WWUTT 2398 What You Are to Say (Luke 12:8-12)

Jesus said to his disciples, everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes the

Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. It's a tricky phrase, but not that hard to understand when we understand the text.

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Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Luke, we've been in chapter 12, where Jesus has been teaching his disciples about bearing witness to the gospel and not being afraid of what man thinks of you doing this.

So let me pick up where we left off yesterday. This is verses eight through 12. Hear the word of the

Lord. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the

Son of God also will acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the

Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the

Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

So in these three lessons that we looked at, first of all, on Monday, we read verses one through three, where Jesus warned the disciples about the 11 of the

Pharisees, that they would not be deceived by the Pharisees, nor would they become like them in being two -faced hypocrites, saying one thing and doing something else.

Then yesterday, we read of Jesus' instruction to the disciples to not fear what they will do to you.

Instead, fear God, who after he destroys the body, has the authority to destroy both body and soul in hell.

Yes, I say, fear him, Jesus said. And we understood from that, fear God and nothing else.

God deeply cares for his children, as Jesus would go on to say. So we have nothing to fear of God's wrath necessarily, but still having that reverent fear of God, knowing that whatever people can do to us, it's nothing compared to what

God can do, and especially what God will do to them, who will persecute the people of God, his church.

Now, as we read today in this last section, this could be divided up into three parts too.

This is the third part, but even it has kind of a trio of things that Jesus is saying here.

First of all, saying, acknowledge me before men, and I will acknowledge you before the angels of God in heaven.

And then secondly, everyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. And then thirdly, don't be afraid of what you ought to say in those moments that you're gonna have to stand before the rulers and the authorities.

The Holy Spirit will give you the words that you ought to say. So those are the three parts of this closing section here.

So coming back to verse eight, I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.

But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

So very simply saying, do not be ashamed of the gospel. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1 .16,

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

But if you are ashamed of Christ before men, then he's going to be ashamed of you on that day of judgment.

It's interesting here that he references the angels, not just his Father in heaven, which other gospels have, when they've worded this, they have recalled it as, if you acknowledge me before men,

I will acknowledge you before my Father in heaven. That was in Matthew and I believe also in Mark. But here in Luke, it's acknowledge me before men and I will acknowledge you before the angels of God.

Now, why the difference? Why is it before the angels of God? Well, remember it's with the angels that Jesus will return.

He will come back with the angels in flaming fire to judge those who did not obey the gospel.

That is in 2 Thessalonians 1. Hang on, let me bring that up here. I had 1 Thessalonians open in front of me.

So 2 Thessalonians 1, beginning in verse five, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which also you are suffering.

Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, he will return with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when

Christ returns, it will be with the angels in flaming fire, coming in judgment.

So as Jesus makes this reference here, that's what it's in reference to, the judgment.

When the angels will be with him in that judgment, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the son of man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.

In other words, staying their swords, don't harm these. These are the ones who are mine.

They are the ones who testified of me before men and were not ashamed. But those who were ashamed, who maybe at one point spoke the name of Christ, but when it came to the judgment they would receive from other people, they either abandoned the name of Christ or changed

Jesus into something who was not the Jesus of the Bible, a completely different Jesus that more people would like.

You don't acknowledge me before men, you will be denied before the angels of God.

So when that judgment comes, those angels will strike down, those who did not know

God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Again, 2

Thessalonians 1 .8. So it's the same sort of thing as was said in Matthew.

If you deny me before men, I will deny you before the father. Same judgment aspect, might be different wording.

It's a slightly different context in Matthew as well than what we have here in Luke. So it's a slightly different wording, but still the same context.

It would still be in the context of judgment. And then verse 10, everyone who speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the

Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Now, this is one of the most confusing teachings that Jesus gave in the gospels.

We also have this in Matthew 12 and in Mark 3, where Jesus says that blasphemy against the

Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. Now, one of the theories regarding this statement, that if you blaspheme the

Holy Spirit, that you won't be forgiven, is that Jesus was only talking about the

Pharisees. So this would only apply to them because they saw the works that Jesus did that could only have been attributed to God and to his spirit working in Christ Jesus.

And the Pharisees who are witnesses to this, who know the scriptures, know that Jesus must be fulfilling them, but deny it anyway and attribute the works that he's doing to Satan.

