Wednesday Night, September 2, 2020 PM

What do you want to sing tonight? Thank you, Red.

All right.

Well, keep in mind, tonight's the first night for the Truth and Grace to meet. So I know that they've been looking forward to that. My little Abigail asks me every five minutes for a straight hour, is it time to go?

Is it time to go?

We ready to go?

So I hope she's having a grand old time in Teg. OK, well, let's open our Bibles and turn over to Luke chapter 6 and be reading verses 20 through 26 tonight. Another time as we consider the blessings and the woes that Christ gives here at the beginning of this significant teaching in the Gospel of Luke.

Luke chapter 6, verses 20 through 26. Let me pray for us before we read. Father, I thank you for gathering us together tonight. I thank you for providing for our needs. We thank you, Lord, for a clear and unfailing, perfectly true, holy word.

We thank you for these scriptures. We thank you that they are living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to cut down to the very heart of the matter in our lives. We thank you, Father, that you have given us a word that is timeless, that is something that you breathed out faithfully, entrusting it to us through your faithful and holy men who are moved by your Holy Spirit.

We thank you that here we are told what is true, where we're wrong, how to get right, and how to live your way. So we just give you the praise. And we ask tonight that you would help us as we consider your word, and that you would be at work in our lives, so that we would live out the amen on earth of your will, which is in heaven.

I pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. So Luke chapter 6, verses 20 through 26, we hear the contrast and the symmetry of blessings and curses. Verse 20, In turning his gaze toward his disciples, he began to say, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man.

Be glad in that day, and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

Woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

So Jesus certainly has our attention. He has the attention of everybody he's instructing right now. He is taking the approach of surprise. Nobody would ever think that the impoverished, malnourished, depressed, canceled would be considered blessed, happy, well-off, fortunate.

Nobody would ever classify them that way. But Jesus says, even this group of people, even someone suffering from all four ailments, if they have me, if they have the kingdom, then they are indeed happy and blessed.

They are the most blessed people in all the world.

Even this group.

And of course, that goes along for all the rest of the followers of Christ who, poor, maybe aren't hungry, maybe aren't weeping or aren't canceled. But they're as blessed as those who are suffering. They're both blessed in Christ.

And it's a surprise to discover that, that our blessing, that our happiness is not dependent on any particular situation, but dependent on who we're in, who we're with in Christ. And so he continues the surprise with the next set of people as he begins to talk about the rich, fat, jolly, and verified.

The Surprise of Blessings and Woes in Christ

Why is he approaching things this way? Why is he coming with such surprise and shock? Well, I think that there's a need to address the religious tension that exists at this point. He's been kicked out of his own town, kicked out of the synagogue.

There's already concerns building that he has called himself the son of man, that he's forgiving sins upon earth, that he is redefining the Sabbath. So tension is growing. Also, not only is there confrontation between Jesus Christ and the establishment religious authorities, but there's also the need for the people there to understand some good news.

All of those promises that God made are going to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All of those pictures and types and shadows are all going to come true in Jesus Christ. And even though they were raised up to embrace these treasured bits and pieces of the old covenant, something better has come, something better than Solomon, something better than the temple.

Behold, Jesus Christ, he is there, right there in front of them, and they need to be able to let go of the shadow that they hold of the substance. Even as John the Baptist's disciples, oh, they loved their rabbi, they loved their teacher, John the Baptist, and they just couldn't stand the fact that Jesus' disciples were baptizing more than them at one point, John the Baptist said, no, no, no, he must increase, I must decrease.

And that's the way it was with the transition between the old covenant and the new covenant. The old covenant needed to decrease until it had gone away, and the new covenant needed to increase and increase.

So that's one of the reasons why Jesus is approaching things with surprise. So, laid alongside these blessings, the four blessings are the four woes. Along with the happiness of those who are in Christ, those who have his life, what do we have?

We have the sorrow, we have the woes of those who are outside of Christ, those who remain in death. Jesus is approaching things this way, he's doing very much what the end of Deuteronomy does, and he's saying, setting before you life and death, choose life.

Life and death, choose life. Those of you who think that you will keep your life and save your life, you will lose it. But those of you who lose your life, for my sake and the gospel's, then you will find it.

And so, it's surprising, it's surprising, but as we read verses 24 through 26, we discover that those who are rich, fat, jolly, and verified, and yet are without Christ, are condemned. Without Christ, they are cursed.

