Exposed (Luke 20:19-47, Jeff Kliewer)

Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side-by-side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads?

Hypocrisy, Cultural Shifts, and the Need for Apologetics

Now in the scene of the West Wing, Dr. Jenna Jacobs is absolutely silent. You guessed it. She's been exposed as a hypocrite, as a fraud, inconsistent, picking and choosing certain parts of the Bible that she wants to use for her own purposes, but not being consistent with what the whole Bible says.

Unable to give an answer, the West Wing portrays Dr. Jenna Jacobs getting exposed by the president, as if the claims of the Bible were being exposed. But is that really what was happening? Or were there two actors on a stage, each with the same agenda, and the actor portraying Dr. Jenna Jacobs actually believed the same thing that the actor portraying President Bartlett believed?

Could it be that the show itself was presenting an agenda? Because no Christian voice was given an answer to what she said. Now have you noticed that since Obergefell, however you say that, the decision of the Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage, to make, really to redefine what marriage itself is, have you noticed that there's been a massive cultural shift?

Whereas just years ago, maybe a decade ago, most Christians and most people in America would say that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's God's design. But now would say that marriage has a different definition.

Have you noticed that it's been a cultural shift, a massive one in public opinion? Wouldn't you agree that this shift has been the fastest of such magnitude in the history of the world? What accounts for that?

Well I think technology has something to do with that. When you have a few million people watching the West Wing, but then millions and millions more watching the video, I wonder how many people saw that clip and said, yeah, you know what?

I have been hypocritical about this. It's my view that needs to change. And seeing that YouTube clip quickly changed a person's mind. Certainly is the case, I think. It's happened very quickly. Now the problem was, Dr. Jenna Jacobs skipped her apologetics conference.

Our church is having an apologetics conference October 6th and 7th, and today we need to talk a little bit about apologetics. Because what we will see is that Jesus Christ answers the questions that are raised.

He gives a reason for the hope that is in him. He's challenged directly, and he doesn't pull punches in answering. In fact, he's not afraid because he has an answer prepared. We're gonna read this in Luke 20, but before we dive into there, I just want to give a brief response to Bartlett.

I think a response to President Bartlett would need to begin by pointing out his methodology. All he does is shoots a shotgun at Jenna Jacobs, flooding her with one point after another without giving any time to answer.

I like what Doug Wilson, an apologist, said. He says, you know, sometimes I actually have thoughts that require more than 140 characters to express. When being blasted with shotgun fire against his faith, he silenced that and said, look, let's talk about these one by one.

Let's look at each charge that you're bringing, and it might actually take some time to discuss this and have a dialogue. So I would do something like that to begin with. Just say, let's let's slow down and talk about each one of these one by one.

Covenant Change from the Old Testament to the New

But next, I think the big thing, the second thing I would do, is say we need to talk about the difference in covenant between the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament. Some things changed.

Israel was a theocracy. In the church, we are no longer a theocracy. And some of the things that Jesus came and accomplished, say, in Mark chapter 2, saying that he is the Lord of the Sabbath and that the Son of Man has power over the Sabbath.

In fact, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. We would look at that with regard to what you eat and pigs and touching things that are unclean. We would look at Acts 10 and show how there's a covenantal change.

That's the big picture. But then we would have to go one by one. Let's look at what is said in Exodus 21 7. Is it okay for an Israelite to just sell his daughter into slavery? Well, we don't need to look at it now, but if we had time, we could look at the context there and see that that's not what's what is happening.

In that verse, Exodus 21, there is indentured servitude because of extreme poverty, where someone can go into that servitude because of extreme poverty, and there is an arranged marriage that falls through.

And so the father has to continue to care for the daughter. That's the actual context, which is then ripped out by President Bartlett. As far as planting crops side-by-side and garments of mixed thread, I found a really good answer, and I'll refer you to this to look up later.

It's on Got Questions. Make a note. It's a good website. You can put in questions like these and receive very quick overview answers to those things. With regard to the threads that are mixed, Got Questions points out that the rule against weaving different types of fabric was not a moral law.

There's nothing inherently wrong with weaving linen and wool together. In fact, the ephod of the high priest was made of linen and dyed thread, Exodus 28 and 39. The dyed thread would have been made of wool.

This fact is probably the key to understanding the prohibition. Listen, the ephod of the high priest was the only garment that could be woven of linen and wool. No one else was allowed to have such a garment.

Apparently this rule was to place some distance between the high priest and the people, with the ultimate purpose of reminding Israel of how holy God truly is. And there's a similar prohibition against anointing oil, using the particular recipe for the anointing oil for anyone other than the priests.

