Today we are looking at another parable of Jesus which is called the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  That’s a title that was given by the translators and editors of the original manuscripts.  It’s not phrase that would have been understood by Jesus’s audience.  That phrase would have been considered by Jesus’s listeners as an oxymoron.  In the opinion of most Jews of that day, the only good Samaritan would have been a dead Samaritan.  Samaritans were considered people of the lowest, most despicable character.  They were half breeds who were the descendants of those Jews left in the land of Israel during the exile under the rule of the Assyrians and who had intermarried with their oppressors and produced an offspring called the Samaritans.  They not only were looked down upon, but the Samaritans themselves added insult to injury by building their own temple and adapting certain pagan rituals in their worship.

But before we delve too far into all the particulars of the Samaritan in Jesus’s story, we must consider the context in which Jesus gives this story.  It is given in response to a conversation with a lawyer, an expert in Jewish law.   And the lawyer asked Jesus how he could obtain eternal life. Notice how Luke describes it though.  “And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

It would seem that this man was not genuinely seeking the wisdom of Jesus concerning eternal life because he recognized that Jesus was the Son of God and was the way to life.  But his motive seems to be to put Jesus to the test.  He is trying to catch Jesus saying something that was contrary to the law. The religious rulers were constantly testing Jesus, trying to entrap Him in something that He might say.  

So this lawyer asks a good question, but with an ulterior motive.  In fact, it’s the most important question that any person could ask. You could say that it is mankind’s greatest question, which reveals man’s greatest need.  We looked a couple of weeks ago at the rich, young ruler who asked virtually the same question; “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Unlike this lawyer, the young ruler’s question was sincere.  But Jesus answered him much the same way that he answered this man.  In answer to his question, Jesus turned him to the law.  

Now this man was a lawyer – he was supposed to be an expert in interpreting Biblical law.  And so Jesus responds to his question with a question; Vs 26 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 

I think it’s noteworthy that when this lawyer or the rich young ruler asked how to enter into eternal life, Jesus did not give them a gospel tract and tell him to repeat the sinner’s prayer after me. You know, 21st century evangelical Christianity wants their theology reduced down  to a simple formula.  Do these three things, or take these three steps and “presto” you are saved, you will avoid hell, and you will live forever in heaven.  But Jesus never seems to use a formula or a prescription for salvation.  He rarely gives a pat answer.  Jesus’s response should raise a caution flag for us when we try to teach people how to lead someone to salvation through some formulaic prayer.

In fact, seemingly contrary to all evangelical, grace dominated church doctrine, Jesus turns this man to the law.  That would seem to put the Romans Road plan of salvation on it’s ear.  Except, if you listen carefully to what Jesus taught, He isn’t teaching that keeping the law is the way to salvation.  He is teaching that righteousness is the means of salvation. Jesus points them to the law so that they might understand God’s standard of righteousness. But as Paul says in Galatians 3:24 that the law is our schoolteacher to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The law reveals God’s standard of righteousness which we all fall short of, necessitating a righteousness which we receive from Christ by faith.

So Jesus refers this man to the law to show this man his need for salvation.  And the lawyer  responds by quoting the two great commandments, which as Jesus said in Matthew 22 all the law was summarized in these two commandments.  And the lawyer shows that he obviously knows that as well by his response, saying; “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

The amazing thing though is how Jesus responds to this man’s answer.  Jesus says, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.”  Jesus unconditionally says “if you do these two commandments you will have eternal life.” Now that would seem to fly in the face of evangelical, reformed doctrine.  But we have to accept it as Jesus said it, without caveat.

However, let me hasten to say that perfect obedience to the law is righteousness.  Jesus is not saying occasional righteousness gives eternal life.  He is not saying that if your righteousness outweighs your unrighteousness then you will be saved.  He is saying perfectly keeping the law is perfect righteousness and therefore you have no sin, and consequently, there is no punishment for sin which is death. So you will live. 

But keeping the foremost commandment is impossible if you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If you really love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, then you will have saving faith in Jesus Christ. To believe in Him, to trust Him, to follow Him, to have faith in Him are all ways in which you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

The problem is that this lawyer doesn’t believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. So he may claim that he loves Jehovah, but he really doesn’t love Him, because He doesn’t believe in Him.  Jesus said in John 5:21-24 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,  so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” So Jesus would say that “I and the Father are One.”  If you reject Jesus, then you cannot love God.

However, from his next answer the lawyer makes it clear that he thinks he has the first commandment locked down, and if there is any concern he has it’s about the second commandment.  So he will narrow down the possibility of failing that commandment by asking Jesus another trick question. Luke says that wanting to justify himself he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Notice, he wanted to justify himself.  We saw a moment ago in Galatians that Paul said that the law was meant to be a schoolteacher to turn us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But this man thinks that he is justified by keeping the law.  But the law convicts him, and so he wants to find a way to justify himself. He wants to find a way to be able to believe he is keeping the requirements of the law.

So his question is really a means to try to escape the conviction of the law.  But he felt he was justified in that respect, because the religious Jews of that day narrowly defined who qualified as a neighbor by only including other Jews who lived righteously.  Never in a million years would the average Jew consider a Gentile as a neighbor, or a Samaritan a neighbor, or even a Jewish person whom they considered to be a sinner to be a neighbor.

So Jesus tells a parable in order to answer the man’s question, who is my neighbor.  It’s very important to recognize that Jesus does not tell this story to illustrate how to enter into eternal life.  A lot of people have erred into a social gospel through misunderstanding the purpose of this parable.  It is not to answer the question “how to enter eternal life,” but to answer “who is my neighbor?”

The parable begins with a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. These two cities were separated by seventeen miles of desolate countryside. This particular highway was notoriously dangerous and would have been well known at least by reputation among the Jews. Merchants would often travel this road in order to sell their wares in Jericho. The desolate and rocky terrain made this road a popular site for raids by bandits. 

It’s interesting to notice that Jesus does not describe this man with any ethnic or nationalistic or religious characteristics. He is just a man.  There are no defining marks to put him into a specific category of people.  Jesus just simply identifies him as a man traveling on this road, and he fell among robbers.  I’m sure that on that road robbery was a well known risk, and  in this case, the man fell victim to what was already a high probability.

Jesus said not only did they rob him, but they beat him and stripped him of his clothes and possessions and left him lying on the side of the road half dead.  This man suffered terrible consequences for his decision to take this road.  Obviously, not everyone faced the same consequences even though they made a similar decision.  But the point should be made that as Christians we do not rush to judgment about a person because they suffer the consequences of a bad decision. How and why they are in the predicament that they are in is not our concern as much as how we are to respond to their need.

And to make that point, Jesus introduces two other characters into the story.  He says in vs 31, “And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”

Most of you know that I just got back from a trip to LA yesterday.  And I could not help but be reminded of this story as I walked down certain streets in LA and saw the many homeless people that live on the sidewalks in certain areas. Some of the homeless you see look like they are physically capable enough I guess to take care of themselves to some degree.  A lot of them though seem mentally challenged, perhaps through addiction to drugs or alcohol.  And every once in a while you see a person who is laying on the street, and you can’t really tell if they are ok or not.  And you are kind of afraid to find out.  The homeless situation out there is so dire, so out of control, that it seems overwhelming.  You really don’t know where to begin, and so you tend to just keep walking, to pass by and try to put it out of your mind.  It’s easier if you say to yourself that they are on drugs, that they brought it on themselves, that they could go in a shelter if they wanted to, but they want to live like that.  We make all kinds of rationales in order to justify ourselves.

But we are negligent in our comprehension of this law of loving our neighbor if we only relate it to homeless people we see on the street.  This parable teaches that anyone that we cross in our path is our neighbor, whether or not we identify with them culturally, financially, geographically, or by any other metric which we might use to make distinctions about people.

Now Jesus doesn’t elaborate on how the priest or the Levite justified passing the man by.  It’s noteworthy though that the distinction that He makes about them is they are of the religious order of the Jews.  They worked in the temple.  They were the religious leaders of Judaism. If anyone should have been attuned to the requirements that God expressed concerning how we are to treat one another then these guys should have been prime examples.  And yet Jesus shows that the religious leaders did nothing for this man.  They passed on the other side of the street.  That indicates that they wanted to distance themselves from the situation as much as possible.

You know, I used to hear a phrase in the church growing up, which was “There, but by the grace of God, go I.” It was used in conjunction with seeing someone who had fallen into sin, that had been overcome by some vice or calamity.  I hope it was used in the right way,  humbly recognizing that if it had not been for the grace of God which delivered them, then they could be where that person is.  That but for the saving grace of God they would be homeless,  they would be addicted, or they would be in financial or physical ruin.  As Christians, we should have a heightened view of our sinfulness and overflowing gratitude for the grace of God which delivered us.  And consequently, we should have compassion on those who are still captured by such circumstances.

