Continuing in our study of Luke. So today we are in chapter seven. I’m gonna read a little longer passage for you today. This is gonna be Luke 7, verses 18 through 35. And if you’re using one of the pew Bibles, it’s on page 503.

So Luke 7:18-35.

So let me read the sacred text and then we’ll pray and then we get to work. As I mentioned, we’ve got a lot to cover today, so please hear the words of our God. So Luke wrote this. The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling to his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord saying, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?

And when the man had come to him, they said, john the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits and many who were blind. He bestowed sight and he answered them, go tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. The poor have good news preached to them.

Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind. What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing.

Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings courts. What then did you go out and see? A prophet? Yes. I tell you more than a prophet.

This is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, and he will prepare your way before you.

I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. Yet the one who is the least of the kingdom of God is greater than he. When all the people heard this in the text, collectors too, they declared God just had been baptized by the baptism of John. The Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him till at the end. Shall I compare this people, the people of this generation?

And what are they like? Like children sitting in the marketplace, calling out to one another. We played the flute for you. You do not dance. We sang a dirge.

You need not weep for John the Baptist came. He eating no bread and drinking no wine. And you say he is a demon. The Son of man has come, eating and drinking. You say look at him.

A glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, I pray that you would bless this time for our good and for your glory. Please help me to be a good communicator. Help me not to stumble over my words, hoping not to speak that which is not true. Keep me from error. And Lord, pray for the congregation that you give them ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and pray song in Jesus name.

Amen. So, as mentioned many times over the years, I became a Christian in my early 20s, where things of God became very real to me. For me, I actually had a little bit more of a dramatic conversion where I distinctly remember where I was when Christ drew me to himself. So in small ways I can identify with the Apostle Paul in the moment of my conversion, where it felt like scales fell from my eyes in order for me to see Christ. Then after I was converted, my excitement for the Scriptures, the things of God was, was very real.

I could not get enough of God’s Word and the truth found in it. However, for me, some of that excitement started to challenge maybe six months to a year or so into my Christian walk, where I began to experience my real, first real crisis of faith, where for the first time I actually battled some real doubts. And this crisis of faith, this battle of doubts is brought on because of a couple of truths found in Scripture that I could not reconcile in my own heart and mind. That kind of put me into a tailspin, simply could not understand the truth of God being sovereign over all things, where nothing happens outside of his counsel of his will, his divine election, how that fits in the truth. We also see in Scripture that mankind, like, we’re not just like robots, but we’re responsible for our actions, our choices, including responsible for the call of Christ to respond to it in ways that we repent and we believe in Him.

For me, I cannot understand how these two truths could work together and as mentioned, put me into a tailspin in my new faith where I began to struggle with some real doubts. That is, until I met someone who’s older and wiser than me in the faith. Help me trust God’s Word and what it says over my own limited understanding by having the trust that there’s just some truths in Scripture that we might not fully ever grasp that they’re a mystery to us. Because for us to actually be able to fully grasp them, we’d actually need to be God, One whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, where to him and him alone belong secret things that are beyond that are beyond our human understanding, which includes some truths in Scripture that are beyond some of our human understanding, like how divine sovereignty and human responsibility, how to fit together as well as shows how God is at work in our life and the world around us where God is working out his great plan to unite all things together in Christ. We’re in this plan.

Some of these things just don’t make sense to us. They’re a mystery to us, they’re confusing to us. And for my older, wiser friend, these mysteries should not draw drive us from God, rather drive us to God to trust in him, to trust in his word, to trust in his good plan in ways that we worship him as God, the God who is so much greater than we. Which for me, not only is this the right counsel, but this is such helpful counsel, encouraging counsel I needed here then, but also I’ve visited many times in my 20 plus years of being a Christian where I have been learning that my doubts should not cause me to run from God, but to run to God, the One who is so much greater than I, the One who is there to help me in my unbelief with his grace and his wisdom and peace, which also surpass my understanding. Now tell you that story today just to help set us up for the story that I just read for you from Luke concerning John the Baptist, who in the text Jesus honored as one who was great.

Back in the text, of those born of a woman, Jesus said none was greater than John. Yet we see in this text that even in John’s greatness John had doubts. We’re in this text. It seems like John almost had like, had like a crisis of faith where he’s having a hard time understanding Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, the plan with Jesus, where John is having such a hard time reconciling these things in his own heart and how God was at work around in the world around him, as mentioned, began to have wonder and doubt if indeed Jesus was the Christ. For us to work through this story, there’s a couple things that I hope can come from this time.

So first, as you work through this story this morning, I do hope it’s a comfort to you and any doubts that you might have in your own faith concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. So unfortunately in this life doubts are going to be a reality that we face. So as you have doubts in your life I hope it’s comforted you that John the Baptist, the great John the Baptist, had doubts. And not only that, in this text, as John had his doubts, we see that Jesus actually didn’t shame him. Rather, Jesus ministered to John through his Word, which is the second hope I have for us in this time, as doubts come your way.

My hope is that we follow the model of this passage and let the doubts that are creeping into our heart, let them compel you to by faith to actually go to Jesus and ways that he is ministering to you from His Word. So by grace you would trust in him as God, even if you’re having a hard time reconciling things in your own heart. Okay, so that was introduction. Please look back with me at the texts. We can work through it just kind of verse by verse.

So see in verse 18, the disciples of John, which is referring to John the Baptist. So we met a few different times already in our study of Luke, starting already in chapter one, we learned that he was born of a mother, Elizabeth and Zechariah, where he learned in chapter one that John would be the promised prophet of God who would prepare the way for the Christ to come. We also learned that John and his family related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as it appears that Elizabeth and Mary were cousins. We were in chapter one, that John, as he first came in contact with Jesus when each other were still in each other’s mother’s wombs, that John leapt in his mom’s womb as he leapt before Jesus. Our text disciples of John came to, came to him, and they did so by giving a report to John, which in the text is a report of all of these things.

Now, all these things in verse 18 is referring to all the things and no doubt more the things. We’ve been working through the last several weeks in our study of the Luke, where we have read reports that Luke recorded for us, which took place during the public ministry of Jesus Christ, some assume. And these reports coming to John’s ear probably would include reports of like the teaching ministry of Jesus, which was his primary ministry as Jesus came to preach and teach God’s Word to fulfill the Scripture. No doubt reports also shared with John included some of the miracles that Jesus was performing throughout the region, including like casting out of the demons, the healing of the sick and the lame. In our text, last week, if you were here, report a young man that Jesus brought back from the dead.

And all these reports that came to John, they had to be incredible reports for him to hear. Incredible even Though as mentioned, Jesus was like his relative. I’m guessing at least in small levels, John grew up with Jesus. Or most likely John would have been told about Jesus being the Christ from when he was born of Mary, the his mother who was a virgin. Furthermore, I’m guessing John probably would have witnessed some of the various things of Jesus life that was a sinless life that he lived.

In chapter three of Luke, which we went through a few weeks back, we read how John baptized Jesus, whereas he was baptized Jesus. Remember how the Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove where God the Father spoke from heaven, declaring Jesus to be the Son with whom he was well pleased. So in some ways I’m sure John was not shocked by these incredible reports of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m sure in some ways they made sense to him. However, in the text, as John heard all of these reports, rather than these reports like further filling his heart with faith, further causing him to leap with joy over Jesus, we see that as John received the reports, he had his doubts.

In fact, he had some real doubts concerning Jesus. So in verse 19, John called two of his disciples to himself to send them on a mission on his behalf, which is a mission to go to Jesus, and simply asked the lord in verse 19, a very straightforward question. Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another meaning Jesus? Are you indeed the promised Christ of the Scripture or are you not? Which by the way, I’m assuming for John’s entire life he probably was told that Jesus was the Christ.

I’m guessing for most of his life he probably believed to be true, particularly when he baptized Jesus, that Jesus was the Christ. Not. My guess is he probably even testified to that truth to others. But now in our text, John is not so sure, began to wonder and doubt that which he heard, that which he professed to believe that it actually was true. So he sent word to Jesus to see what Jesus had to say.

Now, a few things here. So first, as we work through the rest of the story, I do not think that John’s doubt were an indication that he did not have faith in God. I think throughout the Gospel of Luke, John is presented as a man of great faith in God. However, even for this great man of faith, even he had doubts that crept in. And by the way, this is true of so many heroes in the Scriptures as well as throughout church history.

For so many of the heroes have battled doubts unbelief, on different fronts. Let’s do the second thing. So then why was John doubting here? Obviously for us, it’s hard to know why, but let me give you a couple reasons that most scholars pointed as possible contributing factors for John, factors I think that we actually can identify with that might cause us to doubt as well. So first, perhaps John doubted Jesus because of his current life situation, which for John was not a favorable situation.

Now, for us, we don’t see in our text today, but as Matthew as he recorded this scene in his gospel, Matthew included a detail on why John had to send someone to Jesus rather than going to himself. And that detail was that John actually couldn’t go himself because he was locked up in prison, which was brought on because John proclaimed the truth as he called people to repent and believe in God. So for John in this scene, he was in a very unfavorable situation. We’re in prison. No doubt he’s facing various forms of suffering where no doubt he had like lots of time on his hands.

And as we know, when we’re idle, when we have a lot of time on our hands, we can get into our own heads. And in our own heads, we don’t always come up with the right conclusions. Potentially for John, this less than ideal situation was leading him to have some doubts. That’s what I’m sure that we can identify with. I mean, just think in our own life, when things are just not adding up in our own life the way we want, how easy it is to doubt, how prone we are to wonder.

As we just sang, we have a hard time reconciling how God loves us, how he’s good to us, how he’s sovereign, yet our life situation feels so far less than ideal. That’s one potential reason why John had these doubts. Second potential reason why John had the doubts in the text revolve around who it was who put John in prison, which was the Roman appointed leader of the area, Herod the Tetrarch, as he put John in prison because John was like calling him out in his sin. For John, like so many others in this period, the expectation of the Christ who was to come was that the Christ would lead some type of military or political conquest by which Israel would drive out the Romans who ruled over the land. So for John, as he sat in prison because of Rome, as this Roman ruler, perhaps he began to doubt Jesus.

If Jesus really was the Christ, why wasn’t he doing something more to this end? Why is he not kicking out Rome? I mean, after all the reports that John just got, he would have learned there’s a huge crowd following after Jesus. So why didn’t the Lord like empower the crowd to revolt against Rome? Why didn’t he just do like some type of military miracle, maybe perform so many other miracles, why couldn’t he just do a military miracle?

I’m sure for John, like so many generations of Israel prayed, the Lord has sent to Christ to do something on this end to get rid of Rome that is set in prison. Nothing. Instead, Rome appeared to have just as much, if not more power and control than they ever had. So perhaps that’s why John began to doubt. To doubt, question.

You know, what was Jesus doing in the world around him? Once again, probably something we can identify here as well. We look in the world around us, we watch the news, things don’t make sense.

Begin to question, where is Jesus in any of this?

Why is he not doing something?

No, not sure exactly why John had his doubts. It does seem like these potential reasons was probably a factor for him. Keep going. Verse 20 we see these two men from John as they left him, we see that they found Jesus and they said to Jesus, Jesus, John the Baptist has sent us to you with a message. Really more of a question.

Jesus, can you tell us plainly, are you the one who is to come? Are you the long awaited, the long promised Christ that we’ve been telling others you are? Or were we wrong and shall we look for another?

Do we miss something here? Right now we’re having a hard time reconciling things. This question here recorded twice in the text by Luke. So the anniversary 18 are you the one who is to come or should look after another? Now again, verse 20 Are you the one who is to come or you should look for another?

I think this is Luke stressing a point like there’s real doubts here. There’s a real crisis of faith here. As John came to Jesus through His two disciples. Verse 21 as Jesus heard the straightforward question, rather than giving them the answer right away, Jesus did the thing that only Jesus could do on his own accord. And in that hour he healed many people.

He healed those who are suffering from disease and plagues to heal those who are suffering from evil spirits. In the text we read how you healed the blind so they could see. And after Jesus did these incredible acts in front of the disciples of John, which I’m sure caused them to maybe feel a little silly for having these questions of doubt, which by the way, perhaps we could identify this as well, where we can really struggle with some type of crisis of faith, some doubts, only for the Lord to do something that only he can do in our life that gives us peace and assurance, but pushes away the doubts, at least for the moment where we can’t even believe why we ever doubted. In the text, after the miracles that Jesus performed, we see that he turns back to the disciples of John to help them understand what he just did actually was the answer to their question. Because what he just did was he fulfilled the scriptures and what the scriptures said would be true of the Christ who was to come.

Verse 22 if you take your eyes there, Jesus answered them, hey, go back and you tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are clean or cleaned, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preach to them in this response. This is Jesus speaking scripture as he used several passages from the Old Testament book Isaiah to form this response. Passages that were declaring that what the Messiah would look like when he came. So let me just read these passages to you and just listen how they’re found in verse 22 of our text.

So from Isaiah 26:19, your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in their dust, awake and sing for joy. For your dew is the dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. Isaiah 35 verses 5 through 6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. Isaiah 42 verses 6 through 7. I will give you as a covenant for the people a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind. Isaiah 42, verse 18. Hear you deaf and look you blind, that you may see one more mention.

All these are speaking about the Christ who is to come. Isaiah 61:1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. For us this morning the answer that Jesus gave to satisfy the doubts of John his disciples was scripture.

So by the truth of God’s word they would be set free from their doubts.

