You Cannot Satisfy Someone Who is Determined to Be Outraged

Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant and Raises the Widow’s Son

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist, a daily devotion and Bible reading while you have your morning coffee. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. Today we're going to be looking at Luke chapter 7.

If you want to open up your Bibles and turn there with me. Now there's a lot that goes on in this chapter. It begins with Jesus demonstrating his power over disease. He heals a servant of a centurion.

Then he shows his power over death. He raises a widow's son from death. And either one of those would be wonderful for us to stop and camp out on and talk about. But that's not going to be the focus of today.

Again, I try to pick one section to focus on. And the next section we see is the messengers from John the Baptist who are coming to speak to Jesus. They report the things to John. John sends two of them to Jesus to ask if Jesus is the one who is to come.

Some people have great issue with John having a question like that. But remember where John is. He's in prison. He's facing execution. There are difficulties in his life. Certainly, this is an opportunity for him to legitimately ask a question if he has one.

But he's demonstrated in the past, at least the past from this situation, faith in Christ. And so we know that he knows who Christ is. But he's wanting to ask a question, and it's a legitimate question.

Jesus answers him. But then it is in the midst of the answering of the question, the part that I want to deal with. And so we're going to come back to that in just a second, because I do want to finish out the chapter.

Jesus and the Sinful Woman Who Washes His Feet

The chapter finishes out with Jesus dealing with the sinful woman who comes to him and washes his feet with her tears, dries them with her hair. This is a section that is a beautiful section of Jesus showing demonstration of love.

And if you want to compare, earlier in the chapter, he heals disease and he raises from the dead. Those are miracles. But the greatest miracle of Christ is the miracle of compassion. He has compassion on this woman.

No one else wanted to deal with her. No one else wanted to love her. But Jesus loved her, and she knew that at the feet of Christ, she would find forgiveness. And so that's an amazing truth to meditate on today as well.

Fault-Finding in Jesus’ Generation

But the part that I want us to focus on today is actually back up in verse 33. Jesus says something. Actually, beginning in verse 31, he says, To what then shall I compare the people of this generation?

And what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not weep. For John the Baptist came.

John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine. And you say he has a demon. The son of man has come eating and drinking. And you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. So what is this talking about? Well, Jesus is basically saying that the people who want to find fault are going to find fault no matter what. And the people who are looking to condemn are going to condemn no matter what.

And going back up to the little statement, we played a flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not weep. Basically, couldn't make them happy. Couldn't satisfy them. But then he goes on to say, and he's talking about the people of the generation.

He says, comparing this generation, they can't be satisfied. And then in verse 31, he says, John the Baptist came. And he was essentially a, he was a very restricted individual. When it came to drinking and eating, he ate no bread.

He drank no wine. And the people challenged him, you have a demon. Jesus came, ate and drank. And they said, look, you're a glutton and a drunkard. And Jesus's point is, is they can't be satisfied. No matter what, the people are fault finders.

And they're going to find fault with no matter what is done. And I fast forward that to today. There's a lot of fault finding in the world. There's a lot of people who are looking to condemn no matter what.

And no matter what someone says, I'll give you an example. And I don't talk a lot about politics, but just bringing into politics. When someone is on the other side of a political aisle, when they look to the people on the opposite side of their aisle, no matter what they do, it's wrong.

And I'll use the president, for example. The president is wrong if he does, and he's wrong if he doesn't. He cannot win in the eyes of certain people. There is just no satisfying some because they are so anxious to see him fail.

They're so anxious to see him be ousted from his position. And the same goes the other way. But where I'm really concerned about this is not so much in the political arena, because that's awful anyway.

Fault Finding in the Church and on Social Media

But when I see this in the church, because in the church, we are not supposed to be divisive people. We're supposed to be people who love one another and encourage one another. And we're certainly not supposed to be fault finders, people who are always looking for what we can find as a fault with one another.

And this is just one of those times where this passage, I think, really speaks to issues that come into today. And I see it all around us. I see it on social media. Somebody says something, and the attacks come out.

The claws come out. People are just looking for something to be vicious about, to attack one another about. And ultimately, at the end of the day, as believers, we should stand for truth. And we should make our stands known.

We should set our flags where they should be. And we should be confident in the truth that we stand for, which is the truth of the word of God. But at the same time, we don't need to be biting and attacking one another in the ways that we often do, and always looking to find fault, never being satisfied with anything.

I think that is a danger, which was a problem in Jesus' time. I think it's a problem in our time now. And again, I could point to so many different movements and issues that are going on right now. And there are so many times when, even as a pastor, I think, no matter what I do, no matter what the church does, there are going to be people who are happy to find whatever fault they can find.

And if they can't find a fault, then they're going to create a fault, because they are fault finders. And that's what Jesus compared his generation to. And I don't think that this generation does a whole lot better, if any better at all.

So my encouragement to you today, especially within the church, especially within the body of Christ, that we seek to build one another up. And if we have a legitimate difference with one another, we can be honest with one another, and we can encourage one another if we think that it's an issue that's worth having a conversation over.

Or maybe we just don't. Maybe it's something that's not... If it's not a sin, and it's just a difference of opinion, it's not something maybe we need to address. But at the same time, if you're the type of person who is always looking to find the fault in others, if no matter what they do, they drink or they don't drink, they eat or they don't eat, as Jesus said, John the Baptist came, he didn't eat, he didn't drink, you found fault with him.

I came eating and drinking, you found fault with me. The problem is not with us. The problem is with you. That was Jesus's point. And ultimately, when he goes on to say, wisdom is justified by our children, the truth is going to win out in the end.

The truth is going to be what matters at the end of the day. And the willingness of people to be vicious and find faults with one another is not what's going to win the day. But what's going to win the day ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, is the truth.

Jesus’ Compassion Toward the Woman with a Bad Reputation

So hopefully this has been an encouragement to you. Like I said, there's so much in this chapter I could have talked about. Love the story of the woman who came to Jesus and washed his feet, and Jesus received her, even though others wouldn't.

And again, that's a good example, right, of what we were just talking about. Because everybody else found fault with that woman. Everybody else found, I can't believe, if this man were a prophet, he would not let her touch him.

Jesus knew exactly who she was. Jesus knew exactly what she had done. Jesus knew that woman better than anyone. And he loved her. And he said, your faith has saved you, go in peace. Can we be as gracious with our fellow believers as Jesus was with the woman with a bad reputation who came to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair?

Ought we to be as gracious as he? Well, this has been Coffee with a Calvinist. I hope this has been an encouragement to you today. And I hope that if you do watch this every day, that you'll do what I've always asked you to do.

Please like, comment, share, and subscribe to this video. And that way we can reach a wider audience. Again, my name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. And I hope that you have a blessed day.