Any number of possible excuses might have kept these two religious leaders from helping the beaten man. They might have said this man should have avoided this road at that time of day.  He brought it on himself. They might have said I am in a hurry, I can’t miss my appointment.  Or I can’t afford to touch this man lest I become unclean and won’t be able to perform my duties in the temple.  Or their excuse might have been that it could be a trap.  Or maybe the man is already too far gone, there is nothing I can do to help him.  But whatever the excuses, at the end of the day that was all that they were – excuses.

Then Jesus introduces a Samaritan who was traveling down the road.  The very use of that term Samaritan eliminated in the minds of the Jews any inherent good in this man.  He was someone who was avoided by God fearing Jews.  They would travel an extra day to avoid having to cross into Samaria. After all, when the inhabitants of Judah returned from exile in Babylon, they experienced opposition and antagonism from the Samaritans. And so perhaps they thought they were justified in treating them with contempt.  So for Jesus to cast this Samaritan in the light of someone who kept the law of God would have been shocking and disturbing to them.

Jesus introduces the Samaritan, saying in vs 33 “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,  and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on [them;] and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.”

You know, the Samaritan was probably in a hurry as well.  Jesus said he was on a journey, and later on the Samaritan said when he returned he would stop again and pay whatever was owed.  So he had someplace to be, and somewhere to go.  He wasn’t just out for a Sunday drive and had nothing better to do.  It was probably inconvenient for him.  But nevertheless, he saw a man in need, and put everything else aside in order to tend to this man’s needs.

I want to point out his motivation for doing what he did.  Jesus said he felt compassion. Compassion means sympathy or empathy, it can mean love, pity, concern.  I feel confident that Jesus used it in the sense of love. After all, the law said you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Compassion is a form of love that indicates action.  It’s not just feeling sympathy or pity for someone and moving on and eventually not thinking about it any more.  But compassion means being moved into action.

Compassion in Strong’s Greek dictionary is defined literally as being moved in one’s bowel’s.  Now before you jump to conclusions, the bowels were considered at that time to be the seat of love and pity.  We might think that sounds odd, but yet we use similar expressions sometimes, such as “gut wrenching” to describe something that moves you in the pit of your stomach. Fear can cause that kind of response, and I suppose love could as well.  But it’s noteworthy to see how often the word compassion is used in the New Testament in relation to Jesus.  He was frequently moved with compassion when He saw the lost sheep of Israel, the Jews. And it always spurred Him to act on their behalf, whether it was to feed them or heal them or teach them.   To have compassion is not to remain unmoved, but to be moved to act in love towards someone.

And notice how the compassion of the Samaritan for this stranger, possibly even someone who would have considered him a natural enemy, resulted in such loving care for his needs.  He goes above and beyond to ensure that this man will have a full recovery.  Jesus said “he felt compassion,  and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on [them;] and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’”

So not only does he stop to help and tend to his wounds, but he actually spent the night there  with him.  That probably really upset his plans for his trip.  And then he not only did he use his provisions and his horse or donkey to carry the burden of this man, but he also used his own money, and promised to pay whatever was needed when he returned.  I think that idea of returning is sorely missed in a lot of our evangelism today.  I remember many years ago seeing a man who was supposedly a really great soul winner, who would just witness to anyone at the drop of a hat, I saw him supposedly lead a young man to the Lord one night.  And after he had led him in the sinner’s prayer, he said “Praise God, but I have somewhere to go” and he left right away.  I was the liaison between these two men, and I couldn’t help but notice over the next few years that the soul winner never asked once how the young man was doing, was he still living for the Lord. We are not told to make converts, but to make disciples.  That requires an investment in time, in revisiting that person, to stay in touch, to follow up.  Not to chalk one up for the kingdom and keep moving on like you’re in a basketball game.  This Samaritan shows his compassion is legitimate, because he comes back to check on him and to follow up.

So having given the illustration, Jesus returns to the lawyer’s question, once again by asking him a question.  Jesus said “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ [hands?]”  Even a child should have been able to answer that question after hearing this story.  The lawyer answered, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” And Jesus said, “you have answered correctly.  Go and do the same.”

Of the three passerby’s, the Samaritan was the only one who showed mercy to the injured man. The neighbor wasn’t the one who only felt sorry, or saw the plight, or passed by, but the one who acted in mercy towards someone who crossed their path. Love is showing mercy.

But Jesus’s parable does not simply encourage us to have compassion upon those
who we see are in need who we find some affinity with. But it also teaches us that our concept of neighbor is not limited by national or ethnic or geographical characteristics.  Every human being is our neighbor whom we are to love as much as we love ourselves.

I also think that there is another story that is being presented in this parable which is sort of like a story within a story.  I think it’s the story of salvation, and our need to be the means of bringing salvation to the world.  We are to be the supply of the greatest need humankind faces.  The need for eternal life.

Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.” He is talking about the devil and his angels; they are the thieves, the robbers on the road of life, that lay wait and prey upon unsuspecting men and women.  People that perhaps are naive, that are foolish, that are on the road of life and they think they are going to be ok.  And somehow or another they fall into the hands of robbers.  The devil attacks them, robs them. His intention is to destroy them, to kill them. 

And unfortunately, most of what is considered organized religion fails to help those who have fallen into sin.  As Paul said in Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fallen short of the kingdom of God.  We are all dead in our trespasses and sins.  Satan has deceived us. He has robbed us of the life that God had given us.  But God so loved the world, He had such great compassion on us, that He left the throne of heaven to come down to our level, to pick us up from the side of the road and bandage us up, to pay the price for our redemption, for our salvation.  And one day He is coming back for us.  

As the children of God, as people who have been born again of God, we are to be like Christ in the world, having compassion on the world. Going to a world that is sick, that is dying, that is wounded and bleeding because of the deceit and robbery of the evil one. And we are to bring the message of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of spiritual healing, and of eternal life. The greatest need of the world is Jesus Christ.  Not just to give some down and out guy a bowl of soup and a pat on the back and send him on his way, but give him the Bread of Life and the Water of Life, by which he will never hunger and thirst again, by which he might have life and have it more abundantly.  

We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves.  To see their greatest need and be the supply of that need for the sake of Christ. The greatest problem in the world affecting mankind is not hunger, it’s not climate change, it’s not Covid 19, the greatest problem in the world is sin and the death that reigns because of sin.  So then if that’s the greatest problem in the world, then the greatest question in the world is “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  And we have the answer; Confess Jesus Christ as Lord and you shall be saved. 

Let us show mercy and compassion towards our neighbors, and share with them the saving knowledge of the gospel.  Let us not be like the religious people who passed by the man on the side of the road, but realize that God has commanded us to love our neighbor, and show compassion towards them by leading them to Christ.  

This parable teaches the universal need for forgiveness – both the need to be forgiven, and the need to forgive. Jesus illustrates in this parable how God’s forgiveness is to be a precursor to our forgiveness of others. If we have been forgiven, then we should forgive others. This principle is essential to our psychological well being, in dealing with two common causes of anxiety, depression, and all sorts of psychological problems; those two causes being on the one hand guilt, and on the other hand resentment. Jesus illustrates in this parable how we can be set free from the bondage of the soul that comes as a result of harboring these two psychosises.

Now before we consider this parable, we want to first understand the context in which it was given. In the preceding verses starting with vs 15, Jesus is teaching some principles regarding what is often called church discipline. What that really entails is interpersonal sins – one person sinning against another within the context of the church. In vs 15, Jesus says, “if your brother sins…” and many manuscripts include the phrase “against you.” That would seem to be the thought behind what Jesus is saying. One Christian in the church sins against another in some way. I think it could also include a sin which a person in the church commits which is outside of church relationships, but the general thrust is in the context of the church.

Jesus says concerning this kind of sin starting in vs 15, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen [to you,] take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Notice that those last verses are given in the context of church discipline, that Christ is in the midst of the church and that He has set the boundaries for life in the church. That verse which says where two or three are gathered together in my name is often quoted out of context. I don’t have time to go into that further this morning but it basically refers to Christ being the head of the church, and thus all things in the church are subject to Him.

So Jesus says, if one Christian sins against another, the one who has been wronged is to confront the offender privately. If the offender does not repent, the one who has been wronged is to confront him again but this time accompanied by one or two other believers. If the offender still refuses to listen, the matter is to be brought before the church. And if the offender remains unrepentant and does not listen to the church, he is to be regarded as a tax collector, which was another way of saying an unbeliever. The church is to break fellowship with such a person.