Jesus was saying of the Pharisees, that's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And so therefore, only the

Pharisees in only that time could have been committing it because only they would have seen these things with their eyes and have known what the scripture said and denied it and attributed it to being of Satan anyway.

So therefore, you don't have to worry about committing this unpardonable sin because you would not be one who knew the scripture so well and are there in Jesus' presence to see him perform these things and deny it and say it was of Satan anyway.

So you don't have anything to worry about in that sense. That's one of the theories explaining this unforgivable sin of blaspheming the

Holy Spirit. Obviously, it's more than just saying, holy cow or something like that. That's not blaspheming the

Holy Spirit. And you might've remembered the thing that atheists were doing. This was 10 or 15 years ago,

I believe. It was the Holy Spirit challengers or the atheist challenge. I can't remember what they called it, but it was some sort of challenge where you're supposed to video yourself and post it online, blaspheming the

Holy Spirit, like saying, I deny the Holy Spirit. I think the Holy Spirit is whatever, calling him names or something like that.

And by posting it online, it's on the internet. You've borne witness before other people.

It's permanent. And now that you've done that, there's no going back. You've just blasphemed the

Holy Spirit and that's it, you're done. Like even if you come around and you realize that atheism was wrong and Christ is the only way, well, there's no way that you can follow him.

No way that could do you any good anyway because you've already blasphemed the Holy Spirit and you're not going to heaven. Well, that whole thing was silly, first of all, because that's not what blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit is. And secondly, God is far more gracious than that. Even though you and your stupidity and your ignorance would do something like that and literally play with fire, eternal fire at that, going against these words that are written in scripture, yet God is merciful to those who are that dumb and will still forgive you of your sin anyway once the spirit gets a hold of your heart and transforms you into somebody that truly fears

God and knows Christ and worships him and calls upon him to be saved. God is merciful and those who confess their sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them of their sins and to cleanse them of all unrighteousness.

So yeah, even the atheist who did the atheist challenge can still be saved. That's not blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. Both of those things I reject as blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. So what really are we talking about here?

Well, let me come back to Matthew. So in Matthew chapter 12, where Jesus gives this warning, this is in the context of Jesus casting out evil spirits and being accused of casting out spirits in the name of Beelzebul.

Now remember that we just read that in Luke's gospel as well. Where did we read that?

That was in the previous chapter, but it was some time ago. It was back in chapter 11, verses 14 through 23.

And that's where Jesus casts out a demon that was making a man mute. And once Jesus cast the demon out, the man was able to speak again.

But some of the people there said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Now, when the

Pharisees did this, according to Matthew 12, that was where Jesus responded by saying that I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people.

And the blasphemy against the spirit though, will not be forgiven. So he says it there in the context of being accused of casting out evil spirits by the power of Satan.

That's not the same context in Luke. We're in a totally different chapter now where Jesus says that.

So because it's in a different context, because it's not following the statement from the

Pharisees of, oh, he casts out demons by Satan. That's why I don't think the theory fits of saying that, well, only the

Pharisees could have possibly committed this sin. The Pharisees are not in the immediate context of this particular instruction about blasphemy against the

Holy Spirit. So what really does this mean? This is not a one -time or careless thing.

This is not something that you could have accidentally done. Like, oh my goodness, I just said a curse against the

Holy Spirit and now I've blasphemed him and I'm never gonna be forgiven that sin. That's not gonna happen. Every once in a while,

I will get an email from somebody asking me, have I committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? And I've said to them, the very fact that you're asking that question indicates that you haven't committed it because otherwise your heart would be so hardened against God, you wouldn't even care or deny that you ever could have committed such a sin.

So the person who is concerned about this, who reveres God, who fears God, who in their heart is convicted over sin and would be afraid to ever commit such a sin that God would never forgive, that person is not one who has committed blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. So what really are we talking about here? We're talking about the work of the Spirit on a person over time to convict them of their sin, bring them to an awareness of that sin and a knowledge of Christ who is

Savior so that they would turn from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven. And if over time that person continues to reject that message, which is by the testimony of the

Holy Spirit, then that becomes blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and that's what won't be forgiven.

You were given the opportunity in life to turn from your sin to Christ and you didn't do it.

And so now you are standing at the judgment. Remember, because this is in the context of judgment, it's right after Jesus has just said, whoever denies me before men,

I will deny before the angels of God. So a person has rejected the Holy Spirit their whole lives and they come there to that place of judgment and forgiveness is too far from them now.