Without Christ, they are under great woe. They are like a structure built on shifting sand, sure to fall under the storm of God's judgment. Now, let's consider these four woes, and just what Jesus has against Santa Claus.

I mean, what's wrong with being a rich, fat, jolly, celebrated person? He doesn't like Santa Claus at all, you can just tell. No, that's not it. There's nothing wrong with that at all, unless, of course, you are a sinner without a savior, and then you've got a problem.

Then you have a problem. He says, woe to the rich. Verse 24, but woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Now, this has got to be very surprising, as surprising as the first set of four surprises.

What was the expectation of Jesus' culture concerning the rich? What did they think about that? Of course, there's nothing wrong with being rich. That's the cultural expectation today. If you're rich, then you're wrong.

But that's not the expectation of Jesus' culture. They believe that if you are rich, you are more blessed by God. Obviously, God likes you for some reason better than somebody else over here. He favors you because you have more than somebody else.

And because he favors you with more, and you have more, then you're able to do more for God, and then he likes you even more. And so this was the cultural understanding of the rich in Jesus' time. Consider the rich ruler.

Remember, the rich ruler comes to Jesus as a good teacher. What must I do to be saved? And you've got to understand, everybody's on the edge of their seat saying,.

I didn't have to do much.

There's probably something just a little bit more he's in. Because he's already rich. He's already favored by God. He's already loved by God. Everybody can see that. He's got all this wealth. And then Jesus tells him he must give up his idol.

And that was very surprising. And then, so Jesus says, so your hand is full of the wealth. And he says, one thing you lack. He had everything, right? He said, one thing you lack. He said, go sell all that you have, give to the poor, and come follow me.

What is the point? Your hand is full of wealth and riches. You need to let that go, let it fall somewhere worthwhile, let it fall down on the poor, and then come follow me, grab hold of me. He said, that's what you lack.

You can't take hold of me, he says, because you're grasping your riches. Now, for some people, they're handling their riches as stewards, and they're not grasping it as their company. For this man, that was his idol, that was his God, and Jesus knew that.

And so he called him to follow him in that way. When he did not, Jesus used that illustration about the camel going through the eye of the needle. He said, behold, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to go into heaven.

And that was news to everyone, because they figured the rich people were encamped on the outskirts of heaven, and it'd be really easy to get in. Jesus says, think of the largest moving thing you've ever seen, and the smallest opening your eye has ever seen, and you've got to get that thing through that tiny little space.

And then they said, well, who then can be saved? You see, that's their expectation. If it's that hard for the rich to be saved, then nobody else can be saved. And Jesus says, with God, all things are possible.

With man, it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Salvation by grace alone. Consider also that when Jesus looked upon the condition of the poor widow who gave her last two copper coins, her last two mites, to the temple treasury, as all the Jews were instructed to do by that religious system, that God expected you to give as much as you could to the beautifying of the temple.

It was already caked with gold. The thing was a treasury, a repository of the gold, even of the Roman Empire. Roman citizens were even known to send donations to the temple in Jerusalem because it was considered one of the wonders of the Roman Empire, and they wanted to increase the grandeur.

Roman emperors would even pay for the beautification of the Jewish temple. And the Jews were expected to as well, even if you were a poor widow and only had two copper coins left. Jesus rightly said she gave more than anybody else, but then he also rightly condemned the whole system, said not one stone be left upon another.

And then the Pharisees, when Jesus was teaching about wealth and how to handle money and so on, the Pharisees who, in Luke 16 verses 14 and 15 says, the Pharisees who were lovers of money scoffed, scoffed at what Jesus was saying.

So I'm just kind of relaying to you, the Pharisees were seen as the most spiritual people in the land, right? They were the closest to God, and of course they had lots of money. That just reinforced the expectation that the rich were close to God.

But Jesus says, woe to you who are rich, you are receiving your comfort in full. Now, if your full comfort terminates on the wealth that you have acquired, your comfort is very poor indeed, right? If your comfort terminates upon the wealth that you have accrued, your comfort is very poor indeed.

It's a false comfort in this life, and it's worthless in the next. Ecclesiastes 5, 10 through 11 says, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money. Nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.

When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on? So Solomon, who was the richest man all around, knew that wealth brings you no comfort in this life.

And of course, what's the good of the wealth in the next life? Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke, we have a story of him dealing with the brothers, or the one brother who came and said, hey, my brother's not splitting the inheritance with me fairly.