One of the most difficult experiences the church may face is having to confront a church member who refuses to repent of sin. I also happen to think that it should be a rare event. But when it’s necessary, it needs to be done to protect the sanctity of the church as well as for the good of the person who is unrepentant. But the goal of church discipline is not to punish such a person, but to bring him to repentance and restoration within the church. This ecumenical rebuke is not to be used for just anyone who sins, but only for those who sin and are unrepentant. They brazenly, openly defy any rebuke, any appeal to repent from their sin and continue in that sin.

Sin is a serious thing in the eyes of God, and it should be considered as such in our eyes as well. There is a view among some Christians today that there is no need of repentance once you are saved. But this section of scripture makes it very clear that repentance is a part of the life of the Christian, and one cannot be a part of Christ’s church unless they have been born again. So it should be obvious from this scripture as well as many more that I don’t want to take the time to show you today, that repentance is a necessary ingredient in the Christian life, and the lack of repentance is evidence that a person is backslidden at best, and quite possibly not saved at all.

Then after Jesus had spoken concerning the protocol for church discipline, Peter speaks up, and asks Him a question concerning forgiveness. It’s possible that perhaps Peter is speaking up in hope that his question will bring a commendation from the Lord because He seems to be so magnanimous on this subject of forgiveness.

Peter says, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Peter was in effect asking how many times he should be willing to confront in this way a brother who had wronged him. If a brother sins against Peter, and Peter confronts the brother, and the brother then repents, how many times should Peter confront the brother 
if the same offense happens again? Peter magnanimously suggests that he should forgive him seven times.

But Jesus responds, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Now there seems to be some controversy there between various translations of the Bible. Some say seventy times seven, and some say seventy seven. The original language would seem to express the idea of seventy times seven times seven times seven. In other words there is no end to forgiveness.

But to the argument that Jesus may have said 77 times, He might have had in mind Genesis 4, which after Cain sinned and had received judgment from the Lord, Cain appealed to the Lord and said that everyone would be against him from now on, and they would take vengeance against him. And the Lord issued a statement to the effect that if anyone wrongs Cain, he shall be avenged seven times. Now later there was a great, great, great, great-grandson of Cain, and he is described in that 4th chapter of Genesis. His name was Lamech. And like his forefather Cain he was in rebellion against God and living in willful sin. And Lamech makes the statement, “If Cain is avenged seven times, I with my sword will be avenged seventy and seven times.” And so perhaps what we see in this number is the unlimited revenge of man giving way to the unlimited forgiveness of Christians in the statements of Christ.

Either way the numbers are interpreted, the principle is that forgiveness should be unlimited, even as God’s mercies are unlimited towards us. When Peter suggested that he keep count until it became seven sins, Jesus reminded him that true forgiveness does not keep score. That reminds me of a joke I heard once about a newlywed couple back in the old days when men on the prairie would order themselves a mail order bride. I don’t know if you will think it’s funny or not, I kind of doubt it. But I think it’s funny, though not exactly politically correct.

As the story goes, this man and his new mail order wife was driving their buggy back from the justice of the peace’s office to her new home. And as they are on their way, suddenly, the horse stops in his tracks. The man gets down out of the buggy and walks in front of the horse and says, “That’s one.” He then gets back in the buggy and cracks the whip and the horse starts trotting again. A mile or so further along, the horse stops again. Once again the man gets down from the buggy, stands in front of the horse and says,“that’s two.” Climbs back on the buggy, pops the whip and the horse starts off again. A couple of miles further the horse stops again in the middle of the road. The man gets down out of the buggy, walks in front of the horse and says, “that’s three” and pulls out a pistol and shoots the horse dead. Meanwhile, his new wife can’t believe what she just saw. She harshly exclaims to the man, “You must be crazy! How could you shoot the horse like that?” He turned around and looked her in the eyes and said, “that’s one.”

The point of the joke is that you don’t keep score. Peter wanted to keep score, even though he thought in his mind he was being generous by counting to seven. But true forgiveness forgets, it doesn’t remember how many previous times a person has done you wrong. Now Jesus told a much better story than I did. He told a parable about the unrighteous steward to illustrate the principle of forgiveness.

Notice at the beginning an important phrase; Jesus said, ““For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.” What I want to impress on you to begin with is what Jesus means when He says “the kingdom of heaven.” He is not talking about where you go when you die. He is not talking about what most people think of when they hear the word heaven. He is speaking of the rule of Christ in the hearts and minds of His people. That kingdom began with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and it continues after His resurrection, when He ascended on high as took His seat on the throne of heaven. It is the kingdom of God, the rule of God on the earth in the lives of His citizens. We live now in the kingdom of heaven, and we are to submit to the Lord’s rule and reign in all aspects of our life.

If we have confessed Jesus as Lord, and believed in who He is and what He has accomplished, then we have become His stewards, His ministers of the kingdom of heaven. We are part of His family, we are a noble race. To quote Peter from 1Peter 2:9-10 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God’s] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”
Now what Jesus says then in this parable is this is how we as ministers of the kingdom of heaven operate. We are to act like Christ.

Jesus begins this parable by telling of a king who is settling accounts with his servants. Someone has suggested that perhaps the man described here by Jesus had a significant post in the kingdom, perhaps one that he handled or took in a great sum of revenue for the kingdom, like a tax collector might. And when the time came for such servants for their accounts to be settled with the king, it was found that this man owed the king 10,000 talents. A single talent was an extraordinary sum of money, the highest unit of money in that day. A talent was equal to many years wages. So 10,000 talents would have been similar to millions of dollars that this man was short. Such a debt was far beyond any person’s ability to repay.

It’s interesting that Jesus correlates his disciples as being like this debtor, and by extension all of us who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven are debtors like this man. We have a debt that is beyond our comprehension, a debt that we can never repay. Our sins indebt us to God. Every time we sin, we add to that debt. And because we are sinners by nature, we have a debt to God that is virtually insurmountable. Paul describes that debt we have to God as falling short of the kingdom of God. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” None of us can meet the standard of God’s law. It’s like trying to jump the Grand Canyon. Some of you might be better jumpers than others, some of you might be in better shape. But regardless of how fast and how far you might jump, we are all going to fall far short of the other side. The gap is too great. Our sins are too great.

A common problem though is we don’t really see ourselves that way. We may think we have messed up a couple of times in our lives, but overall, we aren’t all that bad. Your spouse, on the other hand, is a real scoundrel. He needs saving, but by comparison you are golden. Jesus loves us because we are lovable, and we are saved because He is happy to get such a good person on His side. We fail to realize the extent of our sinfulness and how our sin has corrupted everything in us so that there is nothing good in us. So Jesus presents this picture to show us the magnitude of our sin and our debt to God and how much He has forgiven us.

Since the servant he did not have the means to repay, the king commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, so that some repayment might be made.
The servant begged him for a chance to pay back the debt. Yet, even if the king had given him years to repay, it still would not have been long enough for the servant to repay the debt. So even though he could not comprehend the extent of his debt, he recognized that his only hope was to throw himself on the mercy of the king.

Jesus said in vs 23, “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.” Instead of giving the servant more time to repay his debt, the king forgave it completely. Not just a portion of it, but he forgave all of it. The magnitude of the king’s kindness and mercy exceeded the magnitude of the debt. The king spared him of what he justly deserved.

Now obviously, this king is a picture of our Lord, who had compassion on us, and showed us such great mercy, forgiving us of all our sin, and giving us new life in the kingdom of heaven.

Now the story could have ended there and been a great picture that illustrates our salvation. But there is another side to the parable. Jesus continued, saying, “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.”

Now the denarius was the standard day’s wages, and it took thousands of denarii to equal a single talent. This debt of a fellow servant, which could have been repaid in a matter of weeks, was a minor amount compared to the first servant’s debt, which never could have been repaid. But although the second servant begged for mercy in the same way that the first servant had, using almost identical language, the first servant refused to forgive him his small debt. Sadly, the servant who had been forgiven so much failed to pass along even a tiny portion of the mercy that he had been given to him.

Vs 31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.”

When the other servants told the king what had happened, he sent for the servant and delivered him to the jailers until he could pay his debt in full, because he had not shown mercy on his fellow servant, even as he had received mercy. Jesus was teaching that in the same way, when forgiven sinners refuse to show the same mercy towards others that we received in salvation, then we can expect the justice of God to fall upon us. 

What God wants to see from us is first of all, repentance. If we are truly repentant, then we are not only sorry for our sin, but we turn away from sin. What this man illustrates is that he really had not repented of his sin. He was sorry that he got caught, and sorry that he had to pay the consequences of his error, but the fact that he was unchanged in his heart was revealed in his attitude towards his fellow servant. If we are truly repentant, then there will be a consequent transformation in our heart that will be evidenced in the way we treat one another.

