Repent: An Unpopular Command
Journey to Jerusalem • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:50
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· 65 viewsGod requires repentance from all before it is too late, Our faithfulness is demonstrated in compassionately pointing others to the remedy for their situation.
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The need for faithful service that we noticed last week in Luke 12 gets enlightened a little more in the first few verses of Luke 13.
Our faithfulness is found when we accurately answer these 3 questions.
Are Some Sinners Worse than Others? (vv.1-5)
Are Some Sinners Worse than Others? (vv.1-5)
Wrong Assumptions (v.1)
Wrong Assumptions (v.1)
1. At the end of chapter 12 Jesus has chided those who misread current events. At the beginning of chapter 13 we hear of 2 incidents that they were also misreading. The problem in this first group of verses is that the people had a wrong Assumption.
2. They assumed that if they did not experience tragedy, then God must be okay with them. Jesus tells them 2x (in 3 & 5) that they need to “get right if they don’t want to get left”!
3. The 2nd assumption is that there were some present who thought they could trick Jesus into saying something against Pilate, which would put a bullseye on his back.
4. Let me try to fill in some of the gaps to help us understand the environment in which Jesus is speaking.
Galilean Blood (v.1-3)
Galilean Blood (v.1-3)
1. We don’t know the specifics of this massacre, so we don’t know how many people it involved.
2. However, we do know that Pilate had conflicts with Jewish pilgrims that he frequently squelched by force. As tourist would come to Jerusalem during feasts, Pilate would be there to remind them that they were under his rule. Apparently, as they came to offer sacrifices, some of them were killed and metaphorically their blood was mixed with the blood of the animals they were there to sacrifice.
3. Just as our news in the last few years has been filled with demonstrators of various causes who were arrested and detained, these in v.1 mention their “demonstrators” who got caught by Pilate’s soldiers.
4. Jesus asks if those who got punished as an example are any worse than any other from Judea or Galilee who had come for the festival.
5. He concludes that ALL (whether caught or not) who lack biblical repentance will perish.
6. [Perhaps the word repent deserves a word of explanation. God doesn’t expect us to clean up ourselves to make us more presentable to Him, so what is the turn/change that is required? It is more than “being sorry for sin (or sorry that we got caught)”. I admire the idea that repentance is more than being emotionally sorry for sin, it is being sorry enough to quit! I’ve concluded that the word repent as it relates to the Gospel is “to have a genuinechange of mind about the seriousness of sin, so that our behaviors change.” It is not about the behavior change as much as the attitude change that prompts it.]
A Tower Tragedy (vv.4-5)
A Tower Tragedy (vv.4-5)
1. Again, we don’t have historical record of this particular construction mishap, so we are left to put together the pieces that we have and glue them together with a little deduction.
2. Since Jesus specifically quantifies the number of victims, I presume this was an actual event that would have been fresh in the memory of his contemporary audience.
3. the Lexham Bible Dictionary describes this Tower of Siloam, as being on the western slope of Mount Zion. It may have been located where the village now called Silwan, or Kefr Silwan, sits: on the east of the valley of Kidron, and to the northeast of the pool. The book of Nehemiah mentions “a projecting tower” in connection with Ophel, which may be the tower of Siloam (Neh 3:26).[i]
4. Just as speculation about God’s judgment gets connected to climate events, it seems like some believed that the wickedness of these construction workers prompted God to judge them.
5. Jesus repeats that the sins of these victims were no worse than the sins of his audience, and says again that ALL must repent to avoid perishing.
Transition: To the understanding that ALL are in need of repentance, Jesus turns His attention to our attitude toward other sinners.
Are Some Sinners Beyond Help? (vv.6-9)
Are Some Sinners Beyond Help? (vv.6-9)
Fruitless Trees
Fruitless Trees
1. In a story recorded in Mt 21 & Mk 11, it is Jesus who expresses frustration with a fruitless tree.
2. Here we see a parable involving the Vineyard owner and a vinedresser (the faithful workers we saw last week).
3. Interestingly, this is not the first time in the Bible we see a 3 year wait for fruit.
23 “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten.
4. God knew with the Israelites, as He does with us, that we can get impatient. We want to see change and improvement in others. We get frustrated when they require our forgiveness 70x70 times.
Drs. Cloud and Townsend have sold over 2 million copies of the book that was revised 4 years ago. I’ve read the book, I’ve taught the book and I believe it has some very good information. However, I’m concerned when I see people shutting others out in the name of self-love or protecting oneself.
In S.S. in the Fellowship Hall class we spoke about those who try to silence others.
IF we are to erect boundaries between others and us, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that we don’t do so in a way that would lessen God’s work in their or our lives.
God just might be trying to do something in your heart through that hard to live with person. God may wish to use you to bring that person to Himself.