The point is, there were certain things under the Old Covenant that applied to Israel that were meant to demonstrate the holiness of God, and demonstrate that the people are set apart to him as a particular people that are different from the nations that worship and revere a holy God.

It was part of the Old Covenant, but it's not something that applies to us as a church. So in short, we need to answer each question one by one. But don't stop there. What Jenna Jacobs should have done is to give a gentle and respectful reply, but turn the conversation then back to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Too often apologetics stops with defending, and defending, and yelling even, and getting angry, when it should continue from a gentle and respectful answer, to the objections that people raise, to the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Because all of these things are pointing to him. And ultimately, we can turn these conversations to opportunities to preach Christ, and the love of God displayed in the giving of his Son, to die for the sins of those who would believe in him, and rise from the dead for our justification.

So know the gospel, and take these opportunities, these challenges, to turn it around and preach Christ. This is what we'll see in Luke 20. We're gonna read it. We left off last week at verse 18, so picking up now in verse 19 and following, the main idea, you will see Jesus exposing false beliefs.

Now everybody who's not a Christian in our culture today, tends to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, Jesus would never do that. He's too nice to do that. Well, if that's your picture of Jesus, buckle up, because it's not how he's presented here.

In like manner we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. That's referencing 2nd Corinthians 10 5. Guys, as you see Jesus learn from this, we follow his example.

He is an example to us in how to engage unbelievers who are challenging the authority of God's Word. So you need to learn, just like Paul says, follow me as I follow the example of Christ. Paul goes on to tear down every lofty argument, every opinion, which raises itself against the knowledge of God.

So let's read it. 19 and following, the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. So they asked him, teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's. He said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer, they became silent. There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children, and the second, and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died.

In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

But that the dead are raised even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.

Then some of the scribes answered, teacher, you have spoken well, for they no longer dared to ask him any question. But he said to them, how can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son? And in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

They will receive the greater condemnation. Well, Jesus answers and he answers and he offends. He gives an answer to one group, an answer to another, and when that pretty much chased them away, he said, oh, hold on, come back here for a minute.

And he goes on the offense, presenting truth to them, which ultimately is a revelation of himself, and then calls them to the carpet, exposing their hypocrisy and condemning their insincerity. For us, we see a model of what apologetics actually includes.

Sometimes we need to be like Jesus and be strong in giving answers. Look back on the text. 19, we began in verse 19. Notice the insincerity for a pretense, not being sincere, seeking to catch him in something he said.

The starting point of apologetics is recognizing the true condition of the human heart. The human heart is not tabula rosa, born into the world a blank slate, and neutral about the things of God, and only needs to be persuaded.

No, human beings are in rebellion against God. In rebellion, they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, they suppress the truth and ungodliness, and they are rebelling against the revelation of God.

Jesus knows this about them. That's why he doesn't entrust himself to any man, because he knows what's in the heart of man. Recognizing that, we need to know that sometimes apologetics will require direct confrontation, direct answers, and even being strong in the face of lies.

Notice how this unfolds. Verse 21, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Do they know that? No. This is duplicity. This is flattery, meant to soften him up, and to make him compromise on what he believes, on the truth.

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? Now, why is this a difficult question? Because, see, Israel at this time is under the oppression, and have been conquered. They've been given over to the Roman Empire, and so in Israel, they need to deal with that situation.

Here is the theocracy still in effect. They should have a king, they should be standing and representing God as a lighthouse to the nations, but no, they are conquered and ruled by Rome. What do you do with that?

Within Israel, there were four different opinions. The zealots, the political zealots, said you cannot submit to this foreign power, we fight. And so, if a Roman soldier was off by himself, wandering along a dark road without much protection, a zealot might sneak up on him, and put a dagger in his back.

That was one approach. You don't compromise, you don't submit, you fight. Now, the Pharisees and Sadducees were kind of the opposite end of the spectrum. They had submitted to the point of compromising with the Romans.

The Sadducees were kind of like the political left, or the theological left, and the Pharisees were to the right. To the left, they said, the Sadducees said, well there is no resurrection, they were materialistic.

And to the right, the Pharisees kept the law to a tee, but they kept adding laws to the law, and became legalistic. And then there was one other group called the Essenes, and their answer was, you know what you do?

You forsake this world, and you hightail it out of here. You go live by the Dead Sea in the caves of Qumran, and you have nothing, so they can't tax you anything, and you escape the world. That's what the Essenes did.

So the question is posed to Jesus, and no matter what he says, people are going to hate him for it. Three out of four groups, at least, will hate him for what he says. They're setting him up. It's a trap!

