tried to reduce worship to singing a couple of songs or clapping your hands.  But the truth is that true Christianity is so much more than that.

You know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called the gospels.  That is they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in more or less a biographical form.  The epistles, which were coauthored by the apostles through the Holy Spirit, explain the gospels.  So in the 4 gospels the teaching of Christ is proclaimed, and in the epistles the gospel of Christ is explained.  But when the Apostle Paul sought to write an epistle to the Romans to tell them the truth of the gospel it took him 16 chapters.  Amazingly, our modern preachers manage to present it in it’s entirety in about 20 minutes or less.  But I can’t but feel that we have lost most of it’s meaning in the translation.

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  And this story illustrates the danger of a short sided view of salvation that does not address the complete scope of salvation.  A lot of people today when asked how they became a Christian will say something along the lines of this;  “Several years ago, I was diagnosed with a disease, and I prayed to God that He would heal me.  And then I had this operation and I haven’t had a recurrence of it to this day.  And so I began to go to church.”  Or maybe it is something like this;  “well I used to be an alcoholic.  And I finally reached the point where it was destroying my life.  So I started going to AA and I’ve been sober now for 5 years.”  Or maybe their story is like this;  “I was in a terrible marriage. I suffered a lot of psychological abuse.  So I prayed to God to get me out of it.  And one day I left my wife/husband.”  The stories are all different.  But the theme is the same in many of them.  I was in a mess, and I called out to God for help, and He helped me.  That constitutes their salvation in their minds.

Now I don’t want to diminish someone who has had a traumatic event happen in their life.  Very often such an event can be the inducement to turn to God, and as they come to understand their need and how that relates to the gospel, they end up being truly saved. But there is another type of person that I am really talking about, and I believe this story is illustrating, and that is the person who is drawn to God because they are in a crisis of some sort, they have some sort of experience which they consider spiritual or religious, and yet they may have never been truly saved. They may have even had something happen that seems to be miraculous in their lives, truly an act of God, and yet they have never been saved.

I can think of numerous examples of people like that in the years I have been preaching.   They were religious people.  They considered themselves Christians. Some of them even held leadership positions in neighboring churches.  And somehow they came to some of our services for a while and they were stunned at the presentation of the gospel.  They had no prior knowledge of the truth of the gospel.  So when they first heard it preached, they were stunned.  I’ve seen such people cry at the end of the service.  I’ve heard them even call their husbands or someone on the phone afterwards and say something like “I just heard the gospel clearly presented for the first time in my life.”  And yet a few weeks or a few months later they have moved on.  They heard the gospel, but when they found out what salvation actually entailed, they were not really ready to surrender everything to obtain it.  They stopped short.  As Jesus said in chapter 14, when they counted the cost of discipleship they came up short.  They thought that a little knowledge was enough.  A religious experience  or two was quite satisfactory, in their view.  They liked the version of God that they had created and didn’t particularly care for the all consuming version of God that the Bible teaches.

Listen, if you want the gospel of salvation in a nutshell, then here it is:  It is surrendering completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Authentic, saving faith in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His Lordship. That is salvation in a nutshell.  It’s the right of the Sovereign to rule over His subjects. Every experience, every crisis, every prayer, every divine response, whether it be grace or a miracle or healing or whatever, is designed to bring you to repentance of self rule, and to prostrate yourself at the feet of Jesus and say “I surrender all to you, and I will serve you all of my days.”  That is surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and that is the means of salvation.  Nothing less will do.

Anything less than that and you will find yourself as Jesus described in Matt. 7:22
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  In other words, they called themselves Christians, they even claimed to be proclaiming the gospel, they claimed to casting out demons and even doing miracles, and yet Jesus says “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” They failed to obey Jesus as Lord of their lives.

So Jesus has been going to great lengths and with great patience pointing this principle out to the people that were following Him in sermon after sermon, and one illustration after another.  And now Luke records yet another incident which helps to illustrate the narrow door of salvation.  It’s very convenient to look at this passage and just say it’s a little story that illustrates our need for gratitude.  But that isn’t the point of the story at all.  Yes, we need to be thankful.  And yes, gratitude should prompt us to respond to God in way that is pleasing to Him.  But don’t think for a moment that this is just an illustration that God is sitting up there in heaven, kind of moping around, a little dejected perhaps, hoping that someone will just remember to tell Him how much they appreciate Him.  God is not that trite.  God is not dependent upon our praise for His happiness.  God is self sufficient.

We sometimes paint this picture of God that is really actually blasphemous.  It’s a picture of a narcissistic God that just lives for the praise of men.  How ridiculous.  God said in Isaiah 1: 11 "What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.”  He goes on to say that because they come with unrepented iniquity in their hearts when they pray, He will not listen.  God isn’t wringing His hands in heaven hoping we will call.  He is  self sufficient.  In theology it is called the attribute of aseity. (eh see i ty) In Acts 17:25 Paul says that God "is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything." He is self sufficient.  He doesn’t depend on our praise for His well being.

Now let’s look at this simple story and what it does illustrate for us.  Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem.  He is heading for the cross in just a few months time.  He knows that and He purposefully is heading there to offer Himself as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world. And as He comes to a little village between Samaria and Galilee, He is met by 10 lepers who must have heard he was coming and in desperation to be healed come out to meet Him.

Leprosy was a terrible disease.  It’s something that is still around in some third world countries, but today it is called Hanson’s disease.  Thankfully there are medicines today that can treat it.  But for thousands of years it was a terrible disease.  It was characterized by horrible scaling of the skin, loss of hair, loss of appendages such as ears or noses or fingers. It attacked the nervous system which deadens the skin and appendages in such a way that they are destroyed. It was a terrible, crippling, blinding disease that was also quite communicable.  In Leviticus 13 and 14 God gives a series of laws concerning how this disease was to be handled among the Jewish people.  They were put away from the rest of the people. They were cut off from all contact.  They had to announce that they were unclean when they came near anyone so that the person could be sure to keep their distance.  It was a terrible, terrible disease that isolated a person from the rest of society and ultimately destroyed them.  

Now in this case there were ten of them that were together on the outskirts of this village.  And they hear that Jesus is coming.  They know that they are going to die from this disease.  They know that there is no cure.  And yet when they hear that Jesus is coming they come out to meet Him.  They are desperate.  They want to be healed more than anything else in the world.

