FBC Morning Light – March 21, 2023

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. Today we're reading in Deuteronomy 5 and 6, Luke chapter 13, and the 57th Psalm. I want to zero in on the opening verses of Luke chapter 13. Jesus has been involved in doing some teaching, and in the context of that teaching, somebody comes up to him with some headlines that just got ripped out of the Jerusalem Times from that morning.

Apparently, as this passage opens up, it says there were some who were present at that season who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. That's an awful thing.

So this news report from the Jerusalem Times reported on Pilate, who once again showed a measure of hostility towards the Jewish people. They were offering their sacrifices, and Pilate executed them for some reason or another.

We don't know what the reason is. To that, it doesn't matter, just reporting this thing. There's a note of perhaps assumed judgment in the report that comes. You get that because of the way Jesus responds.

He says, do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? Apparently, Jesus is teaching in Judea, and the Judeans have a look-down-their-nose attitude toward the Galileans.

The Galileans are less holy than we are. We're the ones that have the holy city, that have the city of Jerusalem with the temple and all that. We have that. The Galileans are spiritually second-class citizens, so therefore, they're worse sinners than we are.

Therefore, they suffered this consequence of being executed while they were offering their sacrifices. Jesus says, you think so? He goes on to ask in verse 4, those 18 on whom the Tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they are worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?

Rhetorical questions, perhaps, but not necessarily because as Jesus asks those questions, these people are thinking, well, yeah, because bad things happen to bad people. Bad things don't happen to good people.

They must be worse sinners than everybody else. How does that square with your preconceived notion of hearing of disasters? Does your default notion run to the idea that, man, they must have done something wrong.

They must have done something wrong. They must be particularly evil. Even as I'm recording this fresh in my mind are some of the recent disasters that have happened. The thousands of people that were killed in the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

I heard a news report the other day that 100 ,000 people have died from fentanyl poisoning. Some of these, of course, most of them probably as a result of taking drugs, seeking to get some kind of a high from them, and the fentanyl-laced drugs killed them.

Then all of the storms and so forth that have happened in the West Coast, in California. I think very well that God could be using those cataclysmic events, weather events, to try to say, hey, you're ignoring me.

But there are people who died in those events, the flooding and so forth. Do we think, is it our default way of thinking to say that these people must be more evil than other people upon whom these tragedies have not fallen?

Jesus says, no. Don't think like that. Instead, think like this. He says, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. In fact, after asking the question, do you think there are worse sinners than others who haven't suffered those things?

Jesus says, I tell you, no. Those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, do you think they're worse sinners? He says, I tell you, no. They're not any worse sinners. If we all got what we deserved, we'd all have towers of Siloam falling on us, is Jesus' point.

What is he saying here? He's saying that death, tragedy, cataclysmic events that take lives, they happen in a fallen world, and they take out people. People's lives perish because of those things. He says to them, he says to us, unless you repent, you're going to perish for eternity.

You will likewise perish, but your perishing will be for eternity. The exhortation of Jesus while using these headlines from the Jerusalem Times is, listen, be sure you're right with God. You repent of your sin, and be sure you're right with God, so that if such a tragedy were to come, you would not perish for eternity.

You would have everlasting life. Let's accept that challenge today, and let's be careful about how we read and interpret the headlines. Our Father and our God, we thank you that by turning from sin and trusting in Christ, we can be free from the threat of perishing, even in the face of a natural disaster or some other kind of cataclysmic event, or even the cruelty of man.

It may take out our lives, but it can't take out our eternity. We thank you for that hope and that promise. I pray that if there's anyone listening to my voice today and needs to repent, that today would be the day they do that.

We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, you have a good rest of your Tuesday, and may the Lord bless you.

Good day.