Verse 23 after the Lord spoke scripture to the disciples of John, he shared with them that blessed is the one who is not offended by me, which here it seems to me like Jesus is really challenging the hearts of John’s disciples who perhaps in their doubts were starting to like almost like be offended by the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not doing the thing that they wanted him to do. Well, perhaps this verse here is maybe more of a challenge of the crowd around him. Jesus is certainly going to challenge Here in just a second. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

This verse here, John or Jesus is challenging both John disciples as well as the crowd, who maybe were a bit offended by the ministry of the Lord Jesus, particularly in what he was not doing in terms of overthrowing Rome. I think we identify with this here. We’re in our own life, perhaps we’re offended by the Lord Jesus, what he’s doing, not doing. Keep rolling. Verse 24.

The conversation between Jesus and disciples of John came to this conclusion and the messengers had gone back to John to give them this report from Jesus. We see. Then the Lord turned to the crowd to speak to them about John. And as Jesus did this, we see that he didn’t speak ill will about John. He didn’t like criticize him for having doubts.

He didn’t shame John in front of everyone. Like of his example, what not to do. Like crowd, do not be like John. We see Jesus showed honor towards John, this one who had his doubts, saying to the crowd, what did you go out and see in the wilderness? That’s what I was referring to.

Luke 3, where John’s ministry of calling, of repentance and baptism took place in the wilderness, the Jordan River. So you see the crowd. So many went out to the wilderness to sit under the ministry of John. So crowd, what did you see was in Texas? Rhetorical question by Jesus.

And he answered them. Did you see like a reed shaken by the wind with a clear answer? So that. Or answer that question. No, that’s not John.

He wasn’t some type of like weak individual who was like easily shaken like a reed in the wind. So I like keep that in mind as you think about the doubts that he had in the story. Wasn’t a weak person. Verse 25, same question. Then.

What did you go see? Right. Another rhetorical question. Was it a man dressed in soft clothing? Is that what you saw?

Meaning, was John some type of privileged individual who lived a life of ease, who could afford expensive clothing? The answer in the text, nope, John was not that either. John wore a garment of coarse camel hair and a leather belt. This is not clothing of luxury, but actually a picture of repentance. So in the text, behold those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury, they don’t wear what John wore.

Those are the ones who wear soft clothing. There’s folks, they’re not out like in the wilderness like John, eating locusts and wild honey. Those types of individuals who are privileged, they’re in the king’s court eating the finest Meals. So clearly that wasn’t John, verse 26. So yet again, right a third time.

What then did you go out and see? Only for this time, Jesus gave the people the right answer to his rhetorical question. What did you see when you went to look at John? I’ll tell you what you saw. You saw a prophet.

That is who John is. A prophet of the one true and living God. And not just any prophet. Jesus said that John was like more than just a prophet, but John was the very prophet who was written about in Scripture, saying, behold, I will send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. It’s here.

This is not Jesus quoting Malachi 3 of a prophet who would come to prepare the way for the Christ this year. This is Jesus showing real honor towards John, even though John had his doubts, which is honor, Jesus only continued to show him in verse 28, saying to the crowd, I tell you, among those born of a woman, none is greater than John. I mean, no one has a resume greater than his. Even though I keep saying the context of the passage. He’s struggling with doubts, confused, maybe even offended by the ministry of Jesus, that John, John the Baptist, was the one who is the great prophet who was to come, the one with the great resume that no one could rival.

Which keep going on the theme here. I hope this encouragement to any of us here this morning and doubts that you’re battling, or maybe you have confusion concerning Jesus and how he’s guiding your life in ways that maybe you wouldn’t have hoped or anticipated, or maybe even having some hard time not being offended by the ministry of Jesus, maybe some of the standards he’s calling us all to live by, or how he’s like sovereignly guiding your life here in this text. For John, Jesus honors his people, all of his people, even if we’re not as great as John the Baptist, which actually leads the next thing we see in the text. So all these things said about John, Jesus greatly honored him. We see then Jesus shift a bit in the conversation with the crowd.

We then use John as an illustration for a little like, almost like comparison and contrast to challenge the crowd here, which I think, as you read through this, I think it might be a challenge for us as well, but also perhaps maybe some more encouragement in the challenge for those in the text, for those who have faith in Jesus, even if you have doubts amidst the faith, but for those who have faith in Jesus Christ, even if that faith is so small, where you feel like your faith is so little, that you’re like in the text, like the least in the kingdom of God. Jesus said those with even little faith, least of the kingdom of God faith, they’re still greater than even the great John the Baptist. Now this is perhaps a little confusing. Let me try to explain. So as mentioned, after honoring John, Jesus now uses John as an illustration to compare and contrast, to make a larger point where he’s going to really challenge the crowd here in particular, like the religious leaders who were in the crowd, religious leaders who thought like their own resumes, ensured they’d be accepted by God.

So in this illustration here, earthly speaking, no one, say it again. No one had a better resume than John. I mean, he really could one up everyone. The great prophet, the forerunner of Christ, no one born of a woman having a resume greater than his. However, friends, even that resume is not enough.

Even John the Great, John the Baptist, the one who baptized Jesus Christ, even he could not earn his way into eternal life by his own resume. Even John had to have faith. The scripture is so clear, it’s only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only way we can enter into the kingdom of God. So in this comparison, this contrast, even those with the smallest measures of faith in Jesus Christ, even if they have doubts in their faith, that’s still better, that’s still greater than someone with the greatest earthly resume yet lacking faith in Jesus Christ.

The text in verse 29, Jesus pointed out how this comparison contrast is actually being played out as all the people in the crowd heard him say this. The text included tax collectors who were despised by society, who social outcast, would not have had a resume. The other society would have clamored after yet. But we see in Luke, many of which had faith in Jesus. And as they heard of Jesus, as he heard them speak about faith, they declared God just having themselves been baptized by John as a testimony of their faith.

Verse 30. The Pharisees, the lawyers who is earthly speaking would have great resumes as they heard Jesus say all this, right? They would understood Jesus was condemning them as Jesus condemned them. The ones who rejected God’s purposes for themselves.

But they did not have faith. The text was evident by their rejecting John’s call to repent and be baptized. So here in the text, in this comparison contrast, the despised tax collector, even with little faith, was greater than the Pharisees, the lawyers and their oppressive earthly resumes. And I hope this is encouragement to us as well. Friends, it’s not about resume building the hopes of trying to impress God.

Rather it’s faith simple Faith, even mustard seed faith, that’s what matters to the heart of God. This morning, even in the midst of your doubts, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, where you’re trusting him, friends, you’re great in the kingdom of God.

And finally, we’re going to end our text to study this morning, starting at verse 31. If you take your eyes there, Jesus continues to compare and contrast, this time comparing that generation of people and what they’re like. I think this here not only is probably hearkening back to the generation of people who wandered in the wilderness, but also specifically talking to the Pharisees and the lawyers, the ones who are trusting in their own resumes. Verse 32, Jesus compared them to children sitting in a market who had called out to one another in song, which pointed out to like a fickle nature, where they said to one another, hey, we played the flute for you, this instrument of celebration, yet no one danced. We sang a dirge.

It’s a song of mourning, often used at funerals, but you did not weep. This is fickle, this is inconsistent. No matter what type of music was played, one could not win. Not happy, always complaining, always grumbling. In the text, Jesus says, this was the Pharisees, the lawyers particularly, as he looked at the great prophet of God, John the Baptist, and the Christ of God Jesus.

Verse 33, For John the Baptist came with a pretty aesthetic lifestyle, probably took some type of Nazarete vowel or something close to that. So he didn’t eat bread, he drank no wine. But for the Pharisees, the lawyers, they rejected him. His message ultimately is they rejected God. As they grumbled and said, john, he just has a demon.

But then verse 34, in their fickle, judging, complaining hearts as the Son of man, which is Jesus now referring to himself as he came eating, drinking wine, they said, look at him, he’s a glutton, He’s a drunkard. And even worse, as he’s eating and drinking wine, he’s doing so with despised tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus is showing that he’s a friend to them. For the Pharisees lawyers, their fickle hearts, they’re not happy with Jesus either. Well, they also rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. So even though the Pharisees lawyers thought they had this stellar resume, Jesus pointed out they’re fickle, they did not have real faith. Always complaining, always judging, never happy, always trying to pull the speck out of the eyes of others, even though a huge plank was in their own eye.

As Jesus called out the Pharisees for the fickle attitudes towards the things of God closed the section by saying wisdom is justified by all of her children which referring to that which we hold to the end, will come out of us when the fickle behavior of the Pharisees and lawyers towards the things of God His Word resulted in not only them rejecting John the Baptist, but ultimately rejection of Jesus Christ and His grace in their life, the very one what Scripture is about as they bore children of non stop complaining and judging, grumbling constantly pointing out what they felt were faults in others, making their children those children their true actual resume which stands in contrast to those who have faith in Christ, who seek to keep God’s Word, who bear fruit of their life of a love for God and a love for others, including love for other sinners, even tax collectors and sinners, love for those who may be struggling with their own doubts. That’s we’re going to end our text today, but before I close, I want to close just like giving two real quick thoughts as related to our doubts. Doubts that can creep into our hearts. Doubts can leave us have a real crisis of faith. So when doubts come your way, and they will, even if you have strong faith like John the Baptist in this life, there will be doubts that we will battle on many different fronts.

So as doubts come your way, just two thoughts for us from this text. So first, as doubts creep in, run to Jesus with your doubts. And I think that’s the model we see in the text here. Yes, John the Baptist, he had his doubts. But rather than running from Jesus and the rejection of Jesus, like the Pharisees and the lawyers in the text, he sent messengers to Jesus to hear from him, where Jesus is able to minister to the messengers only to John through His Word in ways that only he can.

So friends, may that be true of us as well. As doubts creep in, whatever they may be, let those doubts lead you to run to Jesus Christ in ways that you’re trusting in him, trusting in His Word more than you’re trusting in yourself. For some, perhaps this is something you need to do even this morning, maybe for the first time. So perhaps you’ve been around the things of God in ways that you know about Jesus, but you have doubts. Doubts are actually keeping you from putting your faith in him, perhaps doubts that he’s actually worth leaving all things behind in order to have Him.

And today I actually want to invite you to let those doubts actually lead you to him in ways that you actually are going to trust in him today more than you’re trusting in your doubts that today, by faith, you would actually run to Jesus Christ. All of us here, you have trusted in Jesus, but your walk with him is just really not what you want it to be because you’re struggling with, like, some assurance of your faith where these doubts are just loud voices in your head, where you feel like your faith is like the least of the kingdom of God. And if that’s you this morning, I also wanted to invite you to let your doubts cause you to run and trust in Jesus Christ, knowing that Jesus, he loves his people. And as we run to him with our doubts, with our unbelief, we’re not going to be met with him, like, shaming us.

Rather, he promises as we come to him, he’s there to care for us, to minister to us, to give us his peace. And he promises this. No matter how many times we’ve already come to him with our doubts, he still will receive you. There’s not like a punch card where you only get so many times to run to Jesus with your doubts.

He will meet you there with his grace upon grace upon grace. Actually, the second thing I want to leave us with before we close, so his doubts creep in.

Rest in Jesus with your doubts. And here I’m specifically speaking about resting in his resume, about to sing here, just a bit. Our worth is not our own.

It’s not our resume. Our worth is found in Jesus Christ, his resume, which is a resume that’s unlike ours. Ours is filled with sin and unbelief, complaining, judging, fickle. The resume of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man. It’s a resume of perfection where Jesus did everything perfectly, where he lived the life of faith, that we could never live without sin in order to fill the Scriptures, including what the Old Testament book of Isaiah prophesied about.

In his great love, Jesus laid down his life on a cross to take on the judgment, the punishment of our sin, where he bled and he died for us, where he was buried, only to rise again from the dead on the third day to be the atoning sacrifice of our sin. And according to God’s good word, Jesus sovereignly calls out to all to come to him and put their faith in him so that his resume, his righteousness, would be counted as ours, so that we might be justified before God, forgiven our sin because of Jesus Christ, because of his great plan, which is not a great plan to drive out the Roman rulers was a great plan to drive out and defeat sin and death for us forever and ever. Amen. Which, by the way, this is the greatest of all mysteries, according to his great plan so far beyond our understanding that Jesus would love us in this way to do that for us. Yet, friends, that’s where we must rest, in what Jesus has done for us.

So yes, in a real way, we should live a life of faithfulness before God where we’re growing in our faith, which is part of hopefully our resume of our resume. It’s not what we rest in, it’s his to close. Let me just share something else that was shared to me that’s been so helpful to me over the last 20 plus years of being a Christian. So I’ve heard this a few different times. So it’s not the strength of our faith that justifies us.

It’s not having like no doubts. It’s not what justifies us. Rather, it’s the object of our faith. That’s how we’re justified. It’s the object of our faith.

It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So, friends, today, in the future, as doubts creep in, and unfortunately, they will let those doubts cause you to run to Jesus and rest in Jesus, the great object of our faith, who loves us in such a way that he calls and continues to call us to himself that we might believe. Let’s pray.

Lord, we are very prone to wander.

And Lord, there are so many things that we just do not trust you in ways that we should.

But I’m sure if we were to survey all the different doubts that fill the hearts of this room, it’d be a very long list.

So, Lord, I do pray that in this time that through your word, through your spirit, that you would minister to us.

And not only would you drive the doubts away, but you would use the doubts to cause us to run to Jesus, to rest in him.

And Lord, pray for those who maybe are here this morning, who have yet to believe that today would be the day of their salvation. Today they would taste and see that you are good, that they would believe that you did die, you did rise again from the dead, that you do offer forgiveness, that you are the great treasure worth leaving all things behind in order to have.

Lord, for many others that are here that do have faith, but they’re struggling.