So they call out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  Now the word Master shows that they recognized Jesus as one having authority.  The Jews said that about Jesus that He taught as one having authority.  And undoubtedly they knew that He had authority over diseases and evil spirits as well.  These were indisputable facts of Jesus’ ministry.  There was never any denying of His miracles.  So that is what they are appealing to.  Someone who has authority over disease.

And vs. 14 says, when Jesus “saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were cleansed.”  Boy what a difference between the way Jesus heals and the fake healers heal on television.  Jesus doesn’t remonstrate in a loud voice.  He doesn’t draw attention to himself.  He doesn’t smack anyone on the forehead and knock them down.  He simply tells them to go and show themselves to the priest and as they were going, the 10 lepers were healed.

Now the reason that he told them to go show themselves to the priest is two fold.  One, it was in keeping with the Old Testament law concerning leprosy found in Leviticus 13.  The priests were to examine the person to see if there was any sign of leprosy.  And there was an eight day period where the priest had to reexamine them in order to declare them clean.  So first of all, Jesus is keeping the law regarding leprosy.  Secondly, this examination by the priests will also serve to be a witness to the priesthood.  You can be sure that this was a section of the law that wasn’t utilized very often.  There was no record of the  healing of leprosy  except in the case of Elisha healing Naaman the Syrian about 600 years earlier.  They had to dust off the books for this one.  And you can imagine that the priests would want to know how the lepers had been healed.  This would have been a really fantastic thing;  ten lepers walk in and say we have been healed and Jesus told us to come present ourselves to you.  What a testimony it would have been to the priesthood, who for the most part were not believing in Jesus.

But there is one guy that as he is healed turns back and returns to Jesus, glorifying God with a loud voice.  The Greek says megas phone.  That is where we get the word megaphone.  He came back bellowing as if he had a megaphone, praising God.  And the next vs. says that when he came to Jesus he prostrated himself at His feet giving thanks to Him.  Now there is a connection there.  He is coming to Jesus, glorifying God and then casting himself down at Jesus feet, giving thanks to Him.  I think the connection is that this leper realized that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, nothing less than God in the flesh.  This is the same realization that Peter comes to when Jesus asks the disciples in Matthew 16, “who do men say that I am?”  And Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Christ is the Greek word for Messiah, and Son of God renders Him God in the flesh.  I think that is what is represented by this leper prostrating himself at the feet of Jesus.  I think it is symbolic of worship of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Then Luke adds in vs. 16 that this leper was a Samaritan.  Now the Samaritans were considered unclean sinners in the eyes of the Jews.  A good Jew would walk twenty miles out of his way to avoid walking through Samaria.  They hated them.  And to some extent they had good reason.  The Samaritans had disobeyed the commandment of God and intermarried with pagans.  And as such their worship was flawed and they no longer worshipped in the temple, and they only considered certain scriptures valid while discounting others.  So this guy that comes back and worships Jesus is actually really low on the totem pole from a Jew’s perspective.  He was not only a leper but a Samaritan.  But now he is healed and worshipping Jesus.

So Jesus says in vs. 17, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?”   Here is the deal; the nine are healed but continue on to the priests.  They are going back to what that represents; being reinstated in the community.  Being able to rejoin their families, back to their careers.  I’m sure they were thrilled to be healed, but the result is that they go back to the lives that they once knew.

So in vs. 19, Jesus turns back to the Samaritan and says, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”  Actually, the Greek text says your faith has saved you.  The word translated “made you well” is the Greek word sozo, which is almost always translated as saved in most other times it is used.  I guess the translators were considering the physical implications of the word rather than the spiritual.  But I think that it should be translated saved.  He had already been healed.  The other 9 lepers had also been healed.  But the distinction for this man is that in addition to being healed, he was also saved.  

Now quickly here are the spiritual applications of this story.  All of the 10 men suffered from the same terrible disease.  And spiritually speaking, nothing speaks of the nature of sin in the eyes of God more so than the disease of leprosy.  You know, the devil does his best to glorify and glamorize sin.  But the fact is that under it’s initially appealing exterior is a corrupt disease that once it gets into your system will continue to eat away at you until it destroys you.  It is disfiguring.  Sin kills the conscience, it destroys the spiritual nervous system of the soul in the same way that leprosy deadens the nerves in the skin and appendages of the body so that they are destroyed.  Sin is a contagious disease.  I think that is another reason that Luke juxtaposes this illustration so shortly after the admonition of Jesus in the beginning of this chapter not to put a stumbling block in front of another person.  Because that is the way sin is spread; from person to person.  It’s a communicable disease.  It got it’s start with Adam and Eve and is passed down from generation to generation.  We all have inherited the bad gene of this disease.  Like leprosy, sin isolates.  Because God is holy we are estranged from God.  We cannot come near God.  We are unclean in the sight of God because of our sin.

O ladies and gentlemen!  We need to see God’s perspective of the horror of sin.  If we saw sin as it really was we would stop playing around with it.  We would stop courting it.  We would run from it, flee from it.  We would be desperate to be saved from it.  And we would be desperate to save our friends and families from the ravages of sin.  Sin is disfiguring.  Sin is crippling.  Sin is a monster that God told Cain in Genesis 4 is crouching at the door and if you don’t master it, it will destroy you.

One of the couples in our church is involved in Teen Challenge which helps people get free from substance abuse.  And just last week they came upon a scene of police cars and ambulances and as they drove up they were told that one of their graduates from Teen Challenge was in the car ahead.  And when they walked up on the car, there sat a man that they knew very well, who had gone through the program, who was sitting in the car dead, overdosed on heroin.  I wonder how this man started on drugs all those years ago.  I wonder if it was just a joint.  Just a little pot, which is harmless of course.  It’s  fun.  It’s no big deal.  But how much heart ache must he have gone through.  How many years did he waste being wasted.  He left behind two boys who will undoubtedly never get over it.  Sin is a cruel master.  Sin is destructive.  Sin makes leprosy look like a fever blister in comparison.  It has eternal complications.  It not only destroys you in this life, it sends men and women to hell.

