Live for the One Who Matters Most
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
March 18, 2018
The last weekend of November, I had the privilege of preaching the final sermon in our old building. This morning I have the privilege of preaching the first sermon in our newly renovated building. A few people pointed out to me how neat that is because for the last 6 months, my main job has been overseeing the renovations and the building move. I appreciate the thought, but I do feel a little like the captain who gets to go down with the ship if the sounds system starts malfunctioning and the toilets begin to overflow. Who’s in charge of this mess? I guess that guy.If you have a Bible, please turn with me to Luke 12:1–12. There should be some in the pews as well. In those Bible’s the passage is on page 989.This morning we are continuing right where we left off last week. We are teaching through the book of Luke, which is one account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We’re doing this because at our church we preach through books of the Bible, which means I might not have otherwise chosen this passage for this Sunday. It’s not a traditional “building dedication passage,” if there is such a thing. Luke 12 has a sharp edge to it. But I suppose there is also a sharp edge to a scalpel, and in the right hands, a scalpel can be used for great good. Let’s read this passage together and pray that God would be our teacher, helping us to see not only sharp edges but also the good he has for us.
Scripture Reading
Let’s read the passage, then we’ll pray that God would be our teacher.12 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. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 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.4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 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! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Prayer
This is God’s Word. Thanks be to God. “Heavenly Father . . .”
Introduction
We all have times in our life that, as we look back on them, we regret them, or have aspects of regret. In my own life, I think of the year or so that I first began to come back to church. I certainly don’t regret coming back to the church and how I began to understand why the story of Jesus is a good-news story. I don’t regret that at all. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But I do regret that mushy season of my life was full of contradictions, and, you might even say, hypocrisy.Around certain roommates I lived one way, and around other friends I lived another. I talked about being a Christian, or at least I began to attend Bible studies again, but the change, if I can put it like this, hadn’t taken hold yet.It’s with sadness that I think about one roommate in particular. That mushy year in college of contradictions was the only year we lived in the same house. I know, I know; God is in charge and eventually I did become a Christian and things in my life did change. What I regret is that if that roommate learned anything about “Christianity” from me that year, it wasn’t positive. He would have seen it as nothing more than talking one way and living another.And it’s that type of life Jesus is warning us against in the passage. He’s warning his disciples, his “friends” as he calls us, to avoid the “leaven [or yeast] of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” He says their double life is added to a community the way yeast is added to bread, and it affects everything. He’s warning his friends not to trade the approval of the One who matters most for the approval of the ones who don’t matter. God means to be the most important person in our lives.As we look at the passage in more detail, it seems to fall out in three sections, with a fourth and final section being an example of what Jesus is talking about. There’s a certain whiplash to the passage, but it’s a gospel whiplash, a good-news whiplash. First, Jesus talks about what not to fear, and then what to fear, and then, again, about what not to fear.
1. Do Not Fear, vv. 1–4
Let me re-read vv. 1–4 to see what we are not to fear.
12 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. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 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. 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
Jesus says, There’s really no such thing as a private room. God can see just fine in a dimly lit room too. He’s saying that what we send as a private text message, will one day be a public tweet. And then he speaks of those who can kill you, but after that, that’s it. They can’t touch what comes after death. You see what I mean by an edge?Now, to religious leaders full of hypocrisy—the very people Jesus addressed in the passage last week—well, these words induce fear in them. One day they will be outed for what they are. It might happen in this life or it might not. But one day—the final day—promises Jesus, it will happen.But—and this is important—this section is couched in the context of “do not fear.” It’s addressed, as the passage says, to Jesus’s disciples and his friends (vv. 1, 4). That’s important. Jesus means this to be encouraging to people who follow him. This passage is addressed to those he loves, his friends. He means to say these things to encourage us.How so? you ask. How is this encouraging? If we are inclined to hear only the harshness in this statement, it might be because we have hypocrisy within us (and sure, we all have some hypocrisy within us; none of us lives up to our own ideals, let alone God’s), but we also might only see the harshness for another reason you are unaware of.Many of us are now listening to this as majority-culture people. And on top of that, many of us are majority-culture people who live in the Western, affluent world. If, instead, we are an oppressed minority or if we are Christians in a country like North Korea or Sudan, or many other places—how might we hear these words? Some of you know this experience. Or what if you are—and some of you are—a woman who has been abused by someone in power, and you feel you have no voice? In all of these cases, this passage is an encouragement. God sees! God sees! He’s putting his arm around you, telling you not to fear: One day justice will roll down like the waters, as the prophets of old spoke (Amos 5:24).In the last few years, there has been a stream of news stories where secret sins have been revealed and leaders have been exposed. These are just a foretaste of the final judgement Jesus here promises. These “outings” are a preview of what’s to come. It should sober us first, but also for the faithful and the forgiven Christians who are often marginalized, it should encourage. Do not fear.