They want him exposed, they want him hated, they can't stand that the people are flocking to him as a teacher. But notice in verse 23, he perceived their craftiness, and gives this answer. An answer that's given by the Spirit of God, because he is God.

Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's. He said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. This answer is deep, because see, Jesus recognized that according to Deuteronomy 28 to 30, if Israel was unfaithful as a theocracy, under God, they would be given over to nations.

So Israel was under judgment, and in that case, they are to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God the things that belong to God. So Jesus gives an answer that basically says something that also applies to us in this godless culture.

Be in the world, but not of the world. John 17. You live in a godless culture. Live in it. Pay your taxes. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but to God the things that are God's. That's your heart, your devotion.

And so Jesus silences them, because they have no answer to that answer. Following along 27 now, we have another group that approaches him with a different challenge. The Sadducees are materialists. They say there is no resurrection.

In our day, there's a lot of materialists. There's atheists that claim that there is no God, and that all that there is is matter, and all that we are as humans are just evolved matter. That life was born out of that primordial soup, and just came to be what it is today.

Richard Dawkins, a materialist, says in a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice.

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. That materialism is prominent in our culture.

It's the same thing that the Sadducees were saying way back when there's no resurrection from the dead. Physical bodies die, and they decompose, and that's it. Are you ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you?

Are you ready to prepare your kids to withstand this entire worldview of materialism? But listen, it's not the dominant worldview yet. Maybe it is in Europe, but in America, there's more of a spiritualizing that puts man at the center.

There's a humanism that's coming out of this American experiment, and this, I think, is captured better by a book called The Secret. It's a New Age book. The Secret teaches that, really, God is everywhere.

It's in the environment, it's in the plants, it's in the animals, and it's in you. God is in you, and you are God. You are the center. This New Age spirituality is really Eastern in its origins, but the book The Secret finishes this way.

This is the closing statements of The Secret, endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, and been a number of years since it came out, but it's still prominent in the thinking of our culture. This is a worldview that marks many.

The earth turns on its orbit for you. The ocean flows and ebbs for you. The birds sing for you. The sun rises and it sets for you. The stars come out for you. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience is there for you.

Take a look around. None of it can exist without you. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the truth of who you really are. You are the master of the universe. You are the heir to the kingdom.

You are the perfection of life, and now you know The Secret. They're whispering The Secret to our kids. It's whispered on the playground. It's taught in every classroom in America, especially the universities, which are given over almost entirely to this kind of worldview.

The Christian worldview is like a puzzle. Unless you assemble a puzzle, it's just a pile of pieces. You don't know what doesn't belong there, but assemble the puzzle and you have a worldview. You have a big view, and you see that this piece does not belong there.

You say, reincarnation does not belong in this puzzle. It doesn't fit with our worldview. That's from a different puzzle. New Age mysticism or materialism, any form of secular humanism, these worldviews are prominent in our culture today.

And listen, we are in a truth war. The very souls of our kids and of ourselves and of our parents and our grandparents depend on who wins the war, and ultimately Christ is victorious. He is the victor, but we are enlisted as soldiers in the truth war.

Will you go to the scriptures and put the pieces together and see how it all fits as one revelation from one author, though written by 66 human authors, or 66 books, 40-some human authors, it's one author with one worldview.

Will you put the pieces together so you can defend it, so you can see when things don't belong. It's a truth war. At the end of this section with the Pharisees, the Sadducees then come, and after Jesus basically schools them with truth, it's almost like he's speaking as someone who's been there.

They say, well what's gonna happen in heaven with the resurrection? Whose wife will she be? And Jesus just flat-out tells them about marriage and angels in heaven, because he comes from heaven, everybody else comes from earth.

He comes from above and was born into this earth. He has revelation to share, special revelation. And then he turns and he uses the scripture to refute their quote-unquote theology, that there is no resurrection.

Jesus says that God is the God of the living, not the dead. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He uses the word as a sword to fight the lie. Jesus stands up and speaks the truth, and notice what happens at the end.

Verse 39 and 40, he's so strong, he overwhelms them so much that they're ready to leave. No more questions. Okay, we're done. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Now this, okay, I don't really want to debate this man.

There's some people you don't want to debate. David Wood is one of those guys. If you ever want to debate someone, do not debate David Wood. Just so sharp and knows the Word of God. Listen, you don't want to debate Jesus.

Then some of the scribes answered, teacher you have spoken well. They no longer dared to ask him a question, and they're slipping out. They're slinking away. This is game, set, match. You guys remember that old show Columbo?

When it looked like it was over, the guys getting away with it, and Columbo's walking out the door, and then he turns around, he says, but there was just one more thing that bothered me, and he says, that glove.