There is another spiritual application in this story.  And that is that you can have a religious experience, you can be delivered from some great physical crisis in your life, and yet still be unsaved.  I think that is what these 9 lepers who failed to glorify God represent.  They are like people who call out to God for help overcoming something like alcohol and are delivered, but not saved.  They are like someone who comes out of an abusive relationship which they think was a result of prayer to God, and yet they are not saved.  Like someone who is healed from a disease and yet not saved. Whatever the crisis, no matter how dramatic the incident, they experience some sort of physical deliverance which they even ascribe to God, and yet they are unsaved.  They return to their lives.  They go back to the way things were before and they forget the God who delivered them.  They forget that Romans 2:4 says that the kindness of God is supposed to lead you to repentance.  They go on their way, thinking all is well with their soul, and yet though they have been delivered from some physical crisis, they are still unsaved.  I trust that no one here leaves here trusting in some experience that comes short of salvation.

Now lastly, the spiritual application of the Samaritan’s response.  Though the other 9 went on their way, the Samaritan was sozo.  He was saved.  He recognized the depravity of his condition.  He came to Christ in desperation.  He realized the bankruptcy of his soul.  He was helpless and trusted in Jesus to help Him. And when in faith he turned and went towards the priests and suddenly realized that he had been healed, he turned around and ran back towards Jesus.  He runs to Jesus realizing that He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, He is the source of life that is now coursing through his once dead flesh.  And so he comes back glorifying God and throws himself down at the feet of Jesus and worships Him, praising Him.

This Samaritan reveals the nature of repentance.  He turns away from the past life and runs to Jesus.  He prostrates himself.  That means he has the humility that God requires.  He has the right kind of attitude that God requires.  He may not know every doctrine of the gospel at this stage.  But his attitude is right. He doesn’t just have faith, but he has saving faith. He has the correct view of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  That He is Master, Messiah, Savior, Son of God.  Jesus is deserving of his allegiance, of his servitude, of his adoration, of his worship, of his trust and of his obedience.  That is what it means to accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  To bow at the feet of Jesus as Lord.  To say I surrender my all to you, to be at your service.  Like the prodigal son who returned to his father and said, “I am not worthy to be your son, let me be as one of your hired servants.”  That is the attitude required in Lordship. This man exemplifies that.  His faith in Jesus as Lord saved him.

That gospel of salvation is explained further in Rom. 10:8-10,  “But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Listen, please examine yourselves today in the light of God’s word.  Have you come to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life? This Samaritan was saved Jesus said because of his faith. Authentic, saving faith in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His lordship. Not just believing that He existed.  But having faith to be obedient to Him no matter how great the cost. Have you surrendered everything to Him, to do with as He wishes, to use your life for His glory, to live according to His will?  That is the faith that results in righteousness.  That is the way of salvation.  There is no other way that we can be saved.  We must come all the way to the feet of Jesus and prostrate ourselves in submission to His will.  Nothing less than full surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is what God requires of us.

Edward Perronet wrote All hail the power of Jesus name in 1780.
All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race,
Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Let every kindred, every tribe,
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all!

Four hallmarks of discipleship; Luke 17:1-10

As we continue in the gospel of Luke we look now at a continuation of a message that Jesus was giving to a mixed multitude that included three types of people in attendance.  There was the self righteous, haughty Pharisees who practiced their religion  to be seen of men but whose motives were known by God to be self serving and done for men’s approval.  But they were not counted righteous by God.  And there was a second group of people who were present which was largely made up of the curious.  They were there because it was something different, they were curious, they were perhaps hoping to see some miracle, but they were in a state of flux; they listened to the message of Jesus, but they had not become followers of Christ.  And then there is the third category, which were the disciples; not just the 12, but a group of men and women that were following Him as He went from place to place.  They were actively pursuing the gospel as Jesus presented the message of the kingdom of God.  And as I have said repeatedly as we have been studying Luke, Jesus does not boil His message down to a simple formula which by doing these 3 steps in this particular order you become a member of the kingdom.  But rather Jesus continues to add perspective and layers of truth to the message as He moves from place to place preaching.  And so there is a sense that if you want to be a disciple of Christ, you must follow Him and persevere in listening and obeying the truth as He parcels it out, if you truly want to be a disciple. 

So I have titled today’s message the “four hallmarks of discipleship.”  This is not an exhaustive list.  This is what Jesus gave on that day, at that time.  It is another layer, another level of truth that He is disclosing.  He is adding more detail as He goes.  And so today we are looking at this portion of the message which is addressed to the disciples in attendance in particular.  He has been previously speaking a lot about faith and repentance as requirements to enter the kingdom.  Now today Jesus expands on those subjects by saying how faith and repentance will be employed in the kingdom.  It’s not all that needs to be said about discipleship or all that He will say about it.  But it is another step in their journey, their walk of sanctification, in their walk of discipleship.  And so these four hallmarks should also be true of us; if we call ourselves Christians, then that means that we are modern day disciples or followers of Christ.  We cannot in good conscience call ourselves Christians and not follow His teaching.  Jesus said if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  So these four principles should provide a sort of check list for us as well, if we have truly decided to follow Christ. 

Now the first principle that Jesus gives is that a true disciple will not put a stumbling block before others.  Vs. 1, “Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Perhaps there is someone here today that doesn’t know what a millstone is.  I’m sure that you have all seen pictures or paintings of some of the old mills that used to be built in this country along side of streams or rivers.  Various types of grain mills would use the power of the rushing water to turn a great huge paddle wheel which  turned a large, heavy round grindstone.  Or it could be powered by windmills or even by oxen. But whatever the power source this extremely heavy millstone would be turned over grain to produce flour.  If you travel N. on 113 as you enter the town of Millsboro you can see a large example of a millstone at the town limits.  

And what Jesus says is that people are inevitably going to fall into sin.  There are going to be temptations that cause people to stumble and sin.  Temptations are unavoidable while we are in this world.  But woe to that person who causes someone to stumble.  Who leads someone into sin, or teaches someone a false doctrine which leads them to sin, or who by their lifestyle encourages someone to sin.  Woe to that person.  A woe is a promise from God that He will bring divine retribution upon that person that causes someone to stumble.

So to emphasize how God views this terrible tragedy of causing someone to stumble, Jesus says it would be better to have a millstone hung around the offending person’s neck and thrown into the sea.  Well obviously having a millstone around your neck would plunge you to the ocean’s floor and hold you there until you were  drowned.  Jesus is dramatizing the nature of God’s wrath and retribution against those that put a stumbling block before others.  But the point is that we should be willing to lose our own life if necessary to keep from causing another to stumble. 