They will not be forgiven because they had blasphemed the work and ministry and testimony of the

Holy Spirit about a person's sin and about Christ. Remember that Peter denied

Jesus before men. Remember that? Three times, Jesus even told him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

Even though Peter was insistent that he would never do such a thing, Jesus said, sure enough, you will.

That's coming up in Luke's gospel as well. We've read it already in Matthew and in Mark, we'll read it again in Luke.

But after Peter did that, he went out and wept bitterly.

So this is not the kind of thing that Jesus is saying, well, now when

I come back, I'm gonna deny you before the angels of God because Peter was convicted over it and he repented.

And as we have in John chapter 20, Jesus even restored him to the position that he gave him as an apostle to go out and eventually would lead in the preaching of the gospel, especially at Pentecost, which we read about in Acts 2.

So Peter was repentant, Jesus received him, said that he loved him, appointed him to go and share the gospel and bear fruit.

So Peter had done this and yet was forgiven and restored. The blasphemy against the

Holy Spirit is that persistent, unrepentant resistance against that work of the spirit to testify to who

Jesus is. Now, if Peter had denied Jesus and then not repented and continued in that over and over and over until the day of judgment, yet then that would have been not only denying

Jesus before men, that would have been blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. All of that in the same context here. Judas did commit a blasphemy against the

Holy Spirit because he was convicted over his sin too. He tried to return the silver that he was paid to betray

Jesus. I have betrayed an innocent man. He knew what he had done, but it did not lead to his repentance.

How did he resolve that situation? He killed himself. And so he committed this sin, betraying the son of man into the hands of men, denying him before men, and then even resisting that work of conviction upon his heart to turn from his sin back to the

Lord, wasn't even willing to do that. And so this is a sin that most definitely

Judas was not forgiven of. If there's anybody in the Bible we can know for certain is in hell, it's

Judas. Pharaoh also, for as it said in Romans chapter nine, for this reason,

I've raised you up that I might show my power through you, the Lord speaking to Pharaoh.

He was torn down, he was judged to eternal condemnation. There's two people right there that we know will burn forever.

The rich man also in Luke chapter 16, that's a story that we will get to a little bit later on.

So as long as you are convicted over sin and you turn from sin to the Lord Jesus Christ to be forgiven, yeah, you have nothing to worry about committing blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. But then after all of these warnings that Jesus has given, all the lessons that he's told the disciples in these 12 verses, the last two verses are like putting an ending on this here.

So all said and done, summarizing this whole thing, when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities.

So you do not fear man, you fear God. You testify of Christ before others, your life has been consistent with the gospel that you have preached.

And now they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, don't be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say.

For in those moments, the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour, what you ought to say.

And we see that fulfilled in the book of Acts. It's almost like this is kind of a teaser.

It's foreshadowing those things that are gonna come up in the book of Acts. And it's not necessarily an immediate promise for each and every one of us that we're always gonna know the perfect thing to say as led by the

Holy Spirit, whenever somebody wants to judge us for the gospel that we proclaim.

But I think that the Spirit certainly can. Not that this was only something that applied to the apostles and it would not be from the help of the

Holy Spirit today, but he certainly can guide our words to say the right thing in the right kind of situation that would testify to the goodness of God and the greatness of our

Lord Jesus Christ so that others would hear the gospel of Christ and come to faith in the

Lord Jesus and live. But still the theme that we've considered as we've gone through these 12 verses is that we should fear

God and nothing else. God is on our side, what can man do to me? And we do not need to worry or be anxious about those days that come when people will ridicule us because of our faith or even do worse to us than that because we profess

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and tell them, you can be forgiven your sins as well if you turn to the

Lord Jesus Christ, you will live. When people hate us for that, we have no reason to be alarmed because we are loved by our

Father who is in heaven and he will bring us into that eternal glory, that place that is being prepared for us because Jesus died for us.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here and I pray this would be our confidence, our understanding.

We don't do anything to earn the favor of God, to even earn your love, you have demonstrated it for us in Jesus Christ.

And so in Christ, we know the promises that are given to us, the forgiveness of sins, the hope of eternal life and I pray those are things we continue to remember and walk in day by day, looking to heaven as our hope, our future residents, we're temporary residents here.

We are permanent residents of the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.