How'd it end up in your car? And the guy is just exposed. You see, he knows that Columbo's on to him, and it's only a matter of time. Well, Jesus has been playing defense, answering their questions, and they try to walk away, and now he speaks up.

He goes on the offense. Verse 41, he said to them, how can they say that the Christ is David's son? He quotes Psalm 110, verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, said to my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

If he's the son of David, why is David calling him Lord? And the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, nobody has an answer for that, because they don't understand the gospel. The most quoted passage in the New Testament is Psalm chapter 110.

Learn it. Know it. If Jesus kept using that as an apologetic to present himself as both the son of David, who's fully human, and the God of David, the Lord of David, who's God in flesh, we need to learn that passage too, and use it as well.

It's an amazing passage. We talked about it last Christmas, and we looked into it. If you want to go back and look at some of those sermons, he goes on to talk about how he's also a priest like Melchizedek.

The point is, Jesus goes on offense and preaches himself as Lord. Are you able to do that? When somebody attacks the Christian religion, do you have an answer? First Peter 3 15, are you ready to give an answer to their attack, but then turn it lovingly, gently, back to the main thing, to Christ and him crucified?

That's what Jesus does. Presents himself as Lord, using the scriptures to do it. Psalm 110. And then finally, he boldly condemns them for their hypocrisy. Verses 45 to 47, he says, beware of them. They're putting on a show.

They're parading themselves around. They pray in public. They look really good and religious, but inside they're dead. In other places, he talks about how they're like whitewashed tombs. The outside looks so good, but inside that tomb, nothing but dead, decaying, rotten, filth, bones.

He exposes their hypocrisy and their insincerity. So, we've learned a lot from Jesus today. How do we apply that? Well, just a few quick things. Go study the scriptures as one who needs to show yourself approved.

Put that worldview picture together. Get in the word, daily. Read, listen to sermons from respectable teachers, people that have proven themselves over time, like J .I. Packer and John Piper, we talked about earlier today.

Read and study. Second Timothy 2 15. Secondly, notice this about Jesus. He is not afraid. Don't be afraid to speak the truth. One of the great themes of the postmodern culture, the worldview that we're clashing against, is that you better be quiet.

You can hold your private opinion, but don't you share that with anybody else, and don't you act like your truth is true for everybody else. It can be your private opinion, that's your religion, but don't bring it into the public, and don't tell anybody that they're wrong.

Jesus told the Sadducees they were wrong, dead wrong, and he told these scribes that they're insincere and pretentious. Don't be afraid to offend with the gospel. The gospel has to offend. It's a call to repent, to change your mind, to turn away from sin, and to turn to Christ.

That's a painful process of turning. You have to come to an end of yourself, and an evangelist has to be willing to offend. Not for the sake of offending, no. We're not trying to be rude and disrespectful to people, no.

Do this with gentleness and respect, but sometimes the truth itself, when you expose a lie, people will call you a hater. You may love them with passion, and be willing to lay yourself down for that person, but they'll call you a hater because you don't agree with them.

You have to be willing to absorb that and keep speaking, because what's happening in America is those who believe the truth have fallen silent. For fear of being called a homophobic, or Islamophobic, or bigoted, or racist, being shamed into silence, do not fear them.

Speak lovingly, speak gently, respectfully, but speak. Preach Christ as the only way, because that's what he says. He is David's son, but Lord of David. And thirdly, finally, train yourself by stepping out.

Train your senses. Hebrews 5, 12 to 14, by this time you ought to be teachers. Step out as a teacher. The more you begin to preach and talk, the sharper you become. Go to the Mount Laurel Festival and try.

You may never have shared your faith before. Maybe you haven't done it often. Go there, and the more times you practice, the second person you talk to, the third, the fourth, the fifth, your senses become sharper.

Step out in faith in preaching the gospel. Don't be like Jenna Jacobs. She fell silent, that psychologist on the show. She fell silent and ashamed. Come to the apologetics conference on October 6th and 7th.

Continue to study. Be ready to defend the faith. Let's close in prayer, and we'll call on the worship team to come on up. So Jesus, we're reading about you in the Bible, and it doesn't look a lot like what the world is saying you're like.

You love truth. You speak truth. You defend the truth, and you're even willing to offend for the sake of the truth. Teach us to be bold, Lord. Make us bold with your gospel, powerful with your gospel.

Help us, Lord, to know the truth so that we can expose lies, so we can see when something doesn't fit in your worldview. Help us to see the world you do, the way that you do, Lord. God, I pray for our church here, that each one of us would be made strong in apologetics, being ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, but doing so with gentleness and respect.

In Jesus' name, amen.