Now this is a concept that is very hard for 21^st century Christians in America to understand.  We have been so indoctrinated with the idea that we have been given certain rights as individuals.  We think that our rights are inalienable.  That they are God given rights.  And nobody better step on my rights, or they will be sorry.  We have all kinds of special interest groups out there today that are clamoring for their rights to be recognized.  They say their rights are being neglected.  And yet the message of Jesus Christ says that as disciples our rights are to be subjugated to the priorities of the kingdom of God.  Our individual bodies are not as important as the body of Christ. 

Folks, I can tell you right now that if we really got hold of that principle, if we practiced that principle, then the divorce rate in the church would drop from 50% where it is today to about 5%.  We are too busy living as the unsaved are living; preoccupied with self fulfillment, with protecting our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, living for the moment, living for our pleasure as if there is no eternity. 

This is the point of the parable of the rich man we looked at last week.  He lived for himself. He had a paraplegic beggar living on his doorstep but he was too busy tending to his own needs to be concerned about his neighbors.  He invested in the present.  He was rich in the world’s goods but poor in the kingdom of God.  And when he died he found himself destitute.  He found himself in hell.  That isn’t supposed to be the attitude of a Christian.  We are to be like Christ.  If we call ourselves disciples then we are to show the love of Christ who was willing to lay down His life for sinners.  That is what we are to be like.  Dying to self, serving the kingdom and it’s citizens.  It’s not about defending my rights, but about expanding the kingdom.  That is why Jesus reminds the Pharisees about the commandment regarding divorce in chapter 16:18.  They said they were in the kingdom of God, but they ignored the commandment against divorce in order to act out their lusts and as such they caused others to suffer, they caused people to fall into sin.  They caused their wives and those that married them to sin by adultery.  They caused people to stumble by their self interest.

Listen, a true disciple is characterized by humility; he will consider the needs of others before he champions his own freedom.  There are a lot of so called Christians out there that believe they can do whatever they want in the name of Christian liberty.  They like to have their alcohol when they feel like it and they don’t care if it causes someone who is weaker to fall.  They like to use profanity when they feel like it, and they don’t care if it causes a brother to fall.  I’m suggest something radical; some people would do the kingdom of God a better service if they didn’t tell others that they were a Christian.  They give Christians a bad name.  If you’re going to cuss out your employees on a regular basis, then please take the Christian bumper sticker off your truck.  If you’re going to lose your temper and act like the devil, then please do God a favor and take any reference to Christianity off the sign in front of your business.  I’m sorry if that makes some of you mad, but it needs to be said.  God doesn’t need your help.  God wants your obedience.  He wants us to act like Jesus Christ in all we do.  That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And ladies, if you call yourself Christians, then you need to protect those weak men who might fall into sin because of the way you are dressed.  Yes, they need to practice self control.  Yes they need to stop thinking like sex perverts.  But you also have a responsibility to God to not be a stumbling block to men who find you sexually appealing.  You can still be fashionable and attractive and not be a stumbling block.  I have a suggestion, the next time you are looking in your closet for what to wear, ask God what he thinks of that outfit. And then decide whether or not you should wear it based on what He thinks, rather than based on your liberty.

Paul says in 1Cor. 10:23, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.”  Bottom line is, your rights, even your life is not as important as the protection of others who you might cause to stumble.  A true disciple will lay down his life, lay down his rights for the sake of his brothers or sisters in Christ or to lead someone to Christ. 

The second hallmark of a true disciple is that they will forgive even as God forgives us.  Vs. 3, “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

Now this principle has two parts to it.  The first is, if he stumbles, if he sins, then we are told to rebuke them.  This principle of rebuking is explicitly stated in 2 Timothy as a job description of pastors.  It says in  2Tim. 4:2, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”   But all of us as Christians, as Christ followers have a responsibility to rebuke those that are in sin.  Ephesians 4:15 says we are to speak the truth in love.  We are required to be compassionate, but not weak. 

But at the same time, notice that we are required to go to that person.  The tendency is when someone sins against you, or offends you, is to go to everyone else but that person.  We tell everyone else what a miserable cretin such and such is because of what they did.  But we fail to have the courage to go straight to the person and confront them, and them alone.  But that is what Jesus is requiring of us.  We confront them in compassion, desiring their repentance.  We desire to see them get things right.  But this also requires that we first examine ourselves.  It’s tough to go to your brother or your wife or your friend and confront them over their sin, if you are guilty of the same thing.  You first have to get the log out of your own eye before you can see clearly to get the splinter out of another’s.  So there is an element of self purification here.  In order to confront someone over their sin, you have to first deal with your own. 

In Matt.18:15 Jesus lays this principle out in more detail.  He says, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.  But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  This passage is one of the texts upon which we base church discipline.  It’s a difficult thing sometimes to do.  But we are commanded to do it.  We don’t have time to get into it in detail today, but notice that the first step is to confront him in private.  In private.  Don’t broadcast it. 

Back in our text of Luke 17, Jesus says if that person repents you are to forgive.  In Matthew He says if he repents then you have won your brother.  That’s the goal.  And then Jesus adds that if he sins against you 7 times in a day and each time he repents, then you continue to forgive him.  The point isn’t to keep score and say, “ok, he’s got one more chance and then I’ll get him.”  Jesus tells Peter back in Matthew 18 again that you are to forgive him seventy times seven.  In other words, don’t keep score.  Forgive others even as you have been forgiven.

And by the way, since it’s father’s day let me say this; us fathers need to practice forgiveness towards our kids the way our heavenly Father practices forgiveness towards us.  As men we sometimes think that our job is to crack the whip, to apply discipline.  To lay down the law.   And maybe it is.  God does all that as well.  But thankfully for our sakes, God is a merciful, compassionate God.  The Bible says that the kindness of God leads us to repentance.  We think it’s the judgment of God that brings repentance.  But God prefers to be compassionate and merciful first and foremost.  Only when He has satisfied His compassion and mercy does He apply justice.  So I would just encourage you fathers to practice the compassion of God towards your children and strive for a balance with your family. James 2:13 “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Thirdly, a true disciple will have faith unto obedience.  As the disciples consider the weight of what Jesus is saying, and how difficult it is to do what He is commanding, they rightly say unto Jesus in vs. 5, “Lord, increase our faith.”  They recognize the difficulty of doing it in their own strength.  But I’m afraid that these two verses and others like it have sprung up a false doctrine that is called the word of faith movement.  But this is not what the disciples are asking for nor what Jesus is offering.  They are recognizing that in their strength, in their flesh, they will have difficulty in doing the things that Jesus is asking of them.  And they are right in that.  So they ask Jesus to increase their faith.  Help them to have the faith to do what Jesus is asking them to do. 