For someone who has become saved by God’s mercy and grace, forgiveness towards others is not a option, it’s an obligation. Jesus taught us that principle when He taught the disciples to pray. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus said in Matthew 6:12, , “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Our forgiveness is contingent on our willingness to forgive others. And then at the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus says this in Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” That’s pretty heavy. I don’t know if we truly grasp the significance of that statement. But this parable illustrates the same principle.

Unless we are willing to forgive those who sin against us, we should not expect God to forgive us when we sin against Him. Since God’s extravagant mercy towards us is the basis of our conversion, we should be transformed into a Christ like people, forgiving others even as we have been forgiven. So part of our salvation is crying out to God for a change of heart, so that we might have the heart of Christ. We must be changed, which is the full measure of God’s grace in that He gives us a new nature, a new heart, and a new life. That’s complete repentance, changing direction, which has to be facilitated by God as we are transformed by faith in Jesus as Lord.

We saw last week in the account of  the rich young ruler that there are many people who feel some need to be religious, to be rich towards God, because they are not like the rich fool in the earlier parable who cares not for God nor man but only for his pleasure on earth, but these people believe in God and in the hereafter, and they think it prudent that they make an investment in heaven so that they will be rewarded after this life is over.  This desire for religion then a common aspiration throughout the entire world and I’m sure most of us would agree that it is commendable for men to seek to be right with God.  But as this parable illustrates, simply being religious, or even living a life which they believe to be righteous, does not equate with justification in God’s eyes.  Justification simply means the act of becoming righteous before God.

This very morning across this country, millions of people are practicing some sort of religion, in the hope that they are making progress with God and thus insuring eternal life.  Millions of people are seeking to appease God, or to be justified with God, or to achieve good standing with God, and they are doing so at least in some part by going to church, or to a temple. 

And if the truth be known, most people, perhaps even some here this morning, would think that the sincerity and the effort put forth by these people in trying to achieve spiritual standing with God should be counted for something – even if eternity should prove their diligence is misplaced or even if they are misinformed as to the correct way to God.  They should be given credit for their effort, for their sincerity in pursuing religion.  If God truly be a God of love, and only love, then isn’t He pleased that they seek Him, and how could He possibly reject their attempts to appease Him?

However, Jesus tells a story about the kingdom of heaven which illustrates that not all who practice religion are righteous, that not all who seek justification are in fact justified before God, even though in their minds they think that their religion is sufficient to accomplish a good standing before God.  Luke, the writer of this gospel, tells us that Jesus told this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt. So by his statement, we see that self righteousness is actually not a form of righteousness at all, but is actually a sin of pride, and that pride is evidenced by another sin, which is to hold one’s neighbor in contempt.  Pride is not just a sin that hurts oneself, but it also hurts others, that the characteristic of pride.  And by that characteristic we see that pride is a terrible, damning sin in the eyes of God.

As we shall see, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector warns against the danger of self-righteousness and exhorts us to approach God with humility, placing our ultimate trust not in our merit but in His mercy and grace.  In this parable Jesus is  teaching how a man might be justified with God.  And to illustrate this doctrine, He gives us a study in contrasts, a tale of two men who come to God, or you might say, a tale of two religions.  These are two men who stand in sharp contrast to one another in their approach to God.  And perhaps this also serves as a picture of the kingdom of God, in  which are both wheat and tares, both seeking after God, but one life bearing the  fruit of righteousness and the other life evidenced by self righteousness which produces no spiritual fruit.

These two men are described as a Pharisee and a publican.  And initially we see that both are religious. Jesus begins the parable by saying that both the Pharisee and the publican come to the temple to pray.  Vs 10, “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”  On the surface, they both would seem to have the same desire to come to God, presumably to be right with God.  They both have an interest in spiritual things.  They both have a belief in God. They both believe that going to the temple to pray is a means to come to God.  So far, so good.  But that is where the similarities end.

Jesus begins this contrast in approaches to God by first focusing on the Pharisee.  He says in vs 11, “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.”

The Pharisees were a Jewish religious group that began in the period of time between the writing of the Old Testament and the New Testament, what is called the intertestamental period.  They were concerned about the decline in the standard of Jewish religion at that time, about the neglect of the people for the law of God, as the Jews were being corrupted by the culture that they lived in the midst of.  This religious group formed to urge the people back to godliness.  But eventually, the Pharisees themselves became corrupted by the sin of pride. They became more focused on their obedience to the law, rather than what the law was intended to teach. 

The law of God is supposed to reveal God’s standard of holiness, and how far short we fall short of keeping it. As Paul taught in Galatians, the law was intended to be a schoolmaster to cause us to turn to Christ. But rather than seeing their sin revealed in the law, the Pharisees saw their own achievement as something to be proud of.  And to compound their error, they sought to condemn others who did not match their zeal in regards to the law, but thought that they were above such people and tried to keep their distance from them.  Anything or anyone that they considered beneath their level of achievement they studiously avoided. When I was growing up we used to say about such people that they had their nose up in the air.  Self righteousness and pride bring about contempt for others.

Notice Jesus’s description of this man in vs 11.  “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself.”  Though he addressed God, Jesus indicates his prayer was not heard by anyone other than himself.  He was praying for his benefit, and perhaps the benefit of whoever might be watching him.  Some versions translate it as the Pharisee was standing by himself and praying.  In other words, he picked out a prominent spot, by himself, perhaps on some elevation, where he could easily be witnessed to be in prayer.  

Jesus said about the Pharisees in Matt. 6:5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”  Many have taken that verse as an indication that the Pharisee in this parable was standing in a prominent place to be seen of men.  We can learn a lot about the spiritual status of a man by his prayers, or by his approach to prayer. Pride prohibits prayer.  Jesus said in Matthew 6, in contrast to the Pharisee,“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” 

Notice the prayer of the Pharisee tells a lot about this man’s issue with pride.  He says nothing about his own sinful condition, there is no spirit of repentance, but rather pride in that he has achieved in his mind at least, a higher standing with God than others, especially this publican nearby.  “I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” Paul said in 2 Cor. 10:12, “but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.”  The law of God is given to compare ourselves with God’s righteous standard, not so that we can compare ourselves with others and think we are doing better than they.  God does not grade on a curve, but He grades us on a scale of perfection. “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Unfortunately, the way this man approached God is the way many people use religion. They tend to have a misunderstanding of what is required to be justified before God.  They trust in what they think is their inherent goodness, their sincerity, their works, their participation in religious rituals and ceremonies to make them right with God. Notice, that the Pharisee claims his fasting and his tithing are merits that earn him justification with God.  Now the Old Testament law did not require fasting, but the Pharisees sought through their tradition to make fasting into a means of righteousness.  But their motivation was wrong.  They fasted to be seen of men.  They fasted more than the law required, so that it would appear to others that they were extremely devout.  

But Jesus gave the right attitude towards fasting in the Sermon on the Mount.  He said in Matt. 6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites [do,] for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face  so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”  I can’t help but see the irony in that verse in light of the way most churches observe lent.  Lent is a very public fast, if you can even call it a fast in most cases, with the participants receiving an ash mark on their foreheads which they are supposed to wear to advertise that they are fasting.  I saw on the news, though I didn’t want to click on it, that AOC was giving up eating meat for lent, and it had a picture of her with her head bowed like she was praying or something. How did the news know?  Did she send out a press release or something?   I would like to suggest to her a few things I would like to see her give up for Lent.  Beware of doing your works to be seen of men.

The common misconception of most people’s idea of religion is that a person will go to heaven if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.  I have news for you, none of us could get in by that standard.  Not if we evaluated our deeds by God’s standard of what is good.  Our sin far outweighs any possible good we might do.  Psalm 130:3 says, “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” None of us could stand before God on our merits.  As Paul said in Romans 3, quoting from the Old Testament, “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;  ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

The other claim to goodness on the part of the Pharisee is that he tithes of all that he gets. Now tithing was mandated under the law.  And I’m sure that this man was a fastidious tither.  Jesus said that the Pharisees tithed of mint, dill and cummin.  Those were the herbs that they grew in pots outside their kitchen window.  They carefully measured out the herbs to make sure they were tithing on every thing. But they did so to make an impression on people as to their devoutness.  They made sure that their giving was public. The big tithers actually had someone blow a trumpet ahead of them as they came to give in order to announce themselves and their generosity.  

Jesus said in response to that attitude in Matt. 6:2-4  “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”

So the very works of the law that the Pharisee claimed as righteousness, in fact he erred in doing them, because he did them to be seen of men, and they actually were a sin of pride in self achievement.