5. It is wise for us to be cautious in erecting barriers between us and the people God calls us to love. [Even if it IS sometimes necessary in situations of abuse or predation!] Just as we don’t have the right to deny the image of God in another person, NO other person has a right to diminish the imago dei in you either!
A Timely Lesson
A Timely Lesson
1. One commentator writes, “As with many parables, it is unwise to press the details to the point of allegorical correspondence. It is better to see the story as a whole as enforcing Jesus’s call for repentance and warning that there is a limit to God’s patience with those who reject his grace.”[ii]
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; 13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
2. There is a deadline to God’s mercy.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
3. Just as Abraham bartered with God to spare Sodom in Genesis 18, there may be people whom you are praying that God give them a little more opportunity to repent.
Transition: Jesus has clearly said that ALL need to repent and that there is a deadline on that decision. But should we emphasize the judgement of the deadline or the mercy of the extension? Are we too quick to write off others?
Are there limits on our Helpfulness? (vv.10-17)
Are there limits on our Helpfulness? (vv.10-17)
Excusing Bad Behavior
Excusing Bad Behavior
1. In the previous section we saw a vinedresser who was willing to try anything possible to save one of his plants. In this section we find a religious leader who was looking to do as little as possible to help a person in distress.
I must admit my own struggles in this very area! You can imagine that as a pastor I get requests of all sorts for assistance—usually money. I never quite understand how some people who would never think of attending a Bible Study or worship service, not to mention making a donation to a church, somehow believe that a church ought to be dolling out money like a vending machine. I wonder where these people think the money comes from, that churches distribute.
I confess that my default mode in most of these situations is to question how the person stewards their resources and abilities.
Many years ago I was challenged by an economist to consider a book by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert. The situation was when I mentioned an initiative by a teen to collect loose change in order to buy the freedom of some who were being trafficked in modern slavery. The challenge given to me was that buying one slave’s freedom just feeds the greed motive of the traffickers in a way that they would continue their practice.
This has forced me to give thought to the ways that I may be enabling poor choices if help is not given toward to true underlying bondage.
I have been asked to help with utility bills, but when I press into the situation I find that existing income and expenses normally are going to have this same problem recur 2-3 months down the line.
2. I don’t want to ever be an as little as possible, but I also never want to place a band-aid on a cancer.
3. Jesus doesn’t offer Tylenol, He cures an 18 year affliction! I want to partner with God wherever possible to see captives set free.
I know for a fact that we are not alone in this quandry. Ann’s medicine cabinet has bottles and syringes that help relieve side effects of chemotherapy. I have had personal conversations with those in our church who are right now seeking answers to the effects of natural and pharmaceutical compounds that influence short term comfort AND long term prognoses.
Ann told me 2 weeks ago about a discussion with one of you who has been on this path, who compassionately inquired “When do we say ‘enough is enough’?”.
4. I trust that your desire is NOT to be like the religious leader who is unnecessarily callous, but to be like Jesus who offers compassion that truly addresses real needs.
2 wrong Assumptions
2 wrong Assumptions
1. A miracle of God is NOT a work of Man.
a. Jesus did no more work than to touch the lady.
b. I’ve seen people in many places in the world who feel like they can move the hand of God by the extent to which they get worked up over a situation.
c. You may have heard of those who crawl on their knees to identify with Christ’s suffering, or those who beat themselves with whips or carry a heavy cross in a parade to prove their devotion.
d. I’ve observed some prayer meetings where people act as if the more impassioned they are in expressing their request, the more like God is to respond.
e. The interaction between our faith and a move of God is NOT great faith in a little God, it is little faith (a mustard seed) in a more-than-capable God.
2. Humans deserve the mercy/emergency exception.
a. I confessed my short-comings in extending mercy to those in distress. I will also confess that I am in the group of people who may cry more over a deceased pet than a relative who passes.
b. Just as a shepherd who ensures the 99 are safe then goes to look for the lost one, I know those who tend animals in Chase County put great effort into limiting the stress on their livestock.
c. Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of one who would take intentional action to feed an animal while denying basic decency for a suffering human being.
Transition: We’ve looked at 3 interrelated stories in these 17 verses today. Let me tie it all together with the common thread of repentance.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
I read this week, ““When you must correct, do so gently; when you must compliment, do so forcefully.”
As your pastor I desire to be gentle, but clear when we find corrective words in Scripture.
We started by seeing that ALL need to repent. I trust you have come to that point in your life when you have had a change of mind regarding the seriousness of sin, been willing to turn from it, and turn to Christ.
Next, we saw the compassion of someone who was patiently working with a goal of seeing someone else become fruitful. Is there someone God has laid on your heart that you seek to repent?
Finally, we are called to expand and extend compassion rather than stingily look for excuses to ignore the pain of others.
[i] John D. Barry et al., eds., “Siloam, Tower of,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
[ii] R. T. France, Luke, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2013), 232.