2. Fear, vv. 4–5
But there is something to fear. Let’s go to the next point. Look again at vv. 4–5.
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 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!
To our ears, these are strange statements. The cultural Jesus we are so accustomed to doesn’t speak like this. But, apparently, the real Jesus does. Yet even here, even in the sharpness of these words, there is something good for us, that is, if we understand what he means by fear.It’s been said, no one goes to the Grand Canyon to feel big. You don’t put your toes over the edge of the north rim to feel self-important. You don’t walk the sandy beach of the Outer Banks at sunrise with the Atlantic Ocean splashing your ankles so that you feel like the world revolves around you. We do not go to the high peaks of the Adirondacks to feel big. We do these things to behold the vastness of creation, to be awed.And as Christians, when we are in awe of these natural wonders, we go the next, important half-step from awe of creation to awe of Creator of Creation. When God speaks, galaxies fly into existence. And this Creator-God has authority not only over what happens in this life, but also over the life to come, an authority over both heaven and hell.And there is a certain respect, a reverence, that must be associated with this kind of God, with the real God. The Bible calls this the fear of the Lord. The book of Proverbs in the Old Testament maintains that this fear is the beginning of wisdom (1:7; 9:10). When Jesus says “fear him,” he’s speaking of a healthy fear of the Lord. It means the fear of disappointing God. It means awe at the splendor of his majesty and wonder over his creative power. It means reverence in response to his wrath and his justice. It means astonishment over his loving kindness, which has been lavished upon us in the gospel. Basically, it means not living for the opinions of those who don’t matter, but living for the One who does. It means that, even after a Christian is saved, God doesn’t become relegated to some little buddy who helps you when life is hard. This is the fear of the Lord.Of course, there’s an edge to these words, but there is also something freeing too; it’s related to the hypocrisy mentioned before. If there really is a God, and he makes us his children in the gospel, then we have a firm foundation beneath our feet in a world in constant flux. The tide of peer pressure is always changing: now it’s coming in, now it’s coming out. One group asks you to conform to X; another to Y; and still another says, It’s neither X or Y, do Z.It’s exhausting trying to make everyone happy. Consider why we might be so often tried and busy. How you doing? Oh, I’m tired. How’s life? Oh, so busy. Maybe we default to this because to us God is small and people are big (as a book title suggests). God has something better for us than trying to make everyone happy. The fear of the Lord, pushes out the fear of man, which is a good thing.
3. Do Not Fear, vv. 6–7
But this fear is not all that Jesus discusses. Again, more whiplash. Do not fear, fear, and finally, do not fear. Look again at vv. 6–7.
