Motivation Over Intimidation
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We live in a society that at times seems to have lost its mind. All of us have seen or heard of school boards, teachers, and principals that are teaching children that they can be whatever gender they want to be. They are not simply teaching against what Scripture teaches but against what nature teaches. They teach against ontology—the actual being of a person. And thousands, if not millions, of parents are waking up to the fact that their children are being taught and have already been taught so many untruths, they don’t even know what to do about it.
And one of the problems is that the parents of these children were taught the predecessor of these untruths. My generation was told by parents and teachers of the previous generation that we could be anything and anyone we wanted to be. Postmodern thinking had already infiltrated my generation and planted seeds of “being true to yourself,” and being “your authentic self.” Now the fruit of those lessons is coming forth.
Lessons from one generation bear greater fruit in the next. If the lessons are good, they can bear good fruit—more than ever hoped for. But if they are bad, they can be to the detriment of the learners and their subsequent students.
Such was what was happening among the Pharisees and their students. As we open up Luke 12 this morning, we see that Jesus gives three warnings to his followers because of the false teachings from the Pharisees that were bearing bad fruit in the lives of their hearers. He first warned them against deception. Secondly, he warned against dissuasion. Finally, he warned against depreciation.
A Warning Against Deception
A Warning Against Dissuasion
A Warning Against Depreciation
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
A Warning Against Deception
A Warning Against Deception
The first warning that Jesus gave had to do with deception. It was a warning against deception. Hypocrisy is nothing more than an attempt at deceiving those around you in an attempt to make them think you’re someone you’re not. That’s really what hypocrisy is. It was originally a theatrical word. It meant “acting.” A hypocrite was an “actor.” It is an actor’s job to convince his audience that he is not himself but his character.
Jesus warned his disciples against acting, not as a profession, but as an expression. He warned them against the caving into the natural tendency that we as human’s have to pretend to be that which we are not. In other words, he warned against deception. And understand that this is not just a Pharisee problem. Yes, they were hypocrites, but this isn’t just about Pharisees. This is a human problem, and specifically a problem for those who want to be holy.
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
As we begin this first warning, notice that Jesus is really warning his disciples as a first priority. Others may overhear what he has to say, but he is concerned more with his followers than he is for the “Johnny come lately.” And he tells them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and then explains what he means. It’s their hypocrisy. He calls it leaven. Leaven is often used in a negative way. It typically is used because of how it spreads and infiltrates the entire dough.
So when Jesus warned against hypocrisy—against deception, he was telling his disciples that deception grows quickly. It not only grows outward, but inward as well. What I mean is what we saw a couple of weeks ago where Jesus stated that the Pharisees were unmarked graves and people were walking on them unknowingly. Not only were the Pharisees unclean themselves, but they were causing others to be unclean. Here, it’s leaven. Their deception was causing others to walk in deception as well. Thus it grows outward—from person to person. And this wasn’t necessarily taught with words, but by actions. Often times, more is caught than taught. The students, if they’re paying attention, will see clues that lives aren’t matching words. But it can be so subtle that they begin doing the same things.
But it grows inwardly as well. Once a person begins to live a life of deception, that life continues on. The pressure to continue on making people believe you are something you’re not is tremendous. The shame that comes with people finding out that you’re not whom you pretend to be is too great to bear for most people and so one deceptive act leads to another which leads to another. And suddenly, the person who is deceiving others, soon deceives himself or herself so that he or she doesn’t even know himself or herself. He’s been playing this part for so long—she’s been acting this way for so long—that the true identity has been lost among all the leavening. And for what?!
Notice what Jesus said,
Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Eventually, everything will come out. At some point—whether at the Great White Throne judgment or some time before then if God so chooses, everything will be revealed. Everything will be known. Those perfect Instagram lives will show themselves to be falsehoods. Many people whom we would see as holy will be found to be fakes. This has been seen over the past decade or so within the church. The sexual abuse within the Church of Rome as well as in the Southern Baptist Convention, and pretty much any denomination and some non-denominational churches. Pastors who thought to be living as though they’ve got it all figured out are exposed as those who were committing adultery, cheating on taxes, and committing spiritual, emotional, and verbal abuse. And a person could easily and legitimately wonder, “If the leadership is so hypocritical—those whom we look to for guidance in standards of holiness, what must their congregation be like?”
Beloved, we need to heed this warning. If we are doing something in the dark, it will be exposed to the light. Those late night pornographic trips to the computer or smart phone will be exposed. Those statements made anonymously online are not anonymous to God. They will be revealed. Those words of gossip that’s just between the closest of friends will come out. It can only stay hidden for so long.
A Warning Against Dissuasion
A Warning Against Dissuasion
And this takes us to the next warning. This second warning builds on the first. Where as the warning against deception is a negative warning, the warning against dissuasion is a more positive warning. Let’s take a look at
Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Remember that there is parallelism in Hebrew, where someone will state something and then restate it in a different way. There are different types of parallelism and one of those types is antithetic parallelism. It restates the matter in an opposite way. So if one statement is negative, the other become positive. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain; honor the Lord’s name. One is negative and one is positive. Something like that is going on here. The first statement is that “NOTHING is hidden.” In this verse though, we see a more positive aspect. Though it doesn’t say “Everything is revealed,” it makes clear that all that is said in the dark will be heard in the light.