In sharp contrast to this prideful, contemptuous, overtly religious Pharisee, Jesus shows us the publican standing off in a corner of the temple perhaps trying to stay out of view from others. You get the feeling that in contrast to the Pharisee, the publican is trying not to attract attention. The publican was a term used for a tax collector.  These men were the most hated of all in Jewish society because they were considered traitors to their country.  They collected taxes for Caesar, but not only that, they made their money by adding on a surcharge, which was allowed by the government, but which usually was egregiously high. It was bad enough to work for the Romans, but to get rich from taking advantage of your countrymen was an unforgivable thing in the eyes of the Jews.  So it’s no wonder that the Pharisee felt it was right to be contemptuous towards the publican.

The publican had also come to pray to God, but Jesus said he would not even raise his eyes to heaven. He exhibited a heart that had been humbled, that was remorseful, a heart that was repentant. In Psalms 51:17 we read, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  The publican came before God with the right attitude.

Jesus said in vs13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

What’s apparent in the attitude of the publican is that he understood the serious nature of his sin and expressed genuine mourning over it.  Beating one’s breast in the Jewish culture of that day was an expression of mourning. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Jesus was talking about mourning over your sin, mourning over the bankruptcy of your spiritual condition.

This tax collector knew that God was holy and that he was not.  He came before God empty handed.  As the hymn “Rock of Ages” so aptly puts it, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Naked, come to the for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die.”  Rather than gloating about his achievements, the publican simply called out to God for mercy.

This word rendered “merciful” in the NASB has another meaning. It’s the word propitiation. The ancient Greek word translated be merciful is hilaskomai; it is actually the word for an atoning sacrifice. The fullest sense of what the tax collector said was, “God, be merciful to me through Your atoning sacrifice for sins, because I am a sinner.” The only other place this word is used in the New Testament is in Hebrews 2:17, where it is translated propitiation.  Propitiation refers to the act of atonement by Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners.  He was the penal sacrifice for our sins.

The tax collector may not have been recognized for his morality, or his good standing in society, but he has a good grasp of theology.  He understood that if he is to be accepted by God, then it will have to be on the basis of God’s mercy and grace. It will have to be on the basis of what God has done, and not on what he has done.  Mercy is by propitiation.  But grace indicates not something forgiven, but something given.  Grace is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our account.  

The doctrine of imputation teaches that the justification that sinners receive before God is based on a righteousness that is not their own. By faith, sinners receive a righteousness that is not from their own works, but that comes from outside of us. And that righteousness comes from Jesus Christ.  In order to reconcile fallen humanity to God, Jesus Christ did not simply arrive on earth and then die upon the cross.  But He had to live completely righteous, perfectly sinless life as our representative.  That righteousness of Christ is then imputed to those who put their faith in Him.  

As 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might receive the righteousness of God in Him.”  The only way to be rich towards God is to first recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt, and receive as a gift of God the righteousness of Christ imputed into our account.

To be considered rich towards God is the principle of justification, when God declares a person to be righteous who is not righteous in his own life. With this declaration of justification, God removes the person’s guilt and gives them the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  That’s the spiritual riches that have currency in heaven.

This tax collector, this sinner, this unjust man, called upon the mercy and grace of God, and he walked away that day justified before God.  Jesus said in vs 14, “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

James states this principle in James 4:6, saying, ““GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”  The key to humility before God is not to take refuge in your goodness, or your good works, but to recognize you are a sinner, and to call out like this tax collector, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”  And to that prayer of repentance and faith, God promises to respond with mercy and grace that you might receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sin.  

I pray that no one hearing my voice today is taking refuge in their keeping of religious rituals and ceremonies, in their merit, in their good works, but that you have confessed that you are a sinner, and trusted in the atonement of Jesus Christ for your justification.  That you might claim the righteousness of Jesus Christ for your salvation.  That simple prayer of the publican is all that is required; God be merciful to me, the sinner.

As we learned previously in our study of the parables, it’s important to determine the primary principle that was being taught by Jesus in the parable.  We should avoid the temptation to allegorize every detail of the story, but try to discern the central thought that Jesus was teaching.

Having said that, however, it’s still possible to have more than one application.  And this parable lends itself to possibly more than one application.  But rather than focus on whatever those possible interpretations may be at this point, I want to go back to chapter 19, because I think that by considering the greater context in which this parable was given we will get a better understanding of what Jesus was teaching.

The context for this parable really starts back in chapter 19 vs 16, as Jesus is visited by a man described as a rich, young ruler.  So far in our studies of the parables, Jesus has had a lot to say about the perils of being rich.  And in both previous parables we’ve looked at concerning a rich man, one was characterized as a rich fool because he was rich in the world’s goods, but not rich towards God.  And the other rich man was foolish as well, being rich in the world’s goods, but not rich towards God, and at his death finding his soul consigned to the torment of Hades.

Now in this account from real life this rich, young ruler comes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” He shows that he is a little more prudent than the other rich men Jesus has talked about previously through parables.  He may be rich, but he also recognizes that there is life beyond this world and he needs to make preparation for that eventuality.

I’m sure you are familiar with the story, so I don’t have time to exegete every detail this morning, but the end result of his discourse with Jesus was that he went away from that meeting sorrowful, because he had great riches, and it seemed to him that Jesus said he must be willing to sell it all and give it to the poor, and leave everything to follow Him.  The eternal life this rich young ruler was seeking could only gained by a willingness to forsake everything for the riches of Christ.  And he was not willing to forsake his great riches for Christ.

After the man left, Jesus turned to the disciples and spoke the following; “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Now that’s a pretty heavy statement.  And while most of us would protest that we aren’t rich, yet I would argue that depends on how you define rich.  And I think if we broadened our understanding of what it means to be rich in the world’s goods, we might find that we qualify as being rich in the eyes of God.  I would support that by saying that if salvation actually depended upon you selling your house, your cars, your stocks, emptying your bank account and giving it all away, then I’m afraid many of us would more than likely remain unsaved.  I wonder how many people would be willing to go to that extreme if that was the requirement for salvation.

The question arises though, was Jesus serious when He said that?  Or was He just using hyperbole? I’ve never heard a preacher speak about the dangers of riches without prefacing it repeatedly by saying there is nothing wrong with being rich, it’s just your attitude about riches that is the problem.  I’m not sure we can be so cavalier about it, to be honest.  In my experience, I think salvation is most certain when one comes to the end of themselves.  They are willing to surrender everything completely if God will just help them.  Riches are just one of many things that you can put before God  that can prevent you from coming to that point of complete surrender.

Well, the disciples were just as troubled by that statement that Jesus made as you might be.  Maybe more so, because they were taught that the way to righteousness was by giving alms to the temple and by giving alms to the poor.  And so for the rich it was much easier to give large sums of money than for others to do that.  These disciples were by nature hard working fisherman, and they didn’t have a lot of money.  So they thought if it was difficult for rich people to be saved, then it was going to be next to impossible for them.

So when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Now that statement gives us insight into the principle that salvation is not of men, not of merit, not of virtue, not of value, but salvation is of the Lord.  It is the gift of God. Salvation is by grace.

Now following on this statement Peter then said to Jesus, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”  He claimed that they had done what Jesus told the rich young ruler he had to do to be saved.  Peter says, we have left everything and followed you, what will be our reward?

And Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”

Again, Jesus reiterates the principle that giving up everything to follow Him is the key to receiving eternal life.  And the disciples, insomuch as they had given up everything to follow Christ, were going to not only get eternal life, but in the regeneration, in the new heavens and new earth,  receive dominion over the 12 tribes of Israel. 

But then Jesus summarizes that with a principle; “many who are first will be last; and the last, first.” Now that principle is the thesis for the parable which we are looking at today.  And it’s important to understand that is the central thought which Jesus is teaching in that parable.  I’ve heard and read others commentate on this parable and in the process extrapolate from it the doctrine of election, the sovereignty of God and so forth.  And I am sure those doctrines are illustrated to some degree in this parable.  But I don’t think they are the main point.  

And I can show further evidence for that because of the fact that this parable is bookended with this statement.  We have to remember that the chapter divisions are not inspired.  They were added by the translators quite a long time after the original writings.  And in this case, I think the chapter break does the passage harm.  Because if you disregard the chapter division, then you will see that the last verse of chapter 19 and the 16th verse of chapter 20 are virtually the same, Jesus just reversed the order.  And so the statement is both the introduction and the conclusion of the parable.

Let me read both of them for you, Matt. 19:30 “But many [who are] first will be last; and [the] last, first.” And then Matt. 20:16 “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”  It’s obvious to me that Jesus deliberately presented it this way so that the parable is an illustration of that principle which is repeated twice, at the beginning and at the end.  So as I have said previously, the best interpretation of a parable is one that Jesus Himself gives, and here He gives us this interpretation twice.

So now we know what the central principle of the parable is, but what does it mean? Well, let’s consider the parable which He gave to illustrate it, so that we might understand it.  