So Lord, I pray that you just give them peace and assurance today.

Help them to trust you, trust your word more than they are trusting in their doubts.

Pray this on Jesus name, Amen.

The post Messengers from John the Baptist – Luke 7: 18-35 appeared first on Red Village Church.

Are glad you’re with us today. I just didn’t know what today would look like with the weather. And I know some were not able to come in because of the weather, but I’m glad that you’re, you’re here today. So if you have a Bible with you, if you’d open up to the Gospel of Luke and continue our study of Luke today, the text from chapter 7, verses 11 through 17. So Luke 7, 11:17, which is on page 503 on the Pew Bibles.

If you didn’t have a Bible with you this morning, if you want to grab one of those, page 503. And so let me read the sacred text and then I’ll pray, ask for the Lord’s blessing on this time, and then we’ll get to work. So Luke 7, starting verse 11 through 17, please hear the words of our God.

Luke wrote this. Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain and Disciples, and a great crowd went with him. And he drew near to the gate of the town. Behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow.

And a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Then he came up and touched the briar, and the bearers stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all, and they glorify God, saying, a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people. And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, it is good to be here. And Lord, we’re here this morning on this cold, wintry day because we want to hear from you in your word. And so, God, I pray for the glory of Christ that you would indeed speak through the folly of my preaching and ways that you just fill our hearts with Christ. And I pray song in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay, so perhaps my favorite passage in the Gospel of Luke is actually found at the end of the gospel account. So this is one that came after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, where I read a story of two men on a road to Emmaus who are trying to figure out all the things that just took place concerning Jesus Christ and specifically his death and then resurrection from the dead. And if you’ve Read through Luke before you may remember that these two men are having this discussion, you know, trying to process these events, trying to process reports that were circling around that the risen Christ actually showed up and he entered into their conversation with the two men at the beginning of the story, actually not able to recognize the Lord. Then after some back and forth between Jesus and the two men, Jesus actually rebuked them for being foolish, for not understanding and believing that which was taught in the Old Testament through the prophets concerning the Christ and the suffering that was to come on him to rebuke. Starting with the old test teachings from Moses, which are the first five books of the Bible, and then continuing through the rest of the Old Testament Scripture and the various prophets, Jesus interpret for these two men how all the scriptures are about him, to show them that he is indeed the fulfillment of the Scriptures as God’s word in the end is about Him.

It points us to him. Then, after doing this incredible Bible study with these two men, appears that the Lord celebrated the Lord’s supper with them as he broke bread, as he celebrated the meal. Finally the man’s eyes were open, and they’re open in ways they were able to recognize Jesus as the one they were talking to over as their eyes were open. From there, Jesus actually vanishes from their sight, where he went off to appear to some of his disciples. But after he vanished in the story that I love, the two men started to process all that Jesus had told them, how he opened up their eyes to the Scripture, where they’re in dismay, how they didn’t recognize the Lord at first, primarily because of how their hearts burned within hearts burned of the truth of Scripture that Jesus taught to them.

Truth of scripture that is mentioned points us to him. Now I tell you that story, it’s a story that we eventually get to in our study of Luke and the months to come. Not simply because it’s actually one of my favorite stories in the Gospel account, but I wonder how important this story of Jesus testifying to all the Old Testament is about him, how important that story was actually to Luke, the author of this gospel that we’ve been studying. Where I’ve wondered, as Luke was going around interviewing eyewitnesses to the life, the death, resurrection of Jesus Christ as he was told this story of the two men on the road to Emmaus, which I have wondered, maybe told directly from them. I’ve wondered how Luke’s heart was like burning inside as he heard the story, as he was starting to see more and more how the scriptures in the End are about Christ.

The Scriptures became even more alive to him when he understood them in light of Jesus Christ. I wonder how the truth of Moses, the truth of all the prophets, ultimately speaking about Jesus became so important to Luke that as he wrote this orderly account, that he desired to do so in such ways that he would share stories to help his readers, including us, see how indeed all of the Old Testament is there to point us to Christ, including our text today, which is a text where we’ll continue to see the power and the authority of Jesus Christ on display. So this is something that we’ve seen multiple times in multiple passages that we’ve looked at recent, as Jesus has power and authority even over demons and sickness. Now today we’ll see that the power and authority of Jesus is even over death. So that’s one of the things we’ve seen in the text.

Addition, our text today, perhaps even more primary to the passage, is we’re actually going to see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, where Jesus used his power, his authority, in direct correlation to his compassion, where we see his good heart towards his people who are suffering. And in the text, we’re going to see how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, which I think to me is clear that Luke is wanting us to see how we’re to see that two of the more important characters of the Old Testament, two of the greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha, ultimately were there to point us to Christ, as they were types of Christ to come, who is the great and true prophet. Now, before we dive back into text, just a quick reminder where we left off last week so you may remember. Jesus just finished one of his most famous sermons recorded in Scripture. Sermon mentioned many times, referred to as a sermon on the plain.

And after Jesus dismissed that congregation from the plain, he himself left the plane and headed towards a city called Capernaum, which is a place that he previously ministered at, at least on two occasions, where he did some incredible acts of ministry. In fact, Capernaum actually seemed to be Jesus like, almost like his home base during his earthly ministry. So in our text last week, if Jesus returned to that city, we learned that there was a wealthy, influential Roman military officer, a centurion, who sent for Jesus. And. And he sent for Jesus because he wanted Jesus to come heal his favorite servant who was at the point of death.

In our story last week, the centurion sent a delegation of Jewish elders to go get Jesus, doing so with the belief that he was worthy of Jesus coming to do this for him to heal his servant because of the authority that he carried. However, as Jesus responded to this request by starting to make his way to the house, somewhere in the short time between sending for Jesus and Jesus drawing near to the house, somewhere in that short period of time, the centurion has like a major change of heart and a tone towards the Lord Jesus. Or for me, I think the centurion actually was converted. Because as Jesus Christ came near the house, the centurion sent a second group of delegates, some of his friends, to tell Jesus to come no further. Because the centurion now understood he actually was not, not worthy of Jesus Christ, even though he was a man of great wealth and authority.

As Jesus came near, the man understood and he testified that he actually was a man under authority, specifically the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And upon hearing the centurion make this declaration, which the man who I should mention was a Gentile, Jesus had his own declaration in response, saying that nowhere in all of Israel did he find such faith, a faith that rightly understands the lordship of Christ over all of our lives. But I should mention here that some actually connect this story of the centurion to a famous Old Testament story of a different gentleman who had power, remember Naaman, who had leprosy on the end of that story, professed faith in God. So some connect that story of centurion to him. And finally, where we ended our text last week, after Jesus making the declaration about the centurion, the second group of delegates then returning back home and they found the sick servant healed, where Jesus healed a man, where he continued to show power, authority over sickness.

Now today, as we continue in our study with Luke, we actually come to an even greater healing, even greater then the healing of the centurion. Who’s the point of death where text today is mentioned, Jesus actually raises a young man from the dead. And this morning I hope that this increases the burning in our hearts as Jesus puts his power and authority and compassion on display as he proves that all the scriptures are about him. So that is the intro if you want to look back with me, starting in verse 11. So if you’re visiting with us.

So what we do here is I’m just going to walk us back through the text verse by verse. So if you have your Bible open, please keep them open. So starting verse 11. So we read these words so soon after this refers to the interaction that Jesus had with the centurion, which is the start of chapter seven. So soon after that we see that Jesus was back on the move and we See that he traveled maybe 25 or 30 miles or so to the south, you know, a good day’s walk.

And he now came to a town called Nain. Now when it comes to this town, this is actually the only time it’s mentioned in scripture. But where we gather through archaeology, this town seems at one point to be a town that had some size to it, but perhaps maybe to like a change in economy, something like that by the time of Christ. This is now a smaller, more insignificant town that’s located in the southern part of Galilee, which is where Jesus spent much of his public ministry. Now what’s interesting about N is that this little town was really close to a more familiar town in scripture.

A town to seem to be the location like a large cemetery of like tombs and caves that served this area. A town called Endor. No, for Star wars fans, not that Endor, but if you’ve read the Old Testament, maybe this town is familiar to you. There’s a very famous yet very odd story about a witch who was from Endor who practiced divination which where in this odd Old Testament story, Saul, who was the king of Israel, began to understand that his like kingdom was slipping out of his hands because of his own sinful practices where like he rejected the Lord and his authority over him. I mean unlike the gentile centurion, Saul was not a man under authority.

And as Saul rightly understood, the king was slipping away. In his desperation he came to this witch in Endor, asking her to speak to the dead on his behalf, specifically to speak to the former prophet and priest who anointed Saul as king, a man named Samuel. As Saul wanted to get some advice from him. Now in this odd story, really much to the surprise of the witch, when she called upon Samuel, he responded to her, communicating to her, communicating to Saul through her that soon the kingdom will be taken from him. Now we don’t have time to work through that story, but various scholars I read this week do wonder how this story in Luke perhaps has that story of the witch and Endor like kind of running in the background in subtle ways in the text here.

So Jesus entered into Nain, it appears that he is about to run into those who are headed towards endorphins. So not sure if that should be running in the background as we think through this passage, but is it interesting to consider back to verse 11 of our text. As Jesus went to Nain, we say he did not make this 20 file 25 mile walk alone. Rather we see that his disciples are with him. Along with a great crowd, which this really had to be an interesting sight to see for those who are along the route from Capernaum to Nain.

You know, just think like, maybe like out working your field and you look up and you see a large caravan people headed towards this little insignificant town, which didn’t seem to be part of any like major traveling route for this time period. Rather seemed like this little town was like fairly isolated, fairly removed from much of the world around it. However, we see it’s not isolated or removed from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12. As Jesus and his great crowd drew near to the gate of the town, this time they’re about to end, we see that they were met at the gate by a considerable crowd who’s about to head out of the city, headed seemingly towards Endor.

As this crowd that Jesus met was part of a funeral procession. And in this procession there would have been people there that we assumed would be there, like family and friends. But culturally, during this time this procession also probably included like hired mourners as well as hired musicians, making this like a huge crowd which as these two crowds, the crowd of Jesus and crowd of mourners, they meet here. This would have made a huge group like converging at the gate, perhaps well into the hundreds, all at the city gate. Verse 12.

See that this procession of mourners was there because of a man, a man who was being carried out, a young man who died, who was the only son of his mother, who now was, or who also was a widow. Okay, now just a few things on this just to interest you. So first, for this woman, I mean, this would have been awful, a really awful thing for her to endure and have to process through hard enough to have your only son die and all the pain associated with death. But culturally this would have put her in like the most vulnerable of places where culturally women would have been dependent upon either her husband or her sons like, to provide and support and protect. But now for this woman who was a widow, she’s now culturally void of those realities.

So for those who read the Old Testament book of Ruth and the story of Naomi, remember how she like, basically considered herself like, good as dead when her husband’s, her husband and sons died. That’s the woman here in this text. All of the pain, all of the hurt of losing her only son, as well as all the fear, all the concern, all the worry on what was before her, to have no husband or son, provide, support, protect her. This woman was in desperate need of grace and Mercy. She was desperate for someone to show her some compassion.

Second, a widow losing a son. This is actually where her mind should be taken back to the great prophets Elijah and Elisha. So you may remember this. In the ministry of Elijah in First Kings 17, there’s a widow from a town called Zarephath who had a son who died, who God brought back to life through the prayers of Elijah, who laid upon the boy three times as he prayed that God would give back his Life. Then in second Kings 4, there’s another young boy who died, who Elisha also prayed for doing so with laying on top of his dead body.

And in both these stories, not only did the Lord give back to life, each of these boys as the sons were brought back from the from the dead to the land of living. The prophets then brought the sons back to their moms. Which we’re going to see in just a bit is our text in verse 15. But for now, just know the story of Jesus here in Luke 7. This is tied with like strong allusions to Elijah and Elisha and the stories that’s mentioned, particularly the one of Elijah in 1st Kings 17.

Third, I also want to just mention here something I read in one of the commentaries that I thought was actually pretty insightful. This came from the John Phillips commentary where Phillips wrote concerning verse 12, concerning two different crowds, two different processions that met at the city gates. Philip wrote, one was being led by the angel of death, but the other by the Lord of life. And that reality of being led by the angel of death or the Lord of life was not just true of the scene here, but that reality is true of all of us where either we all are dead in our sin being led by the angel of death, or we are walking by faith in Christ as he leads us as the Lord of life, as he leads us into eternal life that is to come. So by the way, just kind of on this, I just do have to ask, as you walked in this morning, what procession are you following right now?

Keep going. Verse 13.

As the true processions met each other, as this large crowd was forming at the city gate, we see that the eyes of Jesus found the one in the crowd who was hurting the most as his eyes were taken to the mother who was mentioned again would be carrying like overwhelming pain with the loss, incredible stress on what would be for her coming next. And as the eyes of Jesus fell upon this woman, we see that his eyes were filled with compassion towards her, which is important for us to see in this passage as well in our own lives. So, yes, Jesus is the Lord. He’s the one filled with all power, all authority, where all things exist by him and for him. And in his power and in his authority, he will justly judge all things.

But within those truths, what we see in the text, we see throughout Scripture, is that towards his people, Jesus sees them with eyes filled with compassion, where he sees his hurting people, our pain is not absent from Him. And as the Lord sees our pain, he sees us with his tender heart. One of my favorite passages in Scripture, a bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. And that is so true in this passage here. For this mom, who is hurting, who is grieving, Jesus did not come to her to break her, to quench her.