But this is not just a restatement of what Jesus said, but also an introduction to what he is about to say. We could say that this verse is a transition verse. It’s preparing us for what Jesus is about to tell us.
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
In essence, Jesus said, “whatever you say behind closed doors is going to come out anyway. Don’t be afraid then of those who can do physical harm.” What Jesus has been teaching his disciples, what they have learned from him by listening and watching him is going to be exposed to the world. This is God’s plan. Therefore, don’t be afraid of what people are going to do.
Now you may be thinking, “I don’t see that at all.” But I promise it’s there. Keep in mind the context. While we haven’t gotten there yet, we see that this is in the immediate context. We’ll talk about them next week, but let’s look at the verses just to see the context.
“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,
but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
It’s easy to allow what is said in private—let’s say these four walls of this worship center—and keep it to ourselves. We know that these words won’t be well-received by the outside world. We know that if we said what we’ve heard to our co-workers, they wouldn’t like it. They may ignore us, mock us, or malign us to others. Jesus is warning us that we must not let these fears dissuade us from speaking in public.
One may think about the young man who was blind, but whom Jesus healed at the pool of Siloam in John 9. Because of his testimony this young man was kicked out of the synagogue. His social standing plummeted. Or we may think upon Stephen who proclaimed the truth of Jesus the Christ and confronted the men of Judah those who always sought to put a wrench into God’s plan. He was stoned to death for it.
But what do we see in both of these passages? Jesus. He didn’t leave them though they were rejected. Jesus went to the man who was kicked out of the synagogue. He stood at the right hand of God as he welcomed his faithful servant Stephen.
Jesus warned us that we must not be dissuaded from speaking the truth we’ve heard in the private rooms because of offending hypocrites who pretend to be holy. Instead, we ought to be motivated by an awe, a reverence for a truly holy God who not only has the power to kill the body, but send souls to hell. What of offending him!?
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Now, the word “hell” here is the word gehenna. Gehenna comes from the Hebrew meaning, “Valley of Hinnom.” It was in this place that we see child sacrifices being made to Molech. Built by King Solomon and used most likely by King Manasseh, and finally destroyed by King Josiah, it became known as an accursed place. During the intertestamental times, the valley became synonymous with punishment. By the New Testament, it was a trash heap that was constantly burning rubbish. It was the worst place imaginable. It was a gross, abominable, burning place. Jesus used it as an analogy. God has the power not only to kill the body, but also to accurse the soul.
Most likely, Jesus was referring to those who allow fear to dissuade them from talking (as we see he continues this line of thought in verses 8 and 9). But there is also the idea that those whom we do not tell are also at risk of facing God’s wrath of hell. Thus, it is a loving thing to speak the truth and overcome fear. It is both love for God and for neighbor.
1 John 4:18
A Warning Against Depreciation
A Warning Against Depreciation
Which then leads us to the third warning. We’ve seen a warning against deception. We cannot continue being hypocrites. Our actions will be exposed. We’ve seen a warning against dissuasion. We cannot let fear of what others will do to us dissuade us from speaking the truth publically. And now we see a warning against depreciation. By that I mean that we depreciation, devalue if you’d like, who and what we are.
Look at what Jesus said here.
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
We are Reformed Baptists. In other words, we believe in the doctrines of grace. To put it a little more succinctly, we’re Calvinists. We believe in total depravity and unconditional election. We love quotes like, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” And on top of that we adore the first question of the Westminster Catechism. “What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” And it is easy to take that theology and let it shape our thinking into that which says, “We are of little value. We are nothing. We don’t matter. It’s all about God. We mean nothing.”
And beloved, that is simply not true. That is a warped view of reality that Satan wants you to believe. Jesus had no qualms about telling us how valuable we are in God’s sight. We ought not have any qualms about believing it. Nor should we have any qualms about telling others the same thing.
That being said, I will tell you how not to read these verses because it’s not the way Jesus intended it to be understood. Five sparrows for two pennies, huh? I’m of more value than many sparrows? So let’s say a dozen sparrows make up many. That means I’m more valuable than a nickle’s worth of sparrows. Wow! I’m valued so much.
That’s not what Jesus meant. Outside of our postmodern era, it was self-evident that humans are more valuable than animals. We humans have intrinsic worth. The Jewish people should have understood this better than anyone else, as they were revealed that humanity was created in God’s image. But everyone understood the intrinsic value of humanity. One was to treat a person better than a dog or a cat or a fish or a donkey or a bird.
So when Jesus proclaimed that God doesn’t forget a sparrow, he was saying that even that which is insignificant in our eyes is significant to God. He keeps track of every single sparrow and they are worth virtually nothing to us. But to God, they are always on his radar.