And that is exactly what faith is.  Faith is not a monkey wrench by which you can manipulate God to get Him to do what you want Him to do.  That attitude makes you Master and God your personal genie.  Faith is not a name it and claim it attitude whereby whatever you want to happen God will do if you just want it bad enough, or believe that He will do it hard enough.  Faith is not wishful thinking, or wishing really, really hard.  Faith, quite simply, is believing what God says to do, and then doing it.  I’m going to say that again.  Faith is believing what God says to do, and then doing it.  Faith is believing in the promises of God which He has written down and then being obedient to that word.  Faith is not listening to some voice in your head that you ascribe to God who told you to buy that dress at Macy’s even though you don’t have enough money to buy it .  That’s not God’s voice in your head.  God speaks through His word. Lam. 3:37, “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?”  You can’t speak things into existence unless God has first ordained it. 

Vs. 6 is not a blank check to command anything we want to happen in the name of faith.  The Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.”  This statement is not meant to make it easier for Christians to do their yard work, but it is a picture, an illustration that if something seems impossible from a human standpoint, if you are obedient in faith to what God has told you to do He will make it possible. Mulberry trees were noted for their immense root system which is said to be able to stay alive for 600 years.  So this unrootable tree can be uprooted by faith and tossed in the sea.  Something that God has commanded, but which I find almost impossible to do in the flesh, Jesus says can be done by faith in God’s strength. Faith is obedience to what God has commanded, even when I don’t feel like it.  Faith is obedience to what God has commanded even when it  is going to be difficult.  Faith is obedience to what God has commanded even if it costs me my liberty, even if it costs me my life.  Remember that Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane cried out to God to deliver Him from the cup of suffering that He was going through.  But He qualified that by saying “Not my will but your will be done.” When someone has sinned against me, offended me, hurt me so bad I think I can never get over it, never forgive them, Jesus says in faith that root of bitterness can be uprooted, so that we might be like Christ and forgive those who sin against us.

Finally, the fourth hallmark of a  true disciple is that he will do his duty no matter how great the cost.  Vs. 7 "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'? 8 "But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'? 9 "He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? 10 "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

Here is the gist of what Jesus is teaching.  He has already made it clear that you don’t do your deeds to be seen of men.  Now He’s teaching that you don’t do your deeds to manipulate God into doing something special for you.  This is the other side of the word of faith movement that I was speaking of a moment ago.  They teach that if you really have faith then you will send them some money, even if you don’t really have it.  They say that is seed faith.  Then God will honor the seed faith that you planted by sending them money and God will refund that to you 10 times over.  It’s a very convenient doctrine for the false teachers.  They get rich but you get swindled. 

But I’m afraid this false doctrine has found it’s way into a lot of Christian thinking.  If we do this or that for God, then we think that somehow that obligates God to do something for us – usually our definition of blessing.  But Jesus says that God isn’t obligated to do something special for us because we have fulfilled our responsibility. 

The blessing is that God has chosen to use you in spite of your flaws, in spite of your unworthiness, in spite of how many times you may have proven yourself unfaithful.  There is a reward for a faithful servant of God.  Eye has not seen and ear has not heard the marvelous things that God has prepared that for those that love Him.  But that reward is in heaven and will be awarded to us in eternity.  But all you need to do is look at the lives of the apostles and the early disciples and see what kind of earthly rewards they got for preaching the gospel and following Christ.  Jesus said no servant is greater than His master.  And consequently all the apostles save John suffered martyrdom.  They were imprisoned.  They lived as outcasts from society.  They were flogged.  They were publicly scorned and ridiculed.  They left jobs, families and everything for the sake of following Christ. 

Listen, Jesus made it clear in chapter 14 at the beginning of this message that a disciple must first count the cost of following Him.  He said in Luke 14:27

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”  There is a cost in following Christ.  And there is great reward in following Christ.  But the suffering comes before the glory.  Romans 8:17 says that we are fellow heirs of Christ if we suffer with Him, then we shall also be glorified with Him.

Jesus is making it clear that if a true disciple is going to do the will of God, then he will be called upon to suffer, he must bear his cross, he must deny himself, he must serve God before he serves himself.  That is our duty as Christians.  To serve the Master as a faithful servant. 

I read recently the story of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson who commanded the English Royal Navy in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  This battle was considered one of England’s greatest victories, in which they defeated the French and Spanish navies.  Lord Nelson lost his life in that battle after being shot by a sniper.  But prior to that, he had lost an arm in another battle, and then after recovering from that lost the sight in an eye during another battle.  So the fact that he was even still in the fight at that point, still serving his country is remarkable and shows his courage and perseverance.  But as the battle of Trafalgar was about to be engaged, just before his death, he sent a message by signal flags out to all the ships.  The message was; “England expects that every man will do his duty.”  As the message circulated by flags throughout the Royal fleet, it is said that a cheer went up from each of the various ships.  And though the Royal Navy won the battle, Lord Nelson himself did his duty to England to the hilt, he paid the ultimate sacrifice. 

Such patriotism and reverence for country and king seems quite heroic, that men are willing to suffer and even die for their country.  But as Christians, what higher calling have we been given?  Citizenship in the kingdom of heaven expects no less.  The Lord Jesus Christ sends out his message today to all that are within His kingdom.  He says, “The kingdom of God expects that every man will do his duty.”  I pray that God will increase your faith so that you might do His will, no matter what the cost.  Let us pray.

A tale of two destinies; Luke 16:19-31

Today’s passage of scripture is one that I have found to be one of the most important in the New Testament in regards to understanding the afterlife.   However, my view is not one that is widely shared among Biblical commentators.   There is much disagreement over the proper interpretation of this passage amongst Biblical scholars.  By way of disclaimer, I do not profess in any way to be a Biblical scholar.