Rather, text, with his eyes and heart filled with compassion, we see Jesus, like, walked up to the woman to console her with the words, woman, do not weep, saying this because he knew he’s about to dry her tears in the most incredible ways, which, by the way, is what he promised to do for all his people as they enter into eternal life, where Jesus will dry every tear that we shed with kindness, with compassion, we heal, dry our tears in such a way that we actually will never cry painful tears ever again, as he removes all pain and hurt and tears from his people forever. In text, verse 14, after consoling the woman, see, Jesus went to the brier, which is a frame that a coffin or a deceased body is laid upon. As the body being carried to the tomb, as he approached the dead body of the young man, we see that it stopped the bears, you know, the ones carrying the briar, and stopped them in their tracks. And they stood still before the Lord, you know, just waiting to see what he was going to do. As the bear stood still, assuming everyone else, and both parties at the gates stood still silent before the Lord.

We see in the story that Jesus spoke up in the text, young man, I say to you, arise. Which is notice here. Jesus is speaking to the dead man with all of his power, all of his authority, doing so in such a way that Jesus knew that the dead man would hear him. Which is a stark contrast to the witch of Endor as mentioned, was shocked with her divination. As Samuel responded from the dead, Jesus spoke up to this man.

Jesus knew that his word would not return to him void, but he knew that the dead man would hear and respond to his sovereign voice. So in verse 15, as the word of Jesus went forth, we see the dead man head no choice, but he had to Respond. And he sat up and began to speak.

Alive, risen. And this had been an incredible sight to behold for those at the scene. But even more for this young man, this scene, as the first thing he sees after his resurrection is Jesus.

Just a couple things on this. So Pillar commentary points out that this face of Jesus would have been most likely unfamiliar to this young man. Most likely. He probably did not meet Jesus prior to this. But as he saw the face of Jesus as he rose again, he saw the face to which he belonged.

Second, while this story is unique in scripture, there’s not many who were raised from the dead. In fact, in the ministry of Jesus, we only see three such occurrences. So there’s this one, there’s his friend Lazarus we can read about in John 11. And then there’s a daughter of a man named Jairus we’re actually gonna get to when we get to Luke chapter 8. So while this reality of being raised from the dead to see Jesus is unique in this life.

But for those who are in Christ, friends, this will be your reality, where one day, yes, you will come to your last breath, where to this life you will be dead. But the promise of scripture, for all those who have faith in Jesus Christ, as we die to this life, our eyes will be open to the eternal life that is to come. And the first thing that we’re going to see is Jesus.

So for us right now, yes, we have to imagine what this must have been like for this young man. But for those who are in Christ, one day, you will not have to imagine what this was like because you’re going to experience it yourself. You will see Jesus face to face, the very one to whom you belong. Keep on the text with more compassion, more kindness from our Lord Jesus Christ. As Jesus resurrected this man we see, he now turns back to the mother to give her her son.

As mentioned earlier, this action is very similar to what Elijah did in 1st Kings 17. For us. Once again, with imagination, we can only imagine the joy this had to be for the mother to have Jesus return to her her only son. However, one day, because of eternal life that Jesus offers friends, we don’t have to imagine what that would be like either, to be reunited with a loved one who had died. For all who are in Christ, not only will we see Jesus with our eyes, but we will see each other as we will live with Christ and each other throughout all eternity.

Keep going. Verse 7 or 16. For those that have seen, they didn’t have to imagine what this all looked like because they were there to Experience. And as he experienced the power and the authority of Jesus to raise the dead, as well as he experienced the kindness, the compassion of Jesus to care for this woman who was in deep pain. In the text we see that they were like seized by fear.

And this fear here is not like fear of danger. It’s not like a fear tied to some type of worry or anxiety. Rather, this is a fear that’s filled with like awe. As both crowds that met at the gate stood almost dumbfounded with awe by that which they just witnessed. You know, for the crowd to arrive at Jesus of the gate.

Yeah, most likely they would have witnessed some incredible things beforehand. You know, various hearings that Jesus did, casting out of demons, but now raising the dead, that’s next level for the crowd who was there as part of the funeral procession. Right. This would have been the last thing they would expect as they’re proceeding out to the graveyard, as they headed to Andor, they’re expecting to place the body in the tomb, not seeing the body raised up from the dead.

Going into the theme of imagination for us does not take a lot of imagination, our part to see and understand why the crowd stood seized with fear, with awe and the text as this awe filled crowd, as they witness all this that Jesus did, we see they did the only thing that they could do in response to the Lord and what he did. And they began to worship and they began glorifying God in the text, saying, a great prophet has risen among us and God has very visited his people.

Now, just a couple things and these two phrases said by the crowd. The first phrase, the declaration, the great prophet has risen among us sends a crowd like understanding that indeed Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is written about him. In the Old Testament there’s a few passages speaking towards a great prophet who was to come that you’re connecting now here to Christ. One they probably most likely had in mind is Deuteronomy 18, where Moses wrote this says, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is him you shall listen. I also wonder, perhaps you’re thinking about Malachi 4, which says this. So behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, you will turn the hearts and fathers of their children, and the hearts of their children, and children in the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest they come and strike the land with a decree and utter destruction. Which that passage of Elijah to come we do see is first pointing to John the Baptist, who is a forerunner Christ. But I do think that both Elijah as well as John the Baptist are there for us to see Jesus as the great and true prophet.

As mentioned our text, as a crowd stood seized with awe, it seemed like they were understanding. Their hearts were burning inside as they were recognizing that Jesus indeed is the prophet. Promised from old then the second phrase that people declared, the phrase God has visited his people. And for us this is such a rich and such an encouraging reality when it comes to our God. Most religions worldviews, their deity is like just distant, pretty aloof to what’s going on in the world around them.

So for many, they’re just hoping to do enough good things to somehow capture the attention of their false God. They might feel compelled like to entertain them with his presence. But this understanding, this type of religion, this is so far different from the truth that we see in Scripture concerning the one true and living God. But He’s a God who’s near, who’s present, who’s active in the world around us, including in our own hearts. He is a God who indeed visits his people.

In fact, we’ve learned in our study of Luke, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God visits His people in such a way that he actually lived among us, Emmanuel, God with us. Furthermore, we see in Scripture, particularly in the book of Acts, which is volume two of this work of Luke, in the person of the Holy Spirit, God continues to visit his people in such a way that he lives and he dwells in the hearts of his people. Meaning for his people, God could not be more near than he is, as he promises that he will forever be near to us, as he will never leave us, never forsake us.

And finally, we’re going to end in our passage today, verse 17, as his entire crowd came to this conclusion, as he understood the worship that Jesus deserves, we see the groups went their different ways. And as they left the scene, we see that reports about Jesus raising the young man from the dead started spread throughout the whole region of Judea, along with all the surrounding country, which no doubt only added to the buzz and excitement and the interest of the growing conversation of Jesus and Nazareth, if indeed he was the Messiah, which He is now. As I close this time here, I just want to give you just a few kind of summary statements from what we see in the text and then we’ll be done. So first, as we think through this text, so let the power, or the authority and power of Jesus, let that burn deeply within your heart and this Power, this authority, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is something we continue to see throughout Luke, throughout the public ministry of Jesus Christ that Luke records for us or his ministry is not like one of a charlatan, like he didn’t minister in weakness.

Jesus didn’t minister with like false promises where he like oversell but then vastly under deliver. Rather the ministry of Jesus was filled with real authority, with real power where Jesus was able to do that only God’s Eternal Son can do in text today. This authority, this power is found in the greatest miracle of Jesus that he performed to this day. Where according to this authority, to this power, Jesus raises the dead. And friends, let that authority, let that power burn in your hearts knowing that only did Jesus raise the dead in this text along as with the others that I mentioned earlier, but he has the authority, the power to raise all of his people from the dead so for all time they can dwell with him in eternity.

You know, there’s plenty of things in this life that appear to have some type of authority, some type of power.

Friends, let your heart burneth in burneth hope that in the end there’s only one authority. There’s only one power that’s gonna win out. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. Second, let the compassion of Jesus also burn deeply within your heart. Yes, Jesus has all power, he has all authority, but he also has all compassion.

Where it’s mentioned in the end of time, as his people enter into eternal life, he’s gonna meet us with his compassion, where he’s gonna dry every tear that we have ever shed, including our most painful and grief filled tears.

He’s gonna dry them with all of his compassion for us today. While no doubt the resurrection power and authority of Jesus is very present in the text, but I think even more what Luke wants us to see in this passage is the compassion, the tender heartedness of Jesus Christ who is filled with compassion towards this moment, who just lost her only son, this mom who is at the point of desperation, who needed someone to show her compassion, which in the text Jesus does with his grace upon grace. And friends, I do hope that the compassion that Jesus has for his people does burn in your hearts where it burns in ways that we feel it, particularly in our times of need.

We’re in our times of need. We trust that Jesus is not aloof to your pain, to your reality. Rather he is present. He’s present in ways that he is there to visit you in your pain. As your great High Priest who ministers with compassion and Kindness and grace upon grace.

Which by the way, I do wonder if maybe that’s true for some of you here this morning, that you did come in carrying just pain and grief.

Jesus is here to minister to you with his compassion. Third, let Jesus fulfilling the Scripture, let that reality also burn deeply within your heart. Just back to the passage I started to share from the end of Luke, where in the end, all of scripture, all of it, is there to point us to Christ. So as you read God’s holy word, let me encourage you to do so in ways where you’re like actively engaging your mind and heart, where you’re reading, in ways you’re like actually studying it, where you’re meditating upon it, memorizing it, where you’re asking the Lord through the power of his spirit to help you see whatever you’re reading, how that is to lead you to Jesus, whether it be through promises, through types, through failures, through prophecy, or wherever it may be. May we read Scripture in ways that it’s leading us to see how all of God’s yes and Amen are all taking us to Jesus, the One who sets our hearts on fire.

Back to our text, I do think it’s worth considering the odd story of the witch in Endor and her false divination, which just shows us like the sin and folly of mankind, how they’re there or that story is meant to stand in contrast to this story here in the truth and the wisdom found in Christ. Clearly in our text today, as we read about the great prophets Elijah and Elisha, as yes, we see the great things that the Lord did through them, but ultimately they’re types, pointers to the one true great prophet, the Lord Jesus, the one who raised the dead. So for us it would read God’s sacred word. May we read them in ways that they’re seen. We’re seeing how they take us to the truth that is Christ and may that truth burn deeply in our hearts in ways that we worship him, which actually leads to the next thing.

Let your burning heart lead you to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, where your heart is set on fire in ways that you’re seized with awe of who Jesus is, where all that you do is done as an act of worship of him, as you pour out your life as a living sacrifice that’s holy and acceptable to him, where you’re pouring out your life in ways that shows worship of love towards him, love towards others, starting with others. Here in the church, we’re in this worship. You’re giving your time and your Treasure and your talents to prove that indeed Jesus is the Lord of your life, the great treasure of your soul. One more Let your burning heart lead you to spread reports about Jesus.

So another favorite passage in Scripture comes from a different prophet. Different prophet is also there to point us to Christ Prophet named Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrote this. If I say I will not mention him speaking of God or speak any more in his name.

There is in my heart as if it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary of holding it in and cannot. And church. May that be true of us as well, that our hearts burn in the worship of Jesus Christ with a burning that’s so intense, so white hot, that we can’t help but share reports about him, starting with a report of his gospel found in his death, which Jesus, God’s only son, died on a cross, which he did out of great love, according to his great kindness and compassion and mercy, which he did in accordance with the scriptures that he came to fulfill as he, Jesus took on the punishment of our sin in our place where he died. But unlike the Son in the text who was stopped before he reached the tomb, Jesus actually was buried outside of the city gates where he lay dead for three days. However, as we know, Jesus did not stay dead, but in accordance with his great authority and power, which is authority, power even over death, in accordance with the Scripture, according to the sign of the great prophet Jonah that was given to us in the Old Testament, on the third day, in his greatest of all miracles, the Lord Jesus picked back up his own life as he rose again from the dead, where he now lives eternally.

And this report of Jesus crucified and risen, that has been passed down to us is a truth that is meant to seize our hearts, to seize in ways that penetrates like every fiber of our being, where our hearts are now burning so intensely inside that we cannot help but share the report in ways that we pass it down to others for us, sharing with others throughout the whole of Madison and then to the surrounding country and not stopping until we reach all the way to the ends of the earth. And by the way, if you’re looking for like a very real practical way to satisfy this burning in your heart, the sharing a report of him we know in a few weeks it’s Easter, where we’ll be even more intentionally remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if I can encourage us, let’s invite others to come join us at that service.

And who knows how on that Sunday, those who might walk in dead, dead in sin on that Sunday, maybe they hear the voice of Jesus in ways that they have no choice but respond to him, so that by faith he would believe in him. That they be risen, having their hearts set on fire for the Lord of life.

By the way, I actually did wonder this morning if this may actually be true. Maybe if some of us here, or even this morning, perhaps you walked in dead to Jesus, dead in sin for sure, you might know things about him, but you’ve never met Him. He’s not the vision of your life.

I do wonder that maybe today, maybe even this moment, for the first time, you would actually trust in Jesus so that through the eyes of faith you would see him.

That you be raised to life with him, the new and eternal life that he offers. My friend, if that is actually true of you today, just know we would love to rejoice with you in that truth. So please share that report with us. Knowing that reports like this, that you trusted in Jesus for the first time, that only adds to the fire in our own hearts. So, yes, Redville Church, may the truth of God found in his Word, the truth that leads us to Christ, may that set our hearts on fire today and always, that all of our days are filled with the joyful worship of him and the sharing of the reports about him.

That by the grace of God, others might have their hearts burned within as well. Let’s pray.