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
There’s a phrase that has become popular in the last few years called “big data.” It refers to the massive amounts of information that is being collected and stored about everything from weather patterns and traffic patterns, to what we search on Google or post on Facebook. Massive buildings are built to story this information.And God says he knows the number of hairs on your head. Big data isn’t so big when you’re big. Note, this passage began with the statement that “so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another” (v. 1). Everyone in that crowd had a name. And God knew it. And here this morning, perhaps many of us might feel alone and insignificant—and in the eyes of the world we might be—but know this: God knows your name. He cares for you more than he cares for sparrows, and he cares for them a lot.Let’s think about that for a minute. When talking about sparrows, there is an analogy to the church building that might be helpful. As we renovated this sanctuary, we were particular about the way it would look. Several times I had things re-installed that were installed in a way that didn’t leave the sanctuary as beautiful as we desired. This happened a dozen times: the edges of the stairs were installed with wood that couldn’t be stained properly; the tech booth was built too tall; the screens were not what we expected; there was pipe holding lights that was too long and got in the way of a doorway; the cover plates for wall switches were ivory color not bright white; ceiling tiles were not replaced well; the front wall accent color wasn’t the right shade; handprints were 25 feet off the ground on walls already painted; a few of the pews were put in the wrong location; and . . . well, you get the idea. That’s not to say people were doing a bad job. They did a great job. Look at it. This is great!The fact that we were very particular about the sanctuary is not surprising. We’ll spend a lot of time in here. But even as particular as we were, if you went around the corner of this stage and investigated one of these side, storage rooms, you’ll see something very different. The carpet just stops; the steps are not stained; the lights are not beautiful.Who cares, right? Only a few sound people and music team members will ever go back there. (No offense, sound people.)But what if, instead, I had taken a toothbrush and got on my hands and knees and cleaned, not only the storage room, but a corner of the storage room that sits behind a permanent piece of equipment, something that not even the music team will see! What would that tell you? It would tell you I’m insane. But it would also tell you how much I would care about more important, more visible things.Jesus’s point is that no one cares about sparrows. Notice how much they cost: five are sold for two pennies. That means that one sparrow isn’t even worth the smallest increment of money! One sparrow is worth less than one penny. But God says to his children, his friends, his disciples, if I love them and care for them, how much more will I care for you. Fear not.(Examples, vv. 8–12) So where does that leave us? Well, there are more words in the passage. I won’t be able to give much time to these, but I see the rest of the five verses as specific examples of what has already been discussed. Let me read vv. 8–12 again.
8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
There is a lot here, and if this was a Sunday School class and not a sermon, perhaps we’d give an hour to discussing details. We don’t have that. But I will say that when look at the other passage in the gospels where Jesus says something similar to this (e.g., Matthew 12 and Mark 3), it seems the speaking against the Holy Spirit means looking at the works of Jesus and attributing his works to works of the devil. It means calling good, evil. And likely it means doing this over a long time, a lifetime of refusing to repent because it’s impossible to repent because you’ve so confused good and evil that repentance isn’t even impossible.We don’t get all that from this passage in Luke by itself, which is why we’d need more time to discuss it, bringing in other passages. Some scholars think that it’s not even possible today because it was something that could only have happened during the earthly life of Jesus. The only other thing to point out about this is what others have said: if you are worried if you’ve ever “blasphemed the Holy Spirit,” you don’t need to worry you’ve done it because your concern is evidence that you haven’t done it. The fact that your conscience is a tender conscience toward the things of God shows that you’re not doing this.But this controversy is not really the main thing we are to notice about the Holy Spirit from this passage. The main thing to notice is that wherever you have your greatest need, God sends the Spirit to help his people.For the first audience, there was the fear that if they followed God, if they lived for the One who mattered, then it would be dangerous and when they had to give a defense about their faith, they were worried they wouldn’t know what to say. God promises that when the time comes, God will send the helper to help you. And so don’t worry, don’t fear. He knows the hairs on your head. And even if someone ends your earthly life, you’ll have a better, lasting life with God forever.
Conclusion
This, I think, is the main take away of the passage. At the moments of our greatest need, God shows himself great and gracious. How like God to take our greatest fears—fears of death and judgment—and make them the pathways to our greatest joy. Jesus comes to the earth, lives the life we should have lived, dies the death we should have died, rises again, and then extends forgiveness and help to any who call on him in faith. And he tells us to fear him (meaning we don’t forget that he’s God, but we also don’t fear because we know he’s a good and gracious God). What a story!There are lots of pressures to not live for God, to live hypocritical lives, but in the end, living for God is the only thing that matters. And when we do, God will rise to meet every need we have on obedience’s pathway to glory.
Prayer
Pray with me as Ben and the music team comes back up. Let’s pray . . .