However, I will tell you how I view Biblical interpretation.  I believe that God’s word is sufficient in and of itself through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit working within us. To make a practical illustration;  I think that if a man living on a desert island alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean found a Bible washed up on the beach, even though he had never heard the gospel before that time, if he read the Bible he would have enough understanding to be saved.  Furthermore, if he continued to apply what he learned, and be obedient to what the Bible says, he could learn all the essential doctrine that is necessary.  I believe in the sufficiency of scripture. I believe in the completeness of scripture.  We don’t need some additional revelation and furthermore we should not seek it. And I believe in the absolute authority of scripture.  But I think the caveat to that understanding is that one must be obedient to the Holy Spirit to be taught by the Holy Spirit.  I believe in what I call progressive revelation.  That is as you are obedient to what the Holy Spirit teaches you through the word, then He will continue to lead you and guide you to all truth.  I think that is what is meant by Jesus in John 16:13 says speaking of the Holy Spirit, “that He will guide you into all truth.”

So as I have studied this passage for the last 25 years or so, I have come to see it in some respects as a missing piece to the puzzle of eschatology. Twenty five years ago when my father died I wanted to understand exactly where he was now.  And as I began to seriously study scripture for the answer I began to see how this passage links with other passages to give us a glimpse into the afterlife.  I think that this passage is significant in that it speaks to the issues of heaven and hell straight from the mouth of God Himself.  And so therefore it provides insight that no other person could have regarding the afterlife.

Unfortunately, this passage has suffered almost irreparable harm from well respected commentators and Biblical teachers because it has been relegated to an allegory.  Many well meaning and well respected men have called this a parable and as such have diminished the significance of what Jesus had to say regarding the afterlife.  My contention is that they call it a parable or an allegory in order to sustain what for many of them is a faulty doctrine of eschatology.  In other words, they came by their view of the end times by various means such as being taught a particular view in seminary and this passage does not fit into their doctrine of the afterlife.  Therefore some say that Jesus used fanciful allegorical elements that were not founded in reality in order to teach a principle.  So while they maintain that the principle is important, they say the incidental details described by Jesus are not important and may not even exist as He described them.  He was just using a fable that was popular with the rabbis of that day as a allegory to teach a principle.

I find that approach to be unsatisfactory on a number of fronts.  First of all, I believe it is an actual story of real people, not a parable.  And to support that view I simply point out that in none of the other 40 or so parables that Jesus gave did He ever attach a name to any of the characters.  But this story has 2 characters that are named; Lazarus and Abraham. Abraham was obviously a real person, so it is logical to assume that Lazarus was as well.  Secondly, Luke does not present this story as a parable.  He did not always do so, but many times he did introduce a parable by saying Jesus taught them another parable.  And thirdly, in order to dismiss all the incidental details that Jesus gave as allegorical, you also have to dismiss the normal template that Jesus employed for parables.  But again that is contrary to all the other parables that Jesus gave.  In all the other parables, Jesus used earthly stories to teach a heavenly principle.  And in order to do that He had to use illustrations from real life situations that the people would have been familiar with such a sowing a field with seed, or tending to sheep, or fishing or whatever.  But in this story, they want to say that Jesus uses an imaginary situation with no basis in reality in order to make a spiritual point.

So before we can really understand all that Jesus is teaching here, we must accept it as it appears; an actual story of two men that died which Jesus is able to tell because He is God and knows all things.  And if this information conflicts with what we learned from reading the “Left Behind” series of books, or what some television preacher taught, then we need to be suspect of those sources of information that are in conflict with what Jesus says.  We need to recognize fiction for what it is, and believe that Jesus is only able to speak the truth.

Now that being said, let’s make sure we don’t lose sight of the main point that Jesus was making and focus on the secondary points.  I think that a lot of information can be gleaned here about what happens after death and how that fits with the doctrine of the end times.  And I will address that briefly as we get to it.  But eschatology is not the main point of what Jesus is teaching.

What Jesus is teaching is the same thing He always taught; the gospel of the kingdom of God.  In parable after parable, in  illustration after illustration, and in confrontation after confrontation, Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God.  How to enter the kingdom of God and the distinctiveness of the kingdom of God.  And Jesus does that incrementally by a series of messages.  Sort of like the progressive revelation that I spoke of earlier.  Jesus doesn’t reduce the gospel of the kingdom to a pocket sized tract that says if you want to go to heaven then do these 5 steps in this order and you will be saved.  He doesn’t reduce the gospel to a little formula that says if you pray in just this way you will be saved.  He doesn’t dumb down the gospel to the point of just one word such as “Love”.  He doesn’t say that all you need to do is have a relationship with God.

No, if anything, Jesus seems to be making it more and more difficult to enter the kingdom of God.  When you look back over the last few chapters, it’s obvious that Jesus’ message becomes ever more confrontational.  He keeps talking about the same themes but from different perspectives.  But instead of making it easier to enter the kingdom Jesus seems to be making it harder.  He keeps raising the bar.

Just a cursory glimpse back reveals this fact. In chapter 14 Jesus said that no one can be His disciple who isn’t willing to count the cost of what it takes to follow Him.  He says no one can be His disciple that isn’t willing to give up his own possessions.  He goes on to say it may be necessary to leave your family in order to follow Him. He says that no one can follow Him unless he is willing to carry his own cross and come after Him.  He was going to Calvary to be crucified, and He says you have to be willing to do the same thing.

And to illustrate those principles He then gave a parable about a rich man who gave a big feast and invited all these people to his dinner.  They all said they wanted to come.  But when the time came for the dinner they all were busy doing other things; some were busy with work, others were busy with family, and others were busy buying and selling.  And Jesus said the host became very angry because they would not come to his dinner, and so he swore that none of those who were invited would taste of his dinner, but instead he would bring in people from the highways and the outer reaches to eat his dinner.

And so Jesus just keeps turning up the heat, revealing the exclusivity of the kingdom.  Repeatedly emphasizing that God will not be relegated to second place but must have preeminence.   By the time we get to chapter 16, Jesus has focused His attention on money and the world’s goods as symptoms of an unregenerate heart.  He says you cannot serve God and mammon.  You are either loving the world and the things of the world, or you love God and the things of God. He was illustrating that how you live reveals who you belong to.  See, the problem was that there were a lot of people in Jesus’ day, just as there are a lot of people in our day, that claim to be in the kingdom of God.  They seem to be pretty religious people on the surface.  But Jesus said God looks on the heart.  God sees the heart.  He knows the motives.  And Jesus sees the hypocrisy of those that say that they love God and yet in reality love the world.  They haven’t left anything for Christ.  They haven’t forsaken the world, but yet they want to claim the benefits of the kingdom.