Lord, I do pray that you would do a great work in our hearts.

That even in this time, in this moment, that you would fan the flame within.

Lord, I pray for those here who may have not yet trusted in you. That today, through your sovereign voice, that you would call them to yourself, that you would open up their eyes, that they may see the Lord Jesus Christ, the very one who died for them, to take on the punishment of their sin, only to rise again from the dead so they may have life in you. Life abundantly, both now and throughout all eternity.

And Lord, we need your help to be faithful, to eagerly spread the news of reports of Christ crucified and risen. Lord, far too often our hearts are cold to share this report.

Far too often we make excuse on why we are slow to share. So, God, not only do I pray you forgive us for falling short, but particularly the next few weeks, that you would just help us to be faithful witnesses. That we’d faithfully share the report.

And Lord, our deep prayer is that you would use our little church to draw many to faith in Christ. And we pray that you would do that even within the next few weeks.

And lastly, Lord, I just do want to pray if there’s any here that are that walked in just carrying the weight of grief, that in this moment that today you would meet them with your compassion and your kindness.

That indeed you would prove to be their great high priest, who can sympathize with them in all weakness yet without sin. And that you would minister to them in their time of need with your grace upon grace.

Pray song Jesus name, Amen.

The post Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son – Luke 7: 11-17 appeared first on Red Village Church.

All right. Well, beautiful singing. If I’ve not met you, My name is Aaron and I’m the pastor here and I would love to meet you. So if you can find me at the end of the service, I’d love to meet you and learn a little bit more about you and how I might be a friend and to serve you. So, you know, I’m glad that you’re with us today, especially it being spring ahead.

And so I’m glad you sprung ahead and here on time. So thank you for that. So we have a lot to cover today. So if you have a bob with you, if you’d open up to the Gospel of Luke. We continue in our study of Luke.

So today our text is from Luke 7, verses 1 through 10. And if you have a Bible with you, if you’re not, there are Bibles kind of scattered throughout the chairs. That’s on page 503 of those blue Pew Bibles. So Luke 7, verses 1 through 10. And I’m going to read the entire text and then I’ll pray and then we’re going to get to work.

Expansion. We got a lot to cover today, so please hear the words of our God, starting in verse one. After he finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now Centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When centurion heard about Jesus sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.

When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, he is worthy. Do you have you do this for him. For he loves our nation and he’s the One. And he is the one who built us our synagogue. And Jesus went with them.

He’s not far off from the house. The centurion sent friends saying to him, lord, do not trouble yourself, for I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore not presume to you to come or presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to the one, go.

And he goes. And to another, come. And he comes. And to my servant do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.

And turning to the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even Israel have I found such faith.

And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant. Well, so that’s God’s word for us this morning Would you please pray with me?

God, thank you for bringing us together. And Lord, it’s good to be together with your people, together around your word. And Lord, please help me to be a good communicator this morning. Please help me to speak that what’s true. And Lord, please be with the congregation.

Please give them ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. And Lord, we pray. Use this time for our good and your glory. Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Yes. Let me just start off, just a reminder where we were last few weeks in our study of Luke, where we study a sermon that Jesus gave while standing on a plane, which is a sermon primarily given by our Lord to help his disciples know what it would look like if they’re going to faithfully follow after him. We’re in the sermon. If one is going to be a faithful follower of Jesus, they’re going to be setting their minds on the eternal life that is to come, doing so in ways that they’re actually doing earthly good, doing such ways that they’re going to try to store up treasures in heaven where God will reward his people. We’re in the sermon on the plane.

This life part of doing earthly good is actually to love one’s enemies, even if the enemies are bringing like persecution or persecution towards you for your Christian faith. Addition, we learn if we’re going to be a faithful follower of Jesus, we’re also going to learn we’re also going to love all other Christians doing so. On the positive, we’re going to be merciful to other Christians because God himself is merciful. We’re also going to be generous towards other Christians because God himself is generous. Furthermore, as Christians, we’re going to treat other followers of Jesus in ways that will not be engaging in the negative, like judging, condemning, withholding forgiveness from other believers, because in our pride, we’re actually, like, too busy trying to, like, pull the specks out of the eyes of others doing so, even though there’s a plank in our own eye.

And so on the plane, as followers of Jesus, we’re to live ways that we, like, bear fruit, to show that we truly are his followers, to prove that our life is actually built upon the foundation that is the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the foundation that will hold us secure, that will not fall as the storms of life come crashing against us. And for us. We went through the sermon on the plane the last few weeks. My hunch is all these different things that I mentioned are probably things that we would have like listed beforehand before we went to that sermon. Of things.

Like we know if we’re going to follow Jesus faithfully, like we know those things would be present now, today, as we continue in our study of Luke, with the story started, Luke 7, we come to another thing that we must do if we’re going to faithfully follow Jesus. But my hunch is probably not something we would write down if we actually did sit down to write a list. But this one’s actually really important and really is at the core of what it means to be a Christ follower, a Christian. If we’re going to be a faithful disciple of Lord Jesus Christ, we’re going to be a person who lives under authority, starting first and foremost by living under the authority of the Lord Jesus in His holy Word, but then within that, living under the various authorities that Christ has set up for us to live under in this life. Something we’re talking kind of more about throughout this sermon.

So I have the introduction you want to look back with me and the text starting in verse one, if you’re visiting with us. So all I’m going to do is kind of walk us back through the the text. So please keep your nose in the Bible. That’s the most important thing, is just hear what God says from His Word. So verse one.

So we read that after Jesus finished all his sayings in the hearings of the people, and this is a reference to the Sermon on the Plain, we see that he dismissed his congregation. And as the congregation was dismissed, we see that Jesus himself actually left the plane and he went to go enter into a town called Capernaum, which was a town on the Sea of Galilee. It’s the region where Jesus spent much of his earthly ministry ministering there. And Capernaum is actually a location where Jesus had previously set up shop. So you may remember in chapter four, verse 23, we read that folks from his hometown of Nazareth were talking about things that they heard Jesus recently do when he was in Capernaum.

And then chapter four, verse 31 reads some different things that Jesus did in Compern after leaving Nazareth to go back to that town, which included like casting out some demons. Jesus healed many in Capernaum, including the mother in law of Peter. And so for us in our text, it’s good to remember that this town that Jesus was entering back into, this is a place where Jesus spent like a significant amount of time where this town is on the receiving end and some really incredible ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so no doubt, like most people would have saw him as a very popular and well Liked figure where many in the city were either like firsthand recipients of his ministry or at least firsthand witnesses to that ministry. So here in the text, Jesus coming back into this town, right?

This would have caused like a stir, a buzz. News of his return would have spread quickly throughout the town. And this would have been actually the talk of the town. And as he made his way back to Capernaum, we see as the talk of spreading, we see in verse two that there was a centurion caught wind of this news of Jesus return. Now if you’re not sure what a centurion was, so this refers to a title of a fairly important officer in the ancient Roman army, which was an officer had some real authority.

So centurions were in charge of like 100 or so men just on their own accord. And then centurions were to work with like maybe 60 or so other centurions to lead an entire like Roman legion, which it was approximately like 6,000 soldiers. So like a very important, an influential person with significant amount of authority. Let me also mention not only centurions important on military front, but they typically were pretty wealthy individuals which most likely had a hand in how they achieved their status in the Rome in the Roman army because of their wealth. So according to the pillar commentary that I’ve been using throughout this study, centurions had a reputation of using great wealth to actually help fund like public services, civil projects, which we see is true of our text today with this particular centurion.

Let me also mention before we give the text that most centenarians were gentiles, okay? So non Jewish people, which based on the context of this passage, particularly verse nine, as we get there, it seems very likely that this centurion was indeed a gentile. And I think all this information is actually important for us to gather together if we can understand this text. Keep going. Verse 2.

As the Syrians caught wind that Jesus is back in town, this interest or this information was a lot of, of real interest to him. One, that no doubt excited him on a very real personal front. And reason why is as you see that the centurion had a servant who is highly valuable to him, our text tells us, but who is sick. In fact, this highly valued servant was so sick that he was actually near the point of death. Now let me just mention here, having a servant, one point is at the wealth of the centurion, right?

He was able to afford servants. And two, this also points to like further authority that this man had over others. So not only did he have like Military authority over soldiers, but he would have had authority over his servants, assuming that probably had multiple servants that he was had authority over. Okay, keep going. Verse 3.

As this news of Jesus returned to Capernaum, made his way to centurion, naturally centurion was able to connect some dots here. You know, he heard about things that Jesus did in the past, perhaps even witness Jesus giving some healings in the past. And so as centurion was able to connect the dots to Jesus being able to healed to his servant who was sick. We see, like he sends word to Jesus with the hopes that the Lord would come and heal his most important servant. The text as a centurion sent word to Jesus, we see that he did so by sending a delegation of like elders of the Jews, who likely were elders that this man would have worked with.

Maybe a little bit of a go between like the Roman government and the local Jewish people. And just to further take note here, this delegation probably continues to point, if not the authority, at least a vast influence of this centurion. Like not everyone could like have, like elders of the Jews, like on retainer to go and do something upon their request. But this man did. He had power, the authority, the influence to call the elders of the Jews to go and do his bidding, to be his delegates.

And so for us, like, we need to see and understand this centurion, like, he’s an important individual. He had some real clout, some real like gravitas about him, some real authority that he had like really all over the city. Okay, keep going. Verse 4. As a delegation of the Jews, Jewish elders were sent from this man.

We see that as they found Jesus in the text, as they found him, they didn’t simply relate to Jesus. Hey, Jesus, Israel, you know, please come heal the sick servant. Rather more than that, as they found Jesus began to like, plead with Jesus with like earnestness. There’s like a passionate plea here where they pled with the Lord saying, lord Jesus, you have to come, you have to do this. You have to come heal this sick man, for he is worthy for you to do this for him.

Now this he here, he is worthy. This is actually referring to the centurion. Not that the elders didn’t care about the sick man, but excuse me, they had such love and admiration for the centurion. They knew how much the servant meant to him, and they understood if the man died, how devastated the centurion would be. So they pleaded with Jesus on his behalf.

The thought of the centurion losing his servant was too much for the elders of the Jews to bear. So he’s mentioned they pleaded with Jesus. Although I should say here, others have wondered, myself included, if this message from the delegation concerning like the worthiness of the centurion was maybe not just a message that the delvets came up with on their own, but perhaps it’s actually part of the message that the centurion himself gave to the delegation to relate to Jesus. Meaning from the centurion delegates, go find Jesus and let him know, like how important of an individual I am. Let him know that I’m a centurion, Let him know that I have authority, I have power.

Let him know that you’re not coming on behalf of just anyone, but you’re speaking upon my behalf, someone who is worthy of his time and attention. Now, I’m not exactly sure. Maybe the answer is maybe both things are true. Basically, in verse five, we’ll get to in just a second. Elders clearly thought by thoughts about the centurion.

But also we get to verse six, perhaps the centurion also did think that like he was worthy of Jesus coming, at least at first. I’ll explain why when we get to those verses or verse six, whoever came up with the message of the worthiness. In verse 5, we see that the elders did have a high regard for this man, verse 5. For even though he was a Roman leader of the army, even though he was a Gentile, the delegates like testified to the Lord Jesus. Jesus, we’re not just coming to you on behalf of anyone, but we’re coming on behalf of one who has like loved the nation of Israel, who has loved our nation in such a way that he gave his own money, his own resources in order for us to build a synagogue.

Jesus, this is like our biggest donor, our most important benefactor. He has done so much for us, we would like to do something now for him. And by the way, I should mention here, building the synagogue just points to the wealth that this man had. He used his resources in this way for the civil social good. Just guessing, but synagogues probably were not cheap to build.

Yet through his generosity, that’s what the people of Capernaum were able to do to build a synagogue. Verse 6. So Jesus heard the pleading from the elders, we see that actually touched his heart. So according to the will of the Father, Jesus got up and he starts to head back with them to the house. However, in the story, Jesus is getting closer to the house.

The centurion seemingly had like a bit of a change of heart towards Jesus, as we see in the text, the centurion sent some of his friends with a different message that he sent with to the Jewish elders. So he sends like a second delegation here. And this delegation was not asking Jesus to come. Instead this delegation actually started to plead with Jesus to not come as they were testifying on behalf of, and they were not testifying on behalf of the centurion’s worthiness, which the first delegation did. Rather, in this second delegation, their message was sent to deliver, or sent to deliver a message of his like unworthiness.

It’s in the text, the friends to Jesus, Lord, do not trouble yourself. Do not keep coming towards this house. For the centurion wants to communicate to you through us that, that I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. This is a very different message, what just took place with the Jewish elders, a very different tone here. And I think it’s actually important for us to see in the passage.

So from the short time between verse four to six, the centurion went from thinking he was worthy, feeling deserving of Jesus to come into his home, sure, a large part because of who he was and all the great things he did for Israel. But now as Jesus is coming into his presence now he felt unworthy, undeserving to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. So really what changed? I mean, Capernaum wasn’t like a huge city that had taken like days to travel by foot across. Not a big city, so probably not a lot of time back and forth, I don’t know.

But I’m guessing the timeline between verses four and six, maybe it’s just been like a matter of hours, maybe even less. That’s what changed to me. I’ve wondered if this quick change, perhaps the first delegation was on the way to Jesus, perhaps maybe some of the friends of the centurion, the friends who were with him, maybe started to share with him a little bit more about Jesus and his ministry, perhaps telling the centurion about the buzz that is filling the area, that Jesus was like the long awaited and long anticipated Christ, the one who has authority not just over sickness, but also over demons and sin. And also I wonder if perhaps if as the centurion waited for their first delegates to return back with Jesus, one of the friends and this new delegation kind of wondered, maybe he’s like part of the congregation on the plane. And then maybe it’s like communicating to the centurion all the different things that Jesus said, particularly like building one’s life upon the foundation that is him.