He wanted Jesus to be an arbiter between them. And Jesus tells him a story about the man who had a great year, had a great, yeah, a 2019 year, you know? He had a great year, made a lot of money, and he stored it up in his silos.

He's gonna build bigger barns. He's gonna sit back, relax, enjoy his earnings. And the story goes, God addresses the man, says, you fool this very night. Your soul is required of you. Then what will happen to all that you have?

Such is the one, Jesus says, who is not rich toward God. So we see that if riches are your comfort, they are very poor indeed. And so, whoa, whoa to you who are rich. It can be a comfort to many. It can be a solace to many, but it doesn't actually pan out.

And then he says, whoa to the fat. Verse 25, whoa to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Now, there's nothing wrong with being well-fed, and Jesus is not actually harping on gluttony at this point.

And he's not really talking about people who are fat. He's just pointing out those who are well-fed in contrast to those who are malnourished. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

This is the opposite of that, whoa, to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. So what's the problem here? Well, Jesus is talking about those who consider that everything is going on okay because they don't need anything.

This isn't really about the rich who have more than they possibly ever could need. This is about those who have what they need and never think they need anything, right? Always have enough. Not that I'm rich, but I always have enough.

There's a focus here, not really about riches, but the focus is about hunger and never facing it. Now, if, you know, Jesus' audience, there are a lot of people who always faced hunger, and they were just trying to get to that next level where they weren't always worried about where the next bit of food was coming from.

Matthew 6, Jesus talks to his hearers about that. They were always worried and concerned about where their food was coming for the next day. And Jesus was counseling them about how to live in trusting God about these matters.

You know, for some, to get to the point where you never had to worry about that, boy, that would be a relief. That would be a relief. But Jesus says, whoa. Jesus says, whoa. Now, this, he says, "'Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry.'".

What's the issue? What's the problem? Well, the hunger, the hunger, rightly interpreted, is judgment that is both temporal and eternal. It's important to remember that hunger or famine was one of the curses that was leveled upon Israel.

And they're still in the old covenant, right? They're moving out of the old covenant into the new, whoever will believe in Jesus and follow him. But famine was still one of the curses that Jesus had for his, for, that God had for his people who were idolatrous.

And that was the issue. That was the issue. So, back in Deuteronomy 8, there is a warning to the people of Israel. The second generation of Israel out of Egypt, the generation that, first generation died except for Joshua and Caleb.

And before Moses died, he had a second giving of a law to the new generation so that they would be understanding what was required of them by the covenant before they crossed over the Jordan River into the promised land.

And there at the end of chapter eight of Deuteronomy, there's a warning. Verse 11, beware, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I'm commanding you today.

Notice verse 12.

Otherwise,.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, you see that? When you have eaten and are satisfied, when you are well fed, and have built good houses and lived in them, and your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and gold multiply and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.

And he goes on to tell them all these different things that God did for them. And they need to remember that verse 17. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, my power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth, but you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who is giving you power to make wealth.

He may confirm his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them. I testify against you today that you will surely perish like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you.

So you shall perish because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God. So woe to the well fed. Woe to those who get satisfied, self-satisfied and forgetful about the provision that they are dependent upon God for.

And so he warns them, woe to you who are well fed now for you shall be hungry. Also woe to the jolly. Woe to the jolly. Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep.

Now, laughter is not wrong. After all we've already seen, it is the righteous response to absurdity. Proverbs is full of it. Full of very funny quips about folly, about absurdity. And it's funny. You should laugh as you read through the book of Proverbs.

And it is a great way to instruct about the absurdities of the fool so that we do not repeat them in our own lives. But laughter is not a lasting comfort for the fool. It is but a diversion. It is but a distraction.

In fact, it's just kindling for the fire. Ecclesiastes 7 .6 has an image for us. For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot.

Think of that.

For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot. So thorn bushes are good. You know, what are they good for? I mean, just man. Thorn bushes are good for nothing but one thing.

What is that?

Kindling. And you put that on top of the fire pit and you're gonna cook us a stew, right? It's time to cook some supper, boil some water. And you put the big old heavy pot on top of those thorn, that big old thorn bush, and you hear the crackling of it.

That's what laughter of a fool is like. It comes right before you light the thorn bushes and start cooking. For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. And this too is futility.

So the laughter of a fool, the laughter of someone who is finding comfort, the one who is finding life, liveliness in the diversion of laughter all the time, that's no comfort at all. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn.

And we think very carefully about the context that Jesus is in, the one of controversy with the religious authorities, the context of transition between old and new covenants. Did they not laugh and mock and scorn Jesus Christ?