In this parable, the owner of the vineyard went out to search for laborers to harvest the fruit. When the grapes had ripened to the optimal point, it was important that they be harvested as quickly as possible. And so he needed many people to work before the grapes were past their prime.  As was the custom in that day, the laborers would gather in the marketplace early in the morning to wait for employers to come and hire them for the day. 

Jesus said at the first hour of the morning, about 6 am, he hired workers who agreed to work for the day for the wage of a denarius.  A denarius was the standard wage for a day’s work. As the day went on, he went back to the marketplace and hired another group, this time about 9am. Obviously, the work was in danger of not being finished in time, so the vineyard owner came back at 12 and hired some more and again at three.  To those groups he offered them work and said he would pay them what was right.  

Finally, the vineyard owner came back at the 11th hour which would be 5 o’clock.  There was only an hour left to work, but nevertheless after speaking with some workers who had been waiting all day and no one had hired them, the vineyard owner hired them as well.  

At the end of the day, as was customary in those times, the workers came together to be paid for their day’s labor.  The vineyard owner instructed his foreman, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.”  As the last group of workers came forward to get their wages they each received a denarius.  The workers from the 9th hour and the 6th hour and the third hour received a denarius as well.  When the workers from the first group received their denarius, they were angry that they received the same as the others.  They said, “‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.” 

But the vineyard owner replied, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?”

Now this parable is particularly prone to over interpretation. I think the point that Jesus is teaching is very simple.  But if you parse each detail and dissect all the dialogue, you can easily come up with more questions than you have answers.  I think the simplest answer is best, and that comes from remembering the context in which Jesus gave it.  And the simplest answer is found in light of the rich man being unwilling to leave everything to follow Jesus, and consequently not entering into eternal life, and the disciples leaving everything to follow  Jesus and entering into eternal life and being given authority in heaven.  In light of that, Jesus is simply saying that those who seem to be first in this life in regards to earthly goods and riches, whether financial or physical or even relationships, will be last in eternity.  And those who seem to be last in regards to earthly riches but are rich towards God will be first in eternity.

Now that’s what He is teaching in this parable.  And that is born out by Jesus’s summary remark in vs 16, “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”  Jesus started the parable by saying, “the kingdom of heaven is like…”  It is an illustration of the nature of the kingdom of heaven.  One aspect of the kingdom of heaven is illustrated here.  There may be other applications that can be made from this parable, but I would discourage drawing too many conclusions from some of the details of the story.  Because not all of them have a direct correlation to the nature of the kingdom.  Some of the details just help to make the story more relatable. But they are not necessarily included to be allegorical.

So we know the primary central thought of the parable and what Jesus was teaching.  But there can also be secondary points that are illustrated as well.  For instance, the principle that salvation is of grace is indicated in this passage to a certain degree. Grace is illustrated by the fact that the vineyard owner generously gave a denarius to those who had not worked a full day.  But we really have to break the parable in order to make sure that we don’t include works as a means of grace.  Paul said in Romans 4:4 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”  The word translated gift there is from the Greek charis, which is the word normally translated as grace.  So it’s difficult to use this parable as an illustration of grace when they are working for their wages, even if some only worked a few hours and others worked more.  So as all the laborers worked in the parable, they all got wages, and therefore it is not really a true representation of grace.

Another possible secondary interpretation is that which might be called dispensational. It might be possible to say that those under the law of Moses were the first, and those under the dispensation of grace would be the last.  And thus those attempting to enter into the kingdom through their works would come in last, and those who come under grace are those in first.  But again, the context doesn’t really support that idea.  When Jesus addresses the rich young ruler He tells him to keep the commandments if he wants to receive eternal life.  And when Peter speaks up about the disciples’ sacrifices, Jesus says that they will be given thrones over the 12 tribes of Israel.  All of that is very much Old Testament theology.  Not much is said there about grace.

Of course, we are saved by grace, the unmerited favor of God.  But grace is a by product of our surrender to Jesus as Lord.  Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Grace is the application of Christ’s righteousness to our account as a result of our confession of Jesus as Lord.  Paul says further in vs 13, “WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

The emphasis is on calling on Jesus as LORD. The principle of surrendering to the Lordship of Christ is the means of our salvation.  We don’t have to understand all the doctrines of grace or the doctrine of election, or the doctrine of substitutionary atonement in order to be saved.  We simply have to come to the end of ourselves, come to the end of our independence, our self reliance, the end of our rebellion and recognize Jesus as Lord.  He is God, He is the King of the kingdom of heaven.  From Him is life, from Him is every blessing and every good gift.  He is the source of our righteousness which makes us accepted into the kingdom of God.  

The Lordship of Christ exposes the problem with riches.  They are a means of our self reliance.  They are what keeps us from trusting completely in Him as the source of life, as the source of blessing. Every good gift comes from above. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  And when we forsake everything to follow Him, we find that He gives us everything that we need.  He is sufficient. He is the source of life in all it’s fullness and abundance. So we do not trust in riches or trust in the things of this world, even in the relationships of this world, even the love of this world, but we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not unto our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our path of life.

The problem is that we tend to put the world’s things first in our life and the Lord is given second place at best.  Jesus said that the first shall be last and the last first.  Jesus wants first place in our life and He will not accept second place.  The first and foremost commandment has not changed; “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.”  That is first place. If He has first place in your heart, then forsake everything and follow Him and you will receive eternal life.

In light of that, we really should do a spiritual inventory and ask oursevles, what do you value more than Christ? If you were told that you had to give up your riches, would you do so for the sake of Christ?  If you were told that you had to give up your career, would you do it for the sake of Christ?  How about giving up your family?  Would you give up your family for the sake of Christ? He must have the preeminence. He must have first place.

That’s why I think most people that are truly saved are people who have hit bottom. They have come to the end of themselves. They recognize the hopelessness of their situation.  They have nothing left to hold onto.  And so maybe it’s easier for them to give up everything for Christ.  But it’s hard for a man who is rich in the things of the world to enter into the kingdom of heaven. “It’s easier for a camel to  go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Those are heavy words, my friend, because we are told that the gate to the kingdom of heaven is narrow, and few there be that find it.  And for those who try to enter carrying all the things that they love from this world, they find that it is impossible to enter through the narrow gate while carrying those things.  A lot of people are pretty well satisfied with their life, but they want to add something to be certain that they will be received into heaven in the next life. So they come to God on the basis of adding to their riches.  I would ask you to consider what are you carrying this morning?  Perhaps you are like the rich young ruler, you are smart enough to know that there is an eternity, that there is a heaven, but are you willing to forsake everything in order to get in?  I pray that you are.

Paul said in Phil. 3:7-11 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,  and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith,  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;  in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”  

And that is what we all must do if we would inherit eternal life.  

In the first message of our series on the Parables of Jesus, I gave the following definition of a parable; Parables as Jesus used them are fictional illustrations taken from real life situations, which teach a spiritual lesson. Now by that definition, I do not think that the story we have in front of us today strictly qualifies as a parable.  And the reason I say that is because I don’t believe that it is fictional.  I think it’s an actual story about two real people.  I think that is evident because this is the only so called parable in which Jesus uses personal names of the people involved.  The rich man is not named, but Lazarus is, and so is Abraham.  I think these are real people, in a real life situation.  Furthermore, though by a somewhat lesser evidence, there is no qualifying statement which is sometimes found in other parables to identify it as such.  But that is a lessor qualification.  I think the primary reason for it to be a true life story is the use of personal names.

It’s comparable to me giving an illustration today in my message and I mention Nick and tell you some story about him, and then afterwards one of you comes up to me to ask some more information about what I had said.  Imagine if my response was “Oh, that’s not really true about Nick.  I just made it all up.”  I think you would find it very disconcerting that I had made up a story about Nick and presented it as true, but in fact it was not true.  And I think that is a good analogy for this story. Jesus presented it as a story concerning real people.  We certainly know that Abraham was a real person, and so it would be very odd if Jesus was to say certain things about him that were not true.  So I don’t believe it to be a parable in the sense that it’s a fictional story.

However, the purpose of an illustration is very similar to that of a parable. It is meant to be used as a mechanism by which to teach a lesson or a central doctrine.  As you know, I frequently use illustrations from real life in my preaching.  And so though today’s story is not a parable per se, in that it is not fictional, yet it serves a similar purpose, and so we will include it in this series.  Furthermore, most Christian literature considers it to be one of the foremost parables, so  I would be remiss if I didn’t include it.