Obviously I don’t know what happened here, but I wondered if someone witnessed to the centurion between verses 4 and 6. And as this information concerning the Lord Jesus was given to the centurion, this man began to understand that Jesus is more than just simply like a healer, but indeed Jesus is the Savior of the world, the one that he was to build his life upon as the foundation. That indeed Jesus is the Son of God who came into the world, that he is the Savior that we do not deserve, no matter what kind of social standing we have or how many people we have authority over. Maybe you understand that Jesus is a Savior that we can’t like earn by our own good deeds, even if our good deeds were enough to build an entire synagogue. Begin to wonder, like, what happens, what happened here?

It seems to me between verses 4 and 6 that the centurion was converted and began to understand that only the Lord Jesus is worthy. I’ll say again, I don’t know if this happened, but it does seem like a real change of heart here in a very short period of time. Keep going. Verse 7. After the first delegation of friends came to Jesus to relay the message with a very different tone, they shared with Jesus from the centurion.

Therefore, because I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof, however, in your grace, your power, Jesus, I know that if you just say the word that your word has all authority and know that by your word you can heal my servant, like right from where you stand. I think this here is further indicating just this real heart change of this interior. In a short few verses, he understands the power, the authority of the Lord Jesus was far greater than having to be physically present for him to be at work. Rather, Jesus has all power, all authority to do whatever he desires, regardless of his physical location, the text that after saying these things, the centurion said perhaps the most important thing in the text, the thing that I think is good for us to see and understand, the thing that we also must say if we’re going to be following after Jesus as disciples. Verse 8, Jesus, for I too am a man under authority, which is pointing that he has now submitted his life to the authority of Jesus Christ, doing so, even though at the end of verse eight, like he knew he had soldiers under him who basically did whatever he asked of them.

He said to some, go, he goes, to another come. Well, he comes. He knew that he had servants. And if he told his servants do this, the servant would do it. So even though this man was powerful, wealthy, influential, even though he had many under authority.

He rightly understood that he too was a man under authority, the authority of Christ. Why this is so important for us to see is because this is actually true of all of us. And this is true of all of us, whether we profess it and submit to it like this man did, or we do not. Even if we try to resist Jesus rightful authority over his life or over our life. The end Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, he is the One who has all authority.

Just circle back to more, just a bit. But for those of us who have faith in Lord Jesus Christ, who follow him as his disciples, being under the authority of Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior, friends, this is at the core of all that we do, why we do what we do. We joyfully live under his authority, his righteous authority, knowing that it is for his glory and our good. Verse 9 After the Lord heard all this from the centurion, we see that Jesus marveled at him. He’s amazed, perplexed by this response.

In his amazement, we see that Jesus turned to the crowd of people who followed him to the centurion’s home and said to them, crowd, listen, I got to tell you this, this profession that was just made by this Roman soldier, this Gentile, nowhere in Israel have I found such faith. Now a few quick things here. So first, this here Jesus speaking about the faith in centurion, this is why I think that at least by the end of the text today, the man was converted by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had faith in Christ. Faith is only found when one is converted.

Second, I did wonder how the crowd received this announcement of Jesus and how he honored the centurion. I haven’t found faith like this in all of Israel. So yes, this man really did seem to be a respected individual in the area, but he still was a Gentile. So I did wonder how the crowd received this information. Perhaps specifically how like the Pharisees and other religious leaders receive this information, whether they’re on site, part of the crowd, or they just heard about this report later on.

So in the New Testament there are multiple reasons why the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead. One of which is because Jesus loved Gentiles who he’s like grafting into the family of faith. So the third thing I just want to point out before we finish the text, something I think I mentioned previously in the study of Luke, but I want to mention again just because how important it is the storyline of the Gospel account of Luke as well as volume Two, which is the Book of Acts. And just the thing I want to point out is just a spectrum of people who come to faith in Jesus Christ. I mean, it’s an absolute mixed bag of people.

So let me just review with us just some of the people we’ve seen come to faith in Jesus in just the first seven chapters. And as I give you this list, just be on the lookout of how this list will only continue to grow throughout the remainder of our study. So just so far, let me start with a couple Gentiles being with the author. Luke was a doctor, also appeared to be a Gentile himself, yet he was a disciple of Jesus Christ. He also spoke to a man named Theophilus, who also seemingly was a Gentile.

There’s an old Jewish woman named Elizabeth, who for her entire life was barren before becoming pregnant, where she gave birth to a son named John. She had faith. Her Jewish husband Zechariah, who was also an old man, who was a well thought of priest at Faith. There’s a young virgin named Mary, who was her niece, who’s a virgin that the Lord would use to give the birth of the Christ that the Old Testament foretold. There is her husband Joseph.

So even though he came through the line of David, was a simple carpenter from Nazareth, kind of a small backwater town, not very well respected by much of Israel, yet he had faith. There were lowly shepherds who were out watching their flock by night, who were the first to meet the Christ on the first Christmas as he was lying in a manger. They became his first witnesses, proclaiming to all what they saw. There’s an old devout man named Simeon, who has promised to see the Christ before he died, indeed did meet the Lord, the Christ child in the temple. There’s a prophetess, Anna, who was a widow for decades, who not only gave thanks for being in the presence of the Christ, but also witnessed to him or about him to others.

There was John, the son of Elizabeth in Zechariah, being known as John the Baptist, who was the promised forerunner of the Christian, the one who Jesus said, there’s like none greater born of woman than him. Then throughout we read of people at various synagogues coming to faith in Christ. There’s a man possessed by a demon who trusted in Jesus. There was his first disciples who Jesus called himself, who were just like ordinary common men, several which just being simple fishermen. There was a man with leprosy who cultured been an incredible social outcast, yet came to faith in Jesus.

There was a man who was Paralyzed who appears other in society thought came about as something like he deserved because of his own sin. Yet he too trusted in Jesus. But not only did he receive healing so he could walk, but more importantly, Jesus forgave this man of his sins. There was a man named Levi, a despised tax collector, who may have been like some of the most hated people or person in all the area. Yet Jesus called him to be one of his disciples.

There’s a man with a withered hand received healing on the synagogue on a Sabbath, much to the dismay of the religious leaders. There are crowds of people around Jesus from like all over who followed after him to hear him preach with one who has authority, including the congregation on the plane. Now here today, Roman officer, a Gentile, a person with real authority, real power, real influence, real wealth, now submitting his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Just in the first seven chapters. It is an absolute mixed bag of people.

Jews, Gentiles, well thought of, part of the social elite, yet social outcasts, those who are despised, lowly thought of. There are people who are known and important, people who are just ordinary in average. That all, like the centurion in our text today, came to Jesus by faith, all proving that indeed Jesus is mighty to save. And finally we’re in our text this morning in verse 10. After Jesus honored this man for being a man under authority, those who came to Jesus returned back home where they found the servant well as Jesus, in His grace and his power and his authority, healed a man who was at the point of death for us.

As we’re going to end our text to study today in Luke, but before I close, I want to just make a few comments concerning being an authority. And then from there I just want to point out a few things from the centurion in terms of like some positive examples that we can follow from him of not only how to live with authority, if we have authority, wherever they may be, but also how to live under authority. And then I just want to finish off our time by looking at the perfect example of Jesus and how he exercised authority or exercises authority, and how in his incarnation, how he too lived under authority. So first let me give you some real general thoughts just on authority. So we actually were designed to both live under authority as well as exercise authority.

And we see this actually in the creation account, where we’re designed, created to live under the authority of God in His good word that he’s given to us, and then in turn exercise authority over the earth as mankind was to be fruitful and Multiply and fill the earth, like, subduing it, having dominion over it, including like the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, over every living thing that moves on earth, right? So that that is actually our design, a good design, but one that we rebelled against as mankind sinned against God and his authority over us. Let’s say it again. Mankind designed to both live under authority as well as exhibit authority. Now, when it comes to living under authority, we always do so in ways that line up with Scripture.

And in Scripture, there’s actually a lot of different authority structures that it speaks towards, just to name a few. Like, there’s government that’s over nations. There’s husbands who are over the home. There are parents who are over children. There are bosses who are employees in church life, there’s elders who are over local churches.

And as we live under the various authorities, we see in Scriptures, this is not to be like a blind follow the authority, but we are to live under authority as far as the authority lives under the authority of Scripture to do the things that God would have us to do. And for us, this is actually really important, right? As we live under authority of God’s Word, like we live under authority even of others, provided others are not, like, causing us to sin.

Likewise, as scripture or scripture, as we live under authority, this is actually a real part of the way we worship God, right? So this is actually important for us both in terms of us living on authority and exercising authority. It’s part of our design. This is how we worship, worship God. This is part of what it means to like, follow after Christ and his authority in our life as we testify as we live under him.

Second thing, I want to close with just these examples from the centurion and what we can learn from and how to do this. Well, so first, let me just start out how we can learn from the example of like, having authority. So if you have authority, wherever that authority may be, he gives us some good examples, I think, in this passage. So first, as you have authority, ensure that you’re actually using it to care for others who are under you. And I do think that’s the example we see in the centurion, his favored servant who was appointed death.

Like, he cared about him and he cared enough to send for Jesus. He was like, you know what? My servant’s going to die, kind of a bummer. But you know what? I have plenty of cash and I can just get myself another servant.

No, he cared about the servant and he sent for the Lord. And this is important. So if you have authority, wherever that authority may be, those underneath you should, should indeed know that you care for them. Second, if you have authority, be generous with that which you have, which could be money, but it could be more than that. It could be like time, wisdom, opportunity, like be generous.

And the text is Centurion is a very wealthy man and he was generous with that wealth where he built for the people of Capernaum, a synagogue. So be generous with whatever authority that you have. In fact, this is a real way that we can show that we care through generosity. Third, if you have authority, wherever the authority may lies, use it to be a positive influence over others, where that influence has people like, willing to do things for you, not just like out of compulsion, but like out of joy. So one of my early Christian mentors gave me a plaque that said, lead wisely, so those who follow you will follow cheerfully.

And I do think that’s a bit what we see in the text of the Jewish elders as they went to plead with Jesus on behalf of the centurion, where they testify to Jesus, how this interior had a positive impact on the city scriptures, specifically speaking towards elders who have authority of congregation. So it’s like we’re not to like lord over the church, so not be like domineering, but by giving example that it’s worth following. While elders of church, I do think, have a higher standard here. These elders are caring for the church which Jesus purchased with the blood. I do think that principle applies to whatever area of influence that you have, whatever authority you have, that you’re not to like, dominate them, but you, like, give them example worth following, where those underneath you, like with joy, submit to your authority, your influence over their life.

Let me give you one more. So if you have authority, wherever the authority may lie, still have friends. And I think that’s a challenge. The more authority that one has, I think that’s actually harder it might be to have friends. I think naturally we just kind of like isolate from others.

But that’s not the example we see in the passage Centurion as much authority as he had, we see in the text like he still had friends, as he sent a friend, a delegation of friends to Jesus. So friends are important, like real friends. Like, even as you gain added authority, have friends, real friends, not like just yes men and yes women who are just like fanboys or fangirls, but like real friends who help you stay grounded or to not get like full of ourselves or whatever authority that we may have, have real friends who testify to you about Jesus and the authority he has over all of our lives, which, say it again, I do wonder if that’s what took place between verses four and six of our passage. Okay, so if you have authority, there’s some things there. Second, as me point out from the model of centurion, like, how do we, like, live under authority?

As mentioned at least to me, that’s the most important verse in this passage. As the centurion told Jesus, I too am a man under authority. So give me just a couple things here from examples. As we live under authority, starting with authority of God’s word, but also authority of those who God has placed over us. So as you live under authority, first, do so by having humility.

I mean, this is the example of this most important verse in this text, right? With humility, the centurion testified, hey, I too live under authority. I’m under the authority of you, Jesus. Right? Authority we designed to live.

And for us, we just have to be humble in all aspects of our life, including this aspect. Friends, we’re not our own. We’re not the master of our own fate. We’re not the captain of our own soul. Rather, we all belong to God.

He created us. He’s the master, he’s the captain. He alone is the Lord. And we must humble ourselves before him, before his authority over our life and whatever earthly authority he has placed over us, providing that earthly authority is not causing us to sin. And we know it’s not easy for us to do.

It’s not easy to be humble as we live under authority. Even this week, if you kind of replay your week, grumbling, complaining, murmuring how much it was towards those who have authority over you. Facts and sin enter the world. Naturally, we just want to, like, rebel against authority, starting with God’s authority over us. But if we’re going to obey scripture, if we’re going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, friends, we must be humble.

Second, if we live under authority, we actually have to live with trust once again, starting with trust in God. Trust in his good rule over our life. The text we see the centurion had a change of heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And he trusted him. And he trusted that the Lord is the one who is worthy.

He trusted that the Lord had power to do whatever he pleased, including healing his servant from where he stood. For us, as we live under authority, we must do so with trust.

Trust in God, but also like levels of trust in those he placed over us. Now, it’s not a blind trust, but we trust, trust that knowing God actually does hold people in authority accountable and we can trust that people over authority, that God is using them in our lives for our good. It’s not good for us, it’s not for our advantage. If all we ever do is like buck authority, because like we can’t trust as we live under authority, that that must be there. A trust that is grounded in the Lord and who he is.