Right?

Didn't they? Didn't they laugh at him? And did they not mourn and weep when he came against them in judgment? Within a single generation, not one stone was left upon another. And so, woe to the jolly.

And then woe to the verified. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

The opposite of being canceled in our canceled culture is being verified. You're verified if you have a little blue check mark next to your name on social media, meaning that you have so many people that just love what you say, that you get the blue check mark.

Everybody follows you and pays attention to everything you say, and whatever you say gets massive amounts of agreement and applause from the cultural applause givers. And Jesus says, that is no indicator that you are blessed.

You have a large following of people who approve of you. He says, woe, woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. The false prophets.

One of my favorite stories, of course, is 1 Kings 22, when the king of Judah met up with the king of Israel, and they were considering whether they should combine forces to go fight the enemy, and it was King Ahab had 400 prophets there, and they were all saying the same thing.

They were all saying the same thing. Go up, you'll win.

You're amazing.

You're gonna win the battle. And the king of Judah said, isn't there a man of God somewhere we could ask, instead of these prophets? And they did bring Micaiah out, and Micaiah knew the game. He'd already been told on the way there.

Look, everyone's saying a favorable thing about this endeavor. You should say the same thing. You don't think that happens today? That happens all the time today, all the time. There is pressure to say it.

Now, everyone else is saying this. You need to say this, too. Micaiah gets there, and you don't, I don't know what voice he used. I don't know. I don't know what voice he used, but when the king asked him, and this is the king of Israel.

When he asked him, what is the word of the Lord? Micaiah just said something like, go on up, O king, you're going to win, because he's mocking all these false prophets. And the king obviously knew that Micaiah was making fun of him.

He said, no, what did God really say? Because he knew Micaiah would tell him the truth. Now, he hated Micaiah, but he knew Micaiah would tell him the truth. And, well, it's the same thing today. Paul writes to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4, 1 -5.

He tells him to preach the word in season and out of season. He charges him by the kingdom of Christ and the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, by everything good and holy and solemn. He says, preach the word.

He says, time will come when people are not going to endure sound doctrine, but they want their ears to be tickled, and they're going to heap up for themselves. Teachers in accord with their own desires.

And he just tells them, you've got to preach the word. Another funny passage is Micah 2 -11. Micah says, if a man walking after wind and falsehood had told lies and said, I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor, he would be a spokesman to this people.

This is all through the scriptures. A reminder that people will quickly give you the thumbs up and the approval and the blue check mark and the verification to keep on saying whatever it is that they want you to keep on saying.

But Jesus says, this is no real comfort at all. You shouldn't think that if you have grand approval, that that's a good thing, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. And who's the they here?

Their fathers. Well, it's the same they as earlier. They used to treat, their fathers used to treat the men of God, the prophets, horribly. And he says here, they used to treat the false prophets well.

He said, and they're still going to be doing that today. And so Jesus was warning them about that. So four woes, all of them surprising. Who would think that a rich, fat, jolly, celebrated person would live a life of woe?

That's very surprising. But again, the key ingredient to the blessing and the cursing is this, who has Christ? Who has Christ? If indeed you are an impoverished, malnourished, depressed, canceled person, without Christ, you're full of woe, woe upon woe.

And if you are a rich, fat, jolly, celebrated person with Christ, then you're blessed. The only difference, the one factor here is who has Christ. And that's the reason why Jesus is telling these woes and these blessings in the way that he is.

All right, well, any questions or thoughts before we turn our attention to some prayer?

Does it kind of surprise you that Ahab?

It does surprise me Ahab wanted to hear it. But remember that, I remember preaching to Jeremiah in Zedekiah, even though he never did a thing that Jeremiah told him to do, always wanted to hear what Jeremiah had to say.

Who does that remind you of in the New Testament? About Herod, right? He's got John the Baptist in prison because his wife is just mad as all get out, John the Baptist. So he has to put him in prison, but as long as he has him there, he brings him out because he wants to hear what John the Baptist, never did a thing John the Baptist told him to do, but he still wanted to hear from him.

It's an odd phenomenon, isn't it? I think, yeah, I think that, I think the same, Paul got the same treatment to some degree, it just, what is it about that? Maybe it's the fact that men in power understand that they're being told what they want to hear, and they want to hear something that's not filled with placating, you know, sycophancy, they want something.

And they don't pay attention to it.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, who could we pray for tonight? I want to start off by.