But it’s important that we understand that this is a actual story from real life. It’s important because a lot of theologians have dismissed some important doctrines which this story illustrates, because it does not fit with their doctrines concerning eschatology or their doctrine of eternal punishment and so forth.  And they dismiss it because they say that this is a parable which Jesus made up, and therefore certain elements are not necessarily as He represented them.  I find that interpretation to be entirely unacceptable. The parables that Jesus gave were always founded in reality.  He wasn’t telling fables about mythical talking creatures. When Jesus gave a parable about a sower going out to sow, it was based entirely upon real situations.  Chances are there were sowers working on the hillside even as He spoke. But in any event, in an agrarian society such as they lived in, the basic elements of the story would have been one that they could readily identify with and understand because they were true to life.

So because this is a real life illustration with real events, it provides us with an important insights into the afterlife, particularly that time period which precedes the resurrection.  Now those insights are incidental to the central point of the illustration, but nevertheless they are important for us to consider.  But the central point of this illustration is to teach the eternal consequences of a life that is not rich towards God.  If you recall in our last parable, the central thought was the rich fool was rich in the world’s goods, but was not rich towards God.  And God required of him his soul.  This illustration builds on that by showing the eternal consequences of a life that is not rich towards God.

Let’s look then at the story.  There are two primary characters, the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.  They lived in close proximity to one another, and died in a similar time period. Jesus describes the rich man first.

19.“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.”  I find it interesting that this man is not named.  In his life on earth, he probably had a name that everyone knew, that everyone associated with wealth.  Maybe his last name was Rothschild or Dupont. I doubt it, but whatever his name was, in heaven it was not recorded in the book of life, and so his name is unimportant. He has no eternal legacy.

Now this man was very rich. How rich? He habitually dressed in purple, the clothing of royalty. Purple die was very expensive in those days and reserved for the finest fabrics you could buy. “Joyously living in splendor everyday.”  The KJV says that he fared sumptuously everyday.  So he ate expensive foods, not just occasionally, but everyday.  He lived in luxury, enjoying all that the best of life had to offer.

I just returned from a trip to the Keys.  And while I was there I took my morning run through the multimillion dollar neighborhoods, and walked in the evenings around the marinas where the rich docked their million dollar yachts.  It was hard not to be impressed by the luxurious lifestyle that it seemed a lot of people are able to enjoy.  One neighborhood which we could not even enter without a pass had it’s own private airfield so the residents could fly in and out on their private planes.  I was told the houses started at 10 million.  It’s hard to imagine being that rich.  This man lived an opulent, luxurious lifestyle.

I notice something else Jesus described about this guy.  He said he lived joyously.  Eat, drink and be merry.  I think if you’re rich it’s possible to find a certain degree of  joy, happiness in the pleasures of this world.  And the pursuit of that pleasure can eclipse any concern you might have about the after life, because you’re so busy pursuing pleasure right now.

At the polar opposite end of the social spectrum, Lazarus was a  beggar who it would seem was lame, possibly paralyzed.  He had to be laid at the rich man’s gate.  That became his spot, his only hope of getting food or financial help.  There wasn’t government programs in those days to take care of people in his kind of condition.  Possibly as a result of his paralysis, he was covered with sores and the dogs in the street would come up to an lick them, showing more concern for him than anyone else did, particularly the rich man.  Lazarus was unable to fend for himself.  He was eager to eat from the crumbs, the garbage really, that came from the rich man’s table.

Jesus indicated that both men died, presumably at very near the same time.  He describes it in this way, vs.22, “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.”

Not only was there a great contrast in the lives of these two men, but there is also a great contrast in their deaths.  The poor man, Lazarus died, and Jesus said that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.  According to Jewish tradition, Abraham’s Bosom was an rabbinical idiom which refers to the custom of reclining on couches at table, which was prevalent among the Jews, an arrangement which brought the head of one person almost into the bosom of the one who sat or reclined above him. To “be in Abraham’s bosom” thus meant to enjoy happiness and rest at the banquet in Paradise.  Abraham was considered the father of the faithful, and Lazarus then would be the son who has been gathered to his father’s, which is another common expression of the Old Testament saints concerning death.

I think a lot of commentators not only gloss over what Jesus said about this place, but also over the fact that Jesus said the angels carried Lazarus to Paradise.  I don’t  know if any of you remember the television show that used to be on about 20 years ago now, I think, called “Touched by an Angel.” I wasn’t particularly a big fan of the show.  I really am not a fan of any of Hollywood’s attempts at Christian themed movies or shows.  I’d rather not watch them, and would warn you  not allow your doctrine to be formed or influenced by Hollywood’s interpretation of the Bible.  But in that case, they may have gotten the idea correct that at the death of a saint, the angels of God are in attendance awaiting for the moment of their death. God knows the number of our days when as yet there were none of them, and He sends His messengers to attend us in those final moments, and they take our soul to Paradise. Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD [is] the death of his saints.”  There may not have been a funeral on earth for Lazarus, no one cared when he died, but God cared, and He ushered Lazarus’s soul to Paradise by a procession of angels.

That same angelic accompaniment is not mentioned for the unsaved dead.  Perhaps Satan sends his fallen angels to claim the souls of the unsaved dead.  We don’t know.  But since they are held captive by Satan in life, it may be that he interns their soul in death.  The sting of death after all is Satan’s weapon against man.  But that is speculation on my part.  Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly how it happens, only that the rich man ends up in torment in Hades.

The rich man, Jesus said, was buried.  No burial was mentioned for Lazarus. It would have been customary for the poor man to be unceremoniously buried in an unmarked grave or perhaps even his body thrown on the trash heap outside of town.  The rich man though I’m sure had a great funeral.  He had five brothers who still lived, and I’m sure that half the town turned out to mourn the loss of this rich man.  But as the accolades are being said concerning him, and the priest was undoubtedly telling everyone how wonderful he had been, at that very moment his soul was in torment in the flames of Hades.

As the rich man was in Hades, he looked up and saw Lazarus at Abraham’s side. Vs23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’”

Even in his death, even in torment, this rich man showed his true nature in the way that he wanted to use Lazarus to lessen his torment.  He had no regard for Lazarus in his life, and he obviously has no regard for Lazarus now.  And yet this poor man had been his neighbor, laying constantly at his gate, begging for food and for help.  It’s clear that the rich man knew Lazarus, even to the point of knowing his name. He must have despised him being outside of his fine home, of being a constant pest, a constant reminder of the frailty of the flesh.  And even after death, his contempt of Lazarus is evident in his asking Abraham to send him to serve himself.  It’s also a tragic irony that this man who was once rich and feasted lavishly everyday, is now begging for even a drop of water.

But Abraham denied his request.  Vs 25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.’” During his life, the rich man enjoyed every comfort that Lazarus had lacked. Now in an ironic twist of fate, their situations were  reversed.

Not only did Abraham deny his request to send Lazarus, but Abraham explained why it was impossible.  And in this response we gain some insight into what Hades is like.  Abraham says in vs 26 “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and [that] none may cross over from there to us.”

The traditional Jewish teaching was that Hades was the abode of the dead, where the souls of men await the resurrection.  In the Old Testament it’s called Sheol in Hebrew.  But in the Greek it’s called Hades.  As Jesus indicates in this story, Hades is comprised of two compartments, an upper and lower chamber.  The upper chamber is Paradise, or as Jesus calls it, Abraham’s bosom.  The lower part is the place of torment, which is generally referred to as Hades or hell.

The resurrection is not referenced here by Jesus, but in John 5:28 Jesus says this concerning the resurrection; “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,  and will come forth; those who did the good [deeds] to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil [deeds] to a resurrection of judgment.”  

Those two resurrections are talked about in Revelation 20, the resurrection to life, which is the resurrection of the saved, and the resurrection of the dead who are judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of Fire. But Jesus does not give us any information about the resurrection here, but only speaks concerning the intermediate abode of the dead in the time before HIs second coming.  And of that place we find most of our insight in this passage.  

I want to emphasize some things that we can learn from this description. In Paradise or in Hades, there is consciousness.  It is not soul sleep, it is body sleep.  The body sleeps until the resurrection, but the soul is alive and conscious. In the case of those in Paradise, they are gathered to their relatives who were saved and have died before.  There is a reunion of the saved who have died.  David said concerning his baby son who died, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”  In Paradise we will know and be known.  We will be recognizable in a way that may not be understandable now.  The soul must bear the imprint of the body to be recognizable.  Samuel was recognized when he came up from Paradise to speak to Saul. Moses and Elijah were recognizable at the transfiguration.  And so as well Abraham and Lazarus are recognized here in this story.

Furthermore, we learn that Paradise is a place of rest.  It is a place of comfort.  It is a place of communication. Hades as the compartment of torment on the other hand is just that, a place of torment.  It is a place of flames.  It is a place of thirst. But it too is a place of cognizance.  It too is a place of communication at least to some degree.  It is a place of remorse. And it is a place of recompense.  From other scriptures we know that it is not the final judgment nor the final punishment, but it’s the temporary abode of those who are doomed to eternal punishment by their deeds on earth.