The hairs on our head are numbered. Think about that for a second. Depending on how thick of hair a person has that is between 90,000 and 150,000 hairs per head that God is keeping track of. The average person loses 50-100 hairs every day! We don’t spend very much time counting our hairs either on our head or in our brush. But God keeps up with every single one.
And you may be tempted to say that Jesus is just using hyperbole here. He’s just exaggerating how much God cares. But that’s not true. God is sovereign over this universe. Nothing at all ever happens without his approval. Not even the shedding of one single hair. Something so insignificant to us is significant to God.
What then does that mean about our bodies as a whole? What does that mean about our souls? If God has not forgotten the sparrow—and by the way, it would be legitimate to translate that as “neglected the sparrow”—If God has not neglected the sparrow, if God has not overlooked the number of hairs on your head, then surely he will not neglect you. He will not overlook what is going on in your life. He will not forget you in your darkness, in your danger, in your temptation, in your trials.
It is vital that we understand that this third warning builds on the other two. So long as we depreciate our value, the more likely we will choose deception and be dissuaded from speaking truth. The more we think our lives are of such little value, the more we can and will be dissuaded from telling others the truth of God’s Word. The less we see value in our fellow man or woman, the less likely we will be concerned about their salvation. The more we think that God does not care or that God easily forgets us, neglects us, overlooks what we are going through and dealing with, the more likely we are to fear what man can do to us. After all, God may not be paying attention to us in the moment of our persecution.
The more we depreciate our value, the more we appreciate sin. We’re nothing more than rotten old sinners and what we do doesn’t matter. God doesn’t care. The more we think that God is not watching us because he cares for us, the more we will drift into sin. After all, God is neglecting us, so he won’t even notice. We don’t say these things, but we naturally act this way.
Jesus’s warning here is one we must heed. To depreciate our value is to elevate fear and elevate hypocrisy. This is why we see Jesus saying, “fear not.”
So what are we afraid of? If God cares enough to control what happens to the hairs of our head, does he not care enough to control what happens to our bodies? Does he not care what happens to our souls? The God who carries a sparrow from life to death, will he not take care of our precious souls? The God who guides where our shed hair falls, will he not guide us to heaven’s gates? Sure, there are plenty of martyrs—those who have died for the faith. There are plenty of confessors—those who were tortured for the faith but survived. That’s what we are afraid of. Yet, Jesus says that God’s got this all in his hands. We need not fear. These men—these Pharisees can do a lot to the physical body. They may even kick one out of the synagogue and declare him condemned and bound to hell. But they have no authority. Only God has that authority. He will see you safely home.
This is why Paul could say,
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
This is why the Psalmist could sing:
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Oh that we would be more in awe about what God can do and less of what man can do!
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish this portion of Luke, we’ve seen Jesus giving three warnings to those who follow him because of the false teaching they had been exposed to that would bring about bad fruit. He warned them against living lives of deception. He warned them against living lives where they were dissuaded from speaking the truth because of fear. He warned them against depreciating their own value, but instead seeing their true worth in God’s eyes.
You and I both know that this isn’t just a warning for them, but is for us as well. Too many Christians are caught in a web of deceit. Who they are in public is not who they are in private. Too many of us are dissuaded from speaking of Jesus and the gospel because we fear what our fellow-man might do to us. We doubt our worth to God and do not see his plan as good as it relates to us because we aren’t worth his time, his attention, his devotion, his action.
Some do not really know this love. They haven’t experienced it. They do not know the extent that God was willing to go through to demonstrate his love.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
There is nothing that God would not do for us and for our good. There is a reason that just before this verse, we read one of the greatest promises ever given.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
If you want this kind of love from your Creator, put your trust in Jesus whom God sent in love to take your place, so you can be called God’s child.
For we who follow Jesus, we have the promise that everything will work for our good because God cares about us enough to even to number the hairs on our heads. His sovereign plan may not always be fun. It may not always be exciting. But it will always be good. So do not fear. Do not fear to follow Jesus every step. Do not fear to speak of him not only in darkness or in hidden rooms, but among those who can hurt you, but can only do so for your own good.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
I pray for all of us who are here this morning. I do not believe that any of us intend to be deceivers. None of us want to be hypocrites and yet we are in a vicious cycle of living one way before our brothers and sisters and another way behind closed doors. May we heed the warnings of Christ. We want to be holy and yet we impair such a desire because of our hypocrisy. Father, I ask that we would bring to light our hypocrisy for the sake of finding help and for the sake of our holiness.
There are some here this morning who believe that the worst fate we could have is to be rejected by those we know. We fear what a person we admire could do to us and are dissuaded from speaking truth. We are dissuaded from proclaiming the gospel. Father, show us your glory, your beauty. Show us that you are more deserving of our admiration, respect and fear than anyone on earth.
Strengthen us to think rightly and soberly, as Paul wrote to the Romans, about ourselves. May we understand our value and worth to you. May we not think too highly, but also may we never think too lowly of who we are, lest we fall into greater hypocrisy and greater fear—greater sin than we’ve known before.
I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.