In Jesus time, much as it is in our time, people thought that they were in the kingdom of God because of a relationship.  The Jews claimed their relationship to Abraham who they felt was their spiritual father.  And because they were descendants of Abraham they believed they were in the kingdom.  And so as proof of their favored status, they believed that prosperity was a blessing from God.  So the more religious you were, the more money that you had because that is how they defined blessing.

That sounds a lot like the prosperity gospel  that false teachers like Joel Olsteen and Joyce Meyers and others on the CBN network love to espouse today.  They tell you that it costs nothing to have a relationship to God, that He just loves you so much and He wants to bless you.  And if you just have faith in God then He will give you all kinds of blessings.  Particularly monetary blessings.  God wants you to be rich.  That concept of blessing happens to be completely at odds with Jesus’ teaching.

So Jesus tells this story to once again show the disparity between what you claim to be and what you are.  He tells this story to show that how you live is a reflection of what you believe.  And that if earthly prosperity is what you are living for, then eternal destitution is what you are headed for. Furthermore, He teaches that you cannot discard the law of God to please yourself and still claim to love God.  You cannot love God and despise your neighbor.

Now as we look at this story, Jesus says that the rich man had all that the world could offer;  Jesus said “he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.”  Purple was a very expensive dye in those days.  And so this guy had all the best clothes that money could buy.  He ate the finest food. Luxury characterized this man’s life.

Then Jesus contrasts that life of luxury with that of a beggar.  He  said that there was a poor man named Lazarus who laid outside the gate of the rich man’s house.  This beggar was covered in sores and longed to even eat of the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  In those days, dogs were not pets like we have now.  They roamed the street in packs and were filthy, mangy dogs that carried diseases.  And we can assume from this description that Lazarus is probably disabled because Jesus said he laid at the gate and the dogs came up and licked his sores.  He was unable to defend himself against the wild dogs roaming the streets.

Now from a superficial point of view, Lazarus was a nobody.  He had nothing.  No friends, no family and no resources.  And in contrast to him, the rich man had everything the world had to offer.

But what goes without saying was that obviously Lazarus had something of the greatest value that wasn’t apparent on the outside, but God knew his heart.  And so when Lazarus died, God sent His angels to take him to Abraham’s bosom.  Lazarus was so poor that he didn’t even get a proper burial.  They probably carted him off to the local dump and dropped him off there.

The rich man also dies.  You know, death is the great equalizer, isn’t it?  Death comes to us all, whether we live in a cottage or a castle.  Whether rich or poor, death comes to us all.  Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.  Jesus says the rich man was buried.  I’m sure he had a nice funeral.  Lots of people may have said nice things about him.  But though he was rich in the world’s goods he was destitute in the matter of eternity. The rich man died and found himself in Hades.

Vs. 23 Jesus says, “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.”

Now I don’t want to lose sight of the primary focus of the message.  But I will take a moment to teach you what I think this passage is saying concerning the afterlife.  In the Old Testament, the afterlife was referred to as Sheol.  It was the abode of the dead.  In the New Testament, Sheol is referred to as Hades.  And according to what is implied in Scripture, Hades is in the middle of the Earth.  It is composed of two compartments, an upper and lower region.  The upper region is what is called Paradise.  And the lower regions is simply called Hades; a place of torment and fire.  Between the two, Jesus says, is a great gulf, or chasm.

Now that brings up a lot of questions that the Bible does not answer.  We don’t know how this all functions.  We don’t know how spirits experience torment from flames, for instance.  We don’t know how Abraham and the rich man were able to communicate across such great distances between Paradise and Hades.  We are just given glimpses behind the veil of death that do not answer all our questions.

But here is what we do know.  Jesus said to the thief on the cross as He was dying, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.  And yet three days later He told Mary after His resurrection to “stop clinging to Me, I have not yet ascended to My Father.”  So if God is in heaven and Jesus went to Paradise then He must have gone to Hades.  And so He did according to a number of passages in the Bible.  Acts 2:27 “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will  You suffer your Holy One to see corruption.”  Peter says that while He was there He preached to those in prison.  That would be the souls in Hades. 1Pet. 3:18-19  “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,”   Paul tells us where Hades is located in Eph. 4:8-9 “Wherefore he said, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?” The apostle’s creed confirms that; “Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: The third day he rose again from the dead.”

Furthermore, we know that in Paradise we experience the presence of the Lord.  Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Jesus is omnipresent because He is God.  And God will comfort His people in Paradise.  And we also know that we will not stay there, but we are awaiting the resurrection of the dead.  One day Jesus promised to return for His people and Paul describes this in 1Thess. 4:15, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” [asleep is a Biblical term for the dead in Christ, those in Paradise] “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [this is the first resurrection, the dead in Christ] “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Now there will be another resurrection that is described in Revelation 20:13, that of the dead in Hades, the unsaved awaiting the judgment.  It says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”  Now that’s a summary of my view of eschatology.  I am not going to break fellowship with someone who disagrees with me on a point or two.  And I hope you will have the same attitude and don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.  But hopefully I have illustrated why I think this passage is the key to understanding what happens after we die.

But even if you disagree with me on some of the particulars of eschatology, one thing should be absolutely clear from this illustration.  There are two possible outcomes when you die.  There are only two possible destinies.  If you want to call it heaven or hell that is fine by me.  Jesus calls it Hades and Abraham’s bosom.
Now let’s look at the rest of the story.

The rich man in Hades, being in torment in the flames, lifts up his eyes and sees Lazarus afar off in Abraham’s bosom.  Now in a previous chapter, Jesus said to the Pharisees “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.”  See, the Jews thought that Abraham was their father and they inherited the kingdom of God from him.  But Jesus is saying that they would not enter because they were children of Abraham but only if they were children of God.  Entrance into the kingdom is not by the means of the flesh but by the work of the Spirit.

For Lazarus, Abraham’s bosom is a reference to the celebratory feast like that the father of the prodigal son threw in his honor.  Jesus said that there was celebration among the angels over one sinner who repents.  Abraham’s bosom is a way of speaking of the place of honor at that feast, leaning against the person at the head of the table. It is a place of comfort, of peace, of reward, of being filled with good things.