And finally, as Jesus revealed by Abraham’s words, there is a great chasm between the two, that no one can cross.  That separation is fixed, and what is done is done.  There are no second chances. There is no way to escape once you are dead.  The only escape from Hades will be at the resurrection, but that will be only to make eternal that which was already evident, either a resurrection to a new body and a new life for those in Paradise, or to a resurrection of the dead which is the second death and eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire.

It really is a tragic, horrible end for those who are without the Lord.  We do ourselves or our loved ones no favors by ignoring the consequences of rejecting Christ.  Not everyone goes to heaven when they die and it’s a terrible lie to tell people that they do.  To give them a false hope.  The rich man probably didn’t really believe in the realities of eternity when he was alive on the earth.  But he certainly believed now.  And because he realized the reality of hell, the awfulness of his predicament, he wanted to save his family from joining him there.  Notice what he asks of Abraham in vs 27 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house–  for I have five brothers–in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’”

I give him credit for his compassion for his family.  He shows a lot more compassion than what he showed Lazarus during his life.  But it’s too late to save him.  And his request shows that his heart is still selfish, wanting Lazarus to do his bidding. By the way, the sin of the rich man that Jesus highlights that disqualifies this man from Paradise is the sin of not loving his neighbor as himself.  It’s not being rich.  It’s not being a drunkard or adulterer or any other number of moral failings.  The condemning sin which Jesus highlights Is the sin of not loving your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus was asked on one occasion what was the foremost commandment, and He answered, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” I think we all fail miserably in that.  We have all sinned against God by failing the foremost commandment and that alone is enough to condemn us to hell.  But then Jesus said the second greatest commandment is like it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.  And I am sure that we all have failed to keep that commandment.  That failure alone in God’s eyes is reason enough for eternal damnation. This rich man was guilty on both counts, but Jesus only highlights the second commandment, because it is evidence that he also failed in the first.

Jesus is not saying that we are saved by our works.  We are not saved by doing social work.  But what He is saying is that not loving your neighbor as yourself is evidence that you are not saved.  Our desire to keep God’s commandments are proof of our faith.  And the lack of evidence on this man’s part was proof that he was not a child of God.  

Well, Abraham’s answer to this man’s request to send Lazarus (once again you see the attitude of this man towards Lazarus even in Hades) to his brothers to tell them the gospel is denied. Vs 29 “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

The rich man recognized that his unsaved brothers needed a change of heart in order to be awakened to their state of spiritual peril.  And so the rich man asked for Lazarus to be sent to warn his five brothers so that they would not have to experience the same torment he was experiencing.

But Abraham said the  brothers already had the Old Testament writings, and it would accomplish nothing to send Lazarus to warn them. He said if their hearts were hardened against the warnings of Moses and the Prophets in the scriptures, then his brothers would not repent even if Lazarus were to rise from the dead and speak to them.

It’s ironic that there was another man named Lazarus who was a personal friend of Jesus.  And this Lazarus also died, but Jesus raised him from the dead.  The Bible records how many people would come to see Lazarus who had been raised from the dead, and though a few believed as a result of seeing him, for the most part the vast multitudes did not believe.  They looked upon it as a curiosity.  But they did not believe unto salvation.

In the same way, those among Jesus’ listeners whose hearts were hardened toward God’s Word would refuse to repent and believe even after Jesus was raised from the dead.  But the warning of this story should be  clear: now is the time to repent and to secure our eternal

security.  Because once we die, it’s too late.  Now is the day of salvation.  Now is the opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ for our righteousness so that we might be saved.

And for those of us who have believed unto salvation, if we really loved our neighbor as ourselves as we are commanded to do, then should we not do everything we can to introduce them to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might not go to eternal punishment, but that they might be received into life? If we truly believed what Jesus said concerning death, then certainly that must be our mission in life, to win our neighbors and loved ones to Christ.  Let us not be so preoccupied pursuing the pleasures of this world that we fail to prepare for the next.

Today we are beginning a series on the parables of Jesus.  This is a deviation of sorts from the way in which I normally  preach.  I have never actually done a series before in 15 years of preaching.  I always rely on what is called expositional preaching, which takes a book of the Bible and then goes through it verse by verse, and chapter by chapter.

But even though I will be doing a series, I will still be using an expositional style.  I’m not going to start doing topical messages where you bounce all around in the Bible trying to find texts to support your thesis.  But we will continue to study the word to determine what the Holy Spirit is saying in that passage.

Now that being said, that brings us to the purpose of parables.   Traditionally, Bible scholars used to approach parables like interpreting an allegory.  They sought to discover all the possible hidden meanings in every word.  But that isn’t how a parable should be considered.  If you follow that line of reasoning, then you end up deducing all kinds of erroneous observations.

An early church figure by the name of John Chrysostom is quoted as saying, “It is not right to search curiously, and word by word, into all things in a parable; but when we have learned the object for which it was composed, we are to reap this, and not to busy ourselves about anything further.”

The way a parable was intended by Christ was to teach usually one major doctrine or principle. Sometimes there can be more than one, but generally speaking we should try to discern the major central thought that is being presented.  Sometimes that is given to us in the scripture.  Sometimes it is given in an interpretation.  And sometimes it is left up to us to figure out.

But that brings us to another aspect of parables.  And that is that generally speaking they are illustrations.  When a speaker gives a speech, he will often use an illustration to help explain a point that he is making.  And that is primarily the purpose that Jesus uses as well.  But I’m afraid that oftentimes today the illustrations that are used in a sermon are not employed to make a point more understandable.  But oftentimes they seem to have little relevance to the main point of the message at all.  They are often just sentimental stories that are given to break up the monotony of the sermon.  After the sermon, people often remember an illustration, but couldn’t tell you what the scripture was.

Jesus, however, is the master of the message, and thus a master of the parable.  Parables as Jesus used them are fictional representations taken from real life situations, which teach a spiritual lesson.  He spoke as one with authority.  Consequently, even His enemies said about Him in John 7:47, “No one ever spoke like this man!”  And we know that to be true because Jesus was the very incarnation of truth.  He was the incarnation of the word of God.  And so what He said was from God.

The word parable is from the Greek word “parabole” which means to come alongside.  We see the root of that word in our language today, with words such a parallel, or paralegal.  A parable, then, is given alongside teaching in order to illustrate a concept or clarify meaning.  

But there is another purpose of a parable, and that is it can also be used to conceal a meaning. It is given to provide a principle or doctrine to those with understanding, but to conceal it to those who cannot understand.  For instance, in Mark 4:9 Jesus concluded the parable of the sower by saying,  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Now why would someone say that?  

The answer becomes more apparent in the Greek.  The Greek word for obedience is “hupakoue” – which includes “akoue” – the word translated as hearing.  So when Jesus says “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” He is saying not just to hear the words that are being

said, but to understand and obey his teaching.  To hear and to obey.

So to those who have ears to hear, parables bring a deeper understanding of the things of God resulting in obedience. But to those who do not have ears to hear, parables are instruments of concealing and obscuring the mystery of the kingdom of God. God’s word brings either salvation or condemnation upon the hearer.  So Jesus’ use of parables reflects his two-fold mission of salvation and judgment upon the world.  As Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-35, I have come not to bring peace but a sword.  Jesus is both the cornerstone of the church and a rock of stumbling and offense to those who reject the truth. He offers salvation to all who believe, and judgment upon those who do not. And His use of parables accomplishes both or either of those objectives. 

Now today we are looking at the first parable in our series, which may be called the Parable of the Unjust Judge. Sadly, we live in a fallen world.  And in this fallen world we find ourselves victims of hatred, of oppression, of persecution, of lies, slander and even worse crimes.  Our recourse in society is to go to the courts, to a judge, which can help us get justice.  But as is indicated in this parable by Jesus, not all judges appointed by man are people of good character.  In fact, often times such unjust judges are corrupt and out for personal gain.

As we have already said, the purpose of the parable is to teach or illustrate one central principle. And to our great advantage, this parable begins with the Holy Spirit  telling us that central principle.  The key to the parable is hanging on the doorknob, so to speak.  In vs 1, it says, “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  So at the outset, Luke reveals the goal of the parable of the unjust judge.  Jesus tells this parable so that the listeners “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” This parable teaches the value of persistent prayer in the midst of difficulty and trouble.

In order to teach this principle of the effectiveness of persistent prayer, Jesus tells the story of a widow who had no one to protect her against her adversary.  In the culture of that day, a widow was practically helpless.  Without a husband, she had very little rights.  She had very little opportunity for work in that society.  Jesus tells the story of a widow who had been treated

unjustly, and whose only hope was to find justice at the hands of the judge.  This would have been a civil judge.  But as a widow would