And this actually leads. The last thing I just want to say here just revolves around the perfect model that comes from living under authority and then having authority, which is a perfect model found in Jesus where in his incarnation as the eternal Son of God became flesh. He did so by submitting Himself fully to the authority of His Heavenly Father as He came to do his will, which included in the flesh. Like even Jesus lived under authority, doing so without sin. He lived under the authority of his parents, even lived on authority of government is that he paid taxes.

Where in every aspect of life Jesus humbly submitted himself to the will of the Father, including like healing the servant in this passage. Where Jesus trusted His Father in all aspects of his life, including with all perfect humility. Where he trusted in accordance with the Scripture. Where Jesus humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. Where on the cross Jesus bore the wrath of God that burns over sin as Jesus dies for like a mixed bag of people, Jew and Gentile, where he died even though we all have rebelled against God as authority of our life, where we have failed to live perfectly with whatever authority he has given to us.

That even though Jesus lived and died under authority, we know he did not stay dead. The but on the third day, in accordance with the Scripture, our Lord picked back up his life as he rose again from the dead to prove that not only does he have authority over life, but also authority over sin and death. So that through his death and resurrection, the name of Jesus will be the Name that is above all names in heaven and on earth. The Name has all authority. Where as mentioned, one day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord.

Where as the Lord not only did Jesus have the power to rule, the authority to rule, but he also has, like all care, all love, as he does so towards his people. Whereas the Lord Jesus lives with his authority, he generously pours out his grace upon grace upon his people to prove that indeed he’s like the true friend of sinners.

So yes, Church, if we’re going to follow Jesus, we must live under his authority, which is a good authority found in his perfect word, finally, to close. I just wanted to close. But despite inviting any here who have yet to submit their life to Jesus Christ, who have yet to put their faith in Him, I want to close just by inviting you to actually do so. Like right now, in this moment, where in the short time since you walked in this morning to when you walk out at the close of the service in just a bit, that there’d be like a change of heart in you, where you realize and you understand that you’re actually not worthy of Jesus. But in his incredible grace and love and mercy, he died for you and rose again and is now calling himself, recalling you to Himself, so that forever and always you can joyfully live under his authority as the one who is worthy of it all.

So let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for Jesus, thank you that in the incarnation that he gives us the perfect example that we need as he lived the life that we could never live.

And Lord, I do pray that you would help us all just to trust in Jesus today.

Trust and believe that indeed Jesus did die for sin, indeed he did rise again on the third day. And to trust that his word is true and it’s good.

And Lord, I pray you just forgive us all the different places that we’re failing, whether it’s failing to live under your authority or the authority of others that you placed over us, or for abusing the authority that you have entrusted to us. And so, Lord, please forgive us. And indeed, Lord, I do pray that all here today would have faith, would be a man or woman under your authority. Pray so in Jesus name, amen.

The post Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant – Luke 7: 1-10 appeared first on Red Village Church.

And the ruin of that house was great. It’s not God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, we pray that you would indeed speak through the preaching of your word. Lord, please help me to communicate this text. Well, Lord, please keep me from error, but to speak only that which is true. Lord, we do pray that you give the congregation here just ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. And Lord, please bring much glory to Jesus in this time.

It’s in his name we pray. Amen. So let me share with you a story I think I may have shared in the past, but I think it’s been a little while since I’ve done it. It’s like every good story starts with me. So there we were.

And this was when I was still in college and I had a summer job working for a carpenter who actually specialized in building log homes. Now, for me, my main job was donut pickup guy for the morning break. But I also had a number of other trivial jobs that come alongside some of the main carpenters just to kind of help them do their thing in ways to help them be efficient and able to concentrate on doing quality work. Well, in this story, one of the days when I was assisting one of the carpenters, things are just not coming together. So we just finished putting on the decking over the basement of the house, which I should mention was a huge home.

This is the biggest home. The owner of the building company had to up to this point. But as we put the decking on and started to lay out the exterior walls, things were just not coming together. The walls were not lining up according to plan, even though from what we could tell, we were laying things out according to the blueprints. So after a while trying to figure things out on our own, trying to figure out why things are not coming together according to the design, the carpenter that I was assisting called over to the owner of the company to see if he could help us just understand why things were not working the way they should have.

Which led to the owner also looking at the blueprints where he started to measure things out on the exterior walls. But as he did that, things were not coming for together for him either. So for the next, I don’t know, 30 minutes or so, we’re all scratching our heads trying to figure out what the issue was. Why were things not going the way they were designed? Why were they not coming together?

Where did things go wrong? Only for the owner to realize what was wrong had nothing to do with the blueprints, nothing to do with the measurements of the walls, rather the basement foundation that was poured, the one that the company owner laid out like he didn’t do it right. So in the hustle and bustle, I’m sure the pressure excitement of building his biggest home to date, he got a little distracted. And the measurements, the layout of the foundation was off something like a foot or two, which might not seem like a big deal, but just that little bit off of the foundation put everything else off. And with everything because that was off, we just could not move forward.

Because if we did so, not only did the house not come together according to plan, the house would have been structurally vulnerable, set up for a huge fall with the foundation off, everything else was off as well. Now, I tell you that story this morning to hopefully set us up for our text, a study, which is the final section, often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain, which is something we’ve been studying the last few weeks. This is called Sermon on the Plane, because in Luke 6 we see that the sermon that Jesus gave was to a great crowd of disciples, a great multitude of people from all over the region, while he gave this, while standing on a level place, a plane. So I mentioned a few times, and I’ll mention again here, this sermon plane is similar, but yet a little different to perhaps Jesus most famous sermon. The sermon is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, which the Lord gave on the side of a mountain, which you can read about in Matthew, starting in chapter five of Matthew.

And the sex is very similar, but different. In fact, the sermon is very similar, but different, including how similar actually is, how it ends. Both those sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Plain, end very similarly. And I do think it’s important for us to see that each of these end with a very similar challenge to the listeners. A challenge that’d be good for us to hear this morning as well.

A challenge that is meant to cut to our hearts, to show if our hearts indeed do beat for Jesus or not. So we’re talking more about this kind of throughout the sermon. Let me also just mention before we get dive back into the text, that throughout this sermon on the plain, Jesus is primarily speaking towards his disciples. So yes, it’s mentioned there’s a great crowd around Jesus from all over the region who he was speaking to as well in the sermon. But the primary audience for this sermon, the Sermon on the Plain, was his many disciples, as Jesus was helping them understand what it looks like to follow after him.

Understanding if we’re going to Follow after Jesus. We need to follow him not just in word, but also in deed, meaning to be a disciple of Jesus, not simply acknowledging that Jesus is the Lord. We were to follow him joyfully submitting our life to him and as the Lord as the foundation of our life, where our desire is to build everything about our life off of him, knowing that if Jesus is not our foundation, everything is going to be off, which in terms of the plains, well, as the sermon, the Mount, everything be off in the most tragic and terrifying ways. Without Jesus as the foundation of one’s life, we are set up for a great fall. Okay, so that is the introduction.

Please look back with me at the text, starting in verse 33, where Jesus spoke to the congregation on the plane by giving them another parable or illustration to help them understand, like an important spiritual truth. So in the text, verse 43, Jesus says, for no good tree bears bad fruit. Nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its fruit. I’ll just say pause here for a second.

Clearly here in this parable illustration, Jesus is using trees as a metaphor to address one’s heart, which is the thing that Jesus is after. He wants our heart. He deserves our heart. So in this illustration, when our hearts are good in ways that they’re good before God, because God has birthed inside us a new heart, we’re in the grace of God, he takes out like a heart of stone, that actually we’re all born with a heart that’s like spiritually dead before God in sin, that by his grace he gives us a new birth, he puts in a new heart, a heart of flesh, which is a heart that now beats for God. A heart that knows God, or better said, is known by God as his own.

Because a new heart, this heart of flesh, this very spirit dwells within. The very presence of God, fills that heart. So from that new heart that was graciously given to us by God, now good things come out of it. Not bad things, not bad fruit. But in the text, good things, good fruit, which are good things.

Good fruit that honor God, that communicate worship towards God. They have a real love for God, a desire to bring glory to God. In the New Testament, these good things, or these good fruit that come out of a new heart, it’s often referred to as the fruit of the spirit. Good fruit, not bad fruit. So Galatians 5 says this.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. So in this sermon, Jesus, in this illustration on the positive, when the heart is good because of God, putting a new heart like a good tree, good fruit will come from us. As a good tree does not produce bad fruit, a new good heart will not be characterized by having bad fruit. However, then on the negative, the challenge of warning for those who do not have the spirit of God dwelling inside, where they have not experienced, like, this new birth, where they do not have a new heart, where they’re still spiritually dead in their sins, spiritually dead before God, where they have this, like, heart of stone. Scripture refers to a heart that does not beat for God, does not desire to bring him glory.

In the text, like a bad tree, they will not produce good fruit, Meaning they will not live a life seeking to worship God, obey God, love God, bring glory to God. Rather, without a new birth, the spiritually dead heart will produce fruit, which the New Testament refers to as like the works of the flesh. So once again, Book of Galatians, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. None of these things are good fruit.

None of these things bring honor and glory to God. No, just a few things before we keep moving on. First, I just want to address maybe a couple related questions you have here. And then after that, I want to just stress something essential for us to see and understand in this passage. So first question, potential questions you might have.

Does this mean that if one is a Christian who has a new heart, does this mean that, like, bad or sinful things cannot come out of them, where they’ll never sin, never do anything wrong? The answer is life is unfortunately, bad things, sinful things, even for Christians, for disciples of Jesus, unfortunately, these still will happen. Or, unfortunately, we still will stumble and fall in many ways. And if one says that he’s, like, not a sinner, not capable of sinning, like Scripture tells, like, they’re a liar and the truth is not in them. So Jesus is getting here.

It’s not that we’re going to be perfect where we only give good fruit, but what he is saying is, like, bad, sinful things, bad fruit. These things will not mark our lives. We’re not gonna just, like, give in to bad fruit without seeking to put them away through repentance and faith. Like, there’s gonna be evidence of our life of good fruit when we have a good heart, they’re gonna be present. There’s gonna be a desire A longing, a joy for obedience, that we live a life that bears fruit for our good God.

And they say things will mark one’s life. Our life will be one that’s lived. They’re seeking to honor and worship God once again. Just to be clear, in this life, unfortunately, they can be done in imperfect ways as a wait for and long for the next life. In the next life, all these things will be done in perfect life, in perfect ways, where in the next life only good fruit will come as sin is fully removed from us.

Let me mention the context of sermon. Some of the good fruit that is to mark those who are Christians who have a new heart, those who are trusting in him, I’m positive, will include things like storing up treasures in heaven. Just something Jesus talked about kind of throughout this sermon on plain. It’ll include like loving our enemies. It’s going to include good fruit of like not being judgmental and condemning or unforgiving towards other Christians.

Our lives can be marked, like trying to do to others which we wish others would do to us. Likewise, a good tree, the life is gonna be characterized by not like having this bad fruit, like trying to pull the speck out of someone else’s eye when there’s a plank in your own eye. Instead, when there’s a good heart that God has graciously put in the fruit of our life that comes from knowing God will have like the fruit of generosity, the fruit of love and mercy towards other and word. And indeed so once again, not perfect in this life, but there should be a life that produces good fruit because of God’s work. Second potential question then, is Jesus teaching those who are not Christians who still have a heart of stone, who are dead in their sin.

Is Jesus saying that they cannot do good things? And the answer is kind of a yes and no here. So certainly non Christians can do morally good things towards others where they can show, like, love and kindness, where, in a sense, you can do good things to benefit society. In fact, I’m sure we all know those who are not yet Christians, who are like some of the nicest and kindest people that we know, who have done good things that we have benefited from. However, that being said, non Christians who are spiritually dead before God, who still have a heart of stone, they cannot do good things in ways that, like honor God, that reflect the heart of worship towards God to produce good things that bring glory to God in the end.

This is what Jesus is getting at here. Bad trees cannot bear good fruit in their lives in ways that honor and glorify God, which is what we’ve been designed to do. God created us to obey him, to enjoy him forever, to bear fruit with our lives. But because of sin is in all of us on our own, apart from the grace of God in our life, we can’t bear good fruit for God. Like we need a new heart in ways we’re going to live, ways that we have been designed to live.

And third, I just want to stress here before I move on within this illustration that Jesus is using here, something he continues to really teach throughout his ministry, including this sermon on the plain. There’s really only two ways that one can live. Either you know God by having faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, or to keep saying it, you have a new heart given to you graciously by God, with the Spirit of God living inside, where you’re blessed in God, where God is the foundation of your life, where you’re bearing good fruit for Him. That’s one way. Or you don’t know God and you still have a heart that’s spiritually dead before God.

Where in the sermon on the plain, you’re under his woes because he is not your foundation. Like there’s no sliding scale here. Either a good tree or a bad tree. Either you have a new heart or you have a heart of stone. Either you’re alive to God because of his grace and the new heart is given to you, or you’re still dead, dead in your sin before Him.

Either Jesus is the foundation or he’s not. There’s only two ways to live, and this is true for all of us here this morning. Either we are in Christ or we are not. Either we are a good tree or we are a bad tree. Keep going.

Verse 44. For each of these two tree options we see it’s known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from bushes, nor grapes picked up from like bramble bush. Those types of trees don’t produce those types of fruits. It’s not in their nature.

They can’t do it. It’s impossible. Verse 45. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart, then produces good. Once again.

With the Spirit living inside, one will produce good fruit. It will happen. In fact, it’s impossible for it not to happen. But the evil person is referring to any and all who do not have faith in God through Jesus Christ, who is still dead in trespasses and sin. The evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil.