 Jesus does not describe the conversion of Lazarus.  But please understand that there is no social gospel here that is teaching that there is some sort of merit to being poor.  But rather Lazarus typifies the attitude of a person enters the kingdom.  In the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, Jesus says “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”  “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.”  Jesus was picturing in that sermon just the sort of attitude that Lazarus symbolized.  If you will enter the kingdom of God, then you must recognize that your own righteousness counts for nothing.  You must come to God as a beggar, begging for forgiveness.  You must come like the prodigal son who said I am not worthy to be your son, please let me be as your servant.  You must come mourning over your sin.  That is repentance.

In contrast, the rich man is in torment.  He whose life was one of ease and luxury on earth is now in terrible torment.  But again, Jesus isn’t advocating some sort of social justice, but He is describing divine justice.  He is describing the wrath of God against sinners.  He is illustrating the same principle He espoused in the earlier parable concerning the invitation to the dinner and the people that were too busy to come.  He is displaying the judgment of God upon those that are too busy living a life in the world to value the things of God’s kingdom.  His life of selfishness and self fulfillment did nothing to store up for himself treasure in the kingdom of God.  He has not invested in eternity and so he is now destitute.

The rich man calls out to Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water so that a drop could be given to quench his agony in the flames.   This statement reveals first of all that he knew Lazarus.  He knew his name.  He obviously had seen him lying at his gate begging all those years and known who he was and his condition and yet he had ignored him.  And in so doing he ignored the law of God.  Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, and He said, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength and the second one is like unto it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Well the rich man had defied the law of God.  He neither loved God nor his neighbor.  You can’t get a much closer neighbor than one that lays outside your driveway every day.  Here is a guy who never lifted a finger to help Lazarus, and now that he is helpless he wants Lazarus to help him by dipping his finger in water. He is still trying to order people around to serve himself.  He loved only himself.

Listen, love is not about liking someone.  It’s not about loving your friends.  It’s about loving the unloveable, loving your enemies. Loving those that don’t deserve it.  Love is not an emotion, but an act of will.  God’s love is sacrificial love; agape love.  It’s the kind of love that Christ had for us that He laid down His life for us.  God says if you love Me, you will feed My sheep.  If you love Me, tend My lambs.  If you say you are in the kingdom of God, that you are a child of God, then act like God.  Be gracious to those who need it and even to those who don’t deserve it.  The rich man lived luxuriously for himself.  His lifestyle manifested the kind of person that he was.  He revealed what he believed by how he lived.  Listen, God isn’t interested in lip service.  This idea that we can honor God by giving Him lip service, singing a few “praise” songs and then live the rest of the week for ourselves is a lie from the devil.  God is honored by obedience.  “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Then the rich man tries to order another service from Lazarus.  If you can’t help me, how about helping out my family?  I have five brothers back home.  Send Lazarus back there to warn them so they will not to come to this place.  But once again Abraham tells him it isn’t going to happen. Vs. 29, “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’  “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

This little exchange is insightful because it speaks of the way people think about the gospel.  If God would just reveal Himself to me then I would be saved.  If God would just do some great miracle that I want Him to do then I would be saved. We try to dictate the terms of our surrender.  But the truth is that they wouldn’t be saved.  Salvation is by faith.  And what is seen is not faith, but that which is unseen.  Salvation is nothing less than unconditional surrender to the God of the universe, to serve Him completely.  Abraham says that they have Moses and the prophets and that is enough.  Let them listen to them.  What he is referring to is the entire scriptures up to that point.  That was a way of referring to all of the known scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi.  Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, commonly known as the Law.  And all the rest of the scriptures was called the prophets.

You may remember how on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection, Jesus joins two disciples who are walking and are discussing among themselves in a very discouraged way the events of the last few days.  And as Jesus joins their conversation, it says in Luke 24:27“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”  The point being is that they had even in the Old Testament more than enough revelation to know that Jesus was the Messiah.  He was the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head, He was the offspring of Abraham who would bless all the nations of the earth, He was the substitute for the sacrifice that Abraham was offered in place of his son.  He was the Great High Priest who would enter into the Holy of Holies once for all.  He was the scapegoat that was driven outside the camp.  He was the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

The scripture is still the way to enter the kingdom of God. Romans 1 says it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.  We want to try to use all sorts of modern media, to try to dumb down the gospel, we want to make our churches seeker friendly so we don’t scare someone out of the church.  But we have forgotten the admonition of Jesus; John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

1Cor. 1:18, Paul said, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

In closing, I am very concerned that so very many people exist today in the church that think that they are ok, that think they are in the kingdom of God.  They claim to have a relationship with God based on some external thing or other and yet their hearts are unchanged.  They may have been baptized.  Or they may have had an emotional experience once that they thought was spiritual.  Maybe they had some crisis and they were told to have faith in God and they think that was how they got saved.  Some raised their hand in an emotionally charged service one time and maybe came forward and said a prayer.  I don’t know what you are trusting in for your eternal destiny.  But I hope you are trusting in the truth of the gospel.  I hope you have come to Christ as the prodigal son came home, in repentance, willing to become a servant.  I hope that you have come like Lazarus, as a beggar, mourning over your sinful condition.  Helpless, hoping only in God’s grace and Christ’s righteousness and begging to be made a new creation.  Listen, it’s not about just believing in God.  The Bible says the devil’s believe in God and they are not saved. Eph. 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Grace is the gift of God; sending Jesus to take your place on the cross to pay the penalty of your sins.  Faith is believing in all that God is and all that God says that He is in His word.  Abraham was the father of faith.  Abraham believed God and it was counted unto Him as righteousness.  How did Abraham show he believed God?  By obeying, going out to a place that he didn’t know, living in tents, confessing that he was  a stranger and a sojourner in this world.  He had faith to obey God.  That is the result of faith; to be given a new heart, a new spirit,  created for good works, so that we would walk in them.  Salvation is a desperate appeal unto God to remake you and forgive you and change you so that you might serve Christ and Christ alone.

Listen, the rich man’s lifestyle revealed what he believed. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. You can fool other people into thinking you are a Christian.  You can even fool yourself into thinking you are a Christian.  But you cannot fool God.  God sees the heart.   I pray that today you examine yourself in the light of God’s word. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. There are only two possible destinations when you die.  There are no second chances. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  Let’s pray.