How can it not? It’s in its nature. It cannot produce that which is good to bring glory to God in the text. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks, meaning that which is at our core in our heart, it will come out of us like whatever is at the core of a tree, that fruit will come out. Which by the way is why our words are so telling.

A New Testament book of James says if anyone thinks he’s religious but does not bridle his own tongue, but deceives his heart, this person’s religious religion is worthless. Keep going. Verse 46. We see it’s not just our words that are telling when it comes to what kind of tree we are or what kind of foundation we’re built upon. We also see our deeds or their lack thereof are also so telling Jesus to the congregation on the plane and to us here this morning.

So why do you call me Lord? Lord? Which calling Jesus Lord, like those are the right words for our mouth to speak yet. And this is a pretty massive three letter word here. Yet you do not do what I tell you.

Verse 47. Everyone who comes comes to me and hears my word and does them. I will show you what he’s like, which here Jesus give another illustration or parable to communicate his point. And this is something that James also communicates about works and obedience. There’s a natural outflowing when one has faith, outflowing from the heart, there will be works.

This is what Jesus is about to get at in our text. Verse 48. So that person, the one who hears and obeys, he’s like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. Now just for some historical context here, just to understand what Jesus is getting at. So in this time period houses actually were pretty heavy.

These are often rebuilt with like either like large stones or bricks. And often these heavy houses were built on a terrain that was like not most level. So this can be kind of a hilly region. And because of these factors, the overall weight of the home, the uneven terrain, if a house was built in haste without taking time to dig into the bedrock to secure the home, the house would be set up for a fall like crumbling under its own weight. So the better, the necessary thing to do, the better long term picture here to do the right thing is to dig deep into the ground.

Even though it cost time money to set the foundation of the house on a rock, building a house on the rock would make the house so much more secure, particularly when the storms blew in which in the text. So when the flood waters rose, which actually Something could be pretty common in this region of the world. Times like heavy rains might pop up from time to time. And as these storms pop up, maybe flood waters would join them, causing a stream to come, like rushing against the house. And the house that’s built on the deep, secure foundation of the rock, as a stream came rushing against it, the text tells us it will not shake because this has been built well, safely secured and tethered to the rock.

I remember in verse 49, if you want to take your eyes there, the warning. But the one who hears the words of Jesus, the words found in sacred Scripture, but does nothing with them, rather hears but rejects God’s word as if it has no bearing on your life. Particularly what it says about the salvation found in Jesus Christ. It takes that person is like a man who built a house without a foundation, having no real care, no real concern, no real thought on that which might come rather just kind of quickly throw up the house just to get back to the cares of the world for that person. When the flood waters came, causing a stream to form that came crashing against that type of house with no foundation, immediately the house will fall and the ruin of that house will be great, where that person will lose everything.

I think the reality of losing everything certainly is true in this life, but I think more importantly is true of the life that is to come. For those who reject Christ, who do not build their life upon him as the foundation, they will be forever lost apart from Him. Which is why this Sermon on the Plane is a heavy but important sermon for us to hear. Perhaps that’s why Jesus ended this sermon as well the Sermon on the Mountain. The same way for us to hear this warning, knowing that he, like, came to seek and save those which are lost so that they would be found by him, so they would have their foundation built on him as the rock of our salvation through his death and resurrection from the dead.

For us, that ends the sermon on the plane. However, before we end this sermon here, just a couple things I just want to do. So first, I specifically just want to give us some thoughts from our text today. And then I just want to kind of back up and give you some thoughts on the Sermon on the Plane as a whole that’s mentioned. We’ve been looking at the last number of weeks.

So first, let’s just start with our text today. As I mentioned, again, not only ends the Sermon on the plane, but very similarly ends a Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. And I do think it’s important to see like this is the conclusion that Jesus has, as he preached to the crowds around him. And so for us, I just have one kind of major point of application, which is this, as we end this sermon on the plane, is just to examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith. Okay, so New Testament says this in Second Corinthians, it says, examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith.

Test yourself, which testing through what Scripture tells us, test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourself, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test? I think that’s what the heart of Jesus is getting at in the passage today, that for the crowds around him, they were simply to assume that because they were in the vicinity of Jesus, because they were hearing his Word preached like they were good, rather as they heard the word of the Lord, they were adhered in ways that the word is to examine the fruit of their lives, to examine the foundation of their life, to see where it’s at. And for us, I think it’s important for us to do as well. I think it’s important for us to let this passage, like, examine our hearts, discern if our life is producing the fruit of the Spirit that comes from a new heart that is alive towards God.

So again, discernment do we see the fruit of like, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control coming out of our lives. Furthermore, as we discern our lives, let Scripture and examine our hearts to see what’s coming out of our mouth in the text, out of the abundance of the mouth, the heart speaks. And as we do this, not only to serve our words that we might say in church life, but also the words we might say outside of church life to see if they match up. Remember back to the story I gave a few weeks ago where my hypocrisy was exposed. For the most part, my words in church life were pretty good, but they were far different from the words I used in all the other areas of my life.

So can I just ask, as you discern the words that come out of you, like what are the words not just in church life, but what are the words that you use throughout your life out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks. But it’s not just the fruit of our words that we’re to discern and examine in the text. We also need to see the fruit of our deeds. Jesus told us verse 46, we can say, Lord, Lord, but if we do not do what he tells us, those words are in vain. The Fruit of our life ought to be one who hears the words of God and does them no, keeps us saying this once again in this life.

We’re not going to be perfect in this, even with a new heart, with the Spirit of God living inside. But as we examine our hearts, as we examine our life, there should be fruit. We’re seeking to bring honor and glory to God with our words and our deeds. Likewise, we need to examine to see where the foundation of our life lies. Are we building our life off of Christ?

Is Jesus the cornerstone? Or as we examine our lives, we recognize our life is actually not built upon Jesus, but we’re, like, seeking to build our life off of something else, which could be a host of different things, perhaps in themselves not bad, but they’re not Christ. If you’re unsure what foundation life is built upon, just ask. As hard things come your way, as storms of life beat against you like floodwaters, like, what happens?

Where do you look? Where’s your hope? As the floods come, does it result in, like works of the flesh come, continuing to bubble out of you where you, like, run and indulge in various types of sinful behavior? Or as the floods come, do you see the fruit of the Spirit even into difficulty, do the flood waters lead you to Christ? You know, the great Charles Spurgeon said this.

He said, I’ve learned to kiss the wave, the Rock of Ages. Ben’s gonna ask, does hard things come your way? Do they take you to Christ, the rock of ages, once again, not that we’re gonna be perfect in this life. The storms come. Even those who have the spirit living inside, who maybe are mature in their faith and this life are not gonna be perfect, which is why we still need Jesus.

We’ll talk about that more in the end. But for this morning, as you can see the text, how this passage ends, let me just invite us once again examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, to let this text test ourselves so that we might realize that Jesus Christ is in us so we do not fail the test. The weight of this passage, of how this sermon ends is so important for us to feel. It’s not enough to just be in the crowd, to just hear the words of Jesus, brother, we must put our faith in him. He must be the foundation of our life.

This is a test. This is an examination that we all must pass, because if not in the passage, there will be a fall and it will be great. This actually leads to the second thing I want to do before we close, but I just Want to leave us just two things from the Sermon on the Plain as a whole. So first, the sermon does help us see what it looks like to follow after Jesus as one of his disciples. So, meaning the Sermon on the Plain is not like primary sermon on how to become a Christian.

Rather, this is primarily a sermon on what it looks like to live out the Christian faith in faithful ways which. Including things we just talked about, like the fruit of our life, where the fruit of our life is doing things like storing up treasures in heaven. We’re in the Sermon on the Plain. We’re, like, willing to suffer for our faith. That’s what it means to follow Christ.

That should be a fruit of our life. Through fruit of our lives. If we’re gonna follow Jesus, should be loving enemies, loving fellow believers. If we’re gonna follow Jesus, we need to be merciful. We need to do others what we wish others would do to us, Right?

These are all things that are meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, to follow after him in faithfulness and in joy. And for us, you know, one of our church pillars is to grow. We want to continue to grow in our faith, to bear more fruit for. And the Sermon on Plain is just so helpful for us on that end. So if you want to grow, let the Sermon on Plain be part of your guide and just ask the Lord to help you to be obedient to these good words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Particularly, I think, when it comes to wanting to do to others or doing to others that you wish others to do to you, which I kind of think is a summary statement of the entire first half of the Sermon of Jesus. So this week, at home, at school, at work, at church, with all the different interactions you’re having with others, if you’re this Christian, a disciple who’s seeking to grow all those interactions, do them in ways that you want others to do to you, especially if you were in their shoes, doing so in ways you remember how much the Lord Jesus has done for you and how loving and merciful he continues to be to all of his people. Which leads to the second thing I just want to leave us with as we close the Sermon on the Plain. The Sermon on the Plain does help us see how much we need Jesus, friends. We all need the Lord Jesus Christ.

So for those of us here who recognize that you’re not, like, passing the test, as you recognize that your life doesn’t match up what it looks like to follow Jesus as disciple, you see no fruit, you know, the foundation of your life is actually not on Christ. Like you’re not passing the test. If that’s you friend, you just need to see how much you need Jesus. And not only that, let me give you some good news. The promise of Scripture is that if you call upon his name, that by faith you would turn to him, trust in him.

That indeed you would trust that he came to die for you on a cross to take on the punishment of your sin, only to rise again on the third day. The promise that indeed he will save you, that you have a new heart, that the Spirit will live inside. From the end of the sermon on the plane. This call to examine oneself so that’s not there, to like, to cripple us in ways that we just get so introspective, like forever and ever. We’re crippled under the weight of our own sin and our own guilt and our own shame and our own shortcomings, where all we see is like ourselves, our own failures, rather the examination of self.

We’ve examined ourselves in ways that we see our need for Jesus, in ways that we call upon him, knowing that as we call upon him by faith, he will hear us. Scripture is so clear. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but through him the world might be saved.

And friends, that’s the heart of this sermon as it ends. This is why Jesus ends this way, including the Sermon on the Mount, in the same way so that you would hear the Word, in ways that you would turn and trust in him. So that not only we see your sin, your shortcomings, but more importantly, that you would see the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of our sin. So this morning as we close the sermon, playing for those who are here, who are not in Christ, who sure may say Lord, Lord, but you know your actions do not match up. I just want to invite you to turn from sin and turn to Jesus, asking Him to be the foundation of your life once again.

Trust him that he did die for you and that he did rise again from the dead, trusting that he is worthy of building your entire life upon, knowing that as you turn to him, you’ll be securely and forever his. So if you don’t pass the test, don’t leave here this morning just looking at self, like feeling doomed because you didn’t pass the test. Rather, leave here feeling forgiven, have hope and joy because you’re now looking to Jesus, who passed the test for us, who is loving, who is merciful, who is calling people to Himself, including perhaps you this morning. This morning, it’s not just those who are not yet Christians, who need Jesus, who need to set their eyes on him, to close the sermon plain. They should help all of us, including those who already are disciples, just see how much we still need Jesus and the power of the Spirit to empower us to live out as disciples.

This call in this sermon is a heavy call to live in this way. And this is called we just cannot do on our own. So we need Jesus. We need his example on how to live this out. But Jesus perfectly lived out the call in this sermon, including how he loved his enemies in ways that he died for sinners like you and me, including how he loves his people, his church, how merciful and generous he is towards us, including the example how his life is forever and always one that only bears fruit, good fruit for God.

But not only do we need this example, we also, as mentioned, we need his power. If we can live this out. So Scripture tells, like he’s the vine and we’re simply branches and apart from him, we can do no good thing. It’s only in him by which we can bear much fruit. So even if you are a Christian, maybe you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you still need Jesus and you still need to continue to set your eyes on him, and you still need his love and his mercy.

And this morning, if you know the areas of life where you’re not bearing fruit, where you’re. Perhaps you’re doing things on your own in ways that do not reflect Christ being your cornerstone. I also just want to invite you to turn to him as well, to confess and forsake your sin, to trust in him, knowing that he does forgive, that he is merciful, that he is loving, that as you turn to him, you will bear good fruit. So back to the story that I started out this time with. So as my boss realized that the foundation was off, he did the only thing that he could do.

I mean, he didn’t keep trying to build a house, simply saying, well, we’re only off, like maybe a foot or two. So that’s pretty close. Let’s just keep going and I’m sure it will kind of work out close enough. Instead, he humbled himself. He admitted that he was wrong.

He recognized he was just too hasty as he laid out the foundation through which we were to build off, and we stopped doing everything in order for him. To make a change, to like, reset the foundation to what it was designed to be. Friends, may that be true of all of us here today that we would not seek to live out our life with a faulty, wrong foundation. Rather, where we’re off, just humble ourselves by the grace of God. Make a change.

Reset the foundation of your life on the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might live for him, that you might bear good fruit for him. I should say it again, that is our design. Knowing that as we live our life on the foundation that is Jesus, the rock of our salvation, we are eternally and fully secure, no matter what storms may come our way. Let’s pray.

But thank you for Jesus and Lord, I do pray that by your grace and by the power of your Holy Spirit, that indeed all of us here today would have Jesus as the great foundation of our life.

And Lord, we do want to bear good fruit for you. So please help us to abide in you.

And Lord, I pray specifically for those here today who struggle to know if they are passing the test.

And Lord, please help them to put their eyes in Jesus and to trust in him above all things. Pray that you might give them deep assurance because of the promises that you’ve given to us. Pray this on Jesus name. Amen.

The post Examine Your Fruit and Foundation – Luke 6:43-49 appeared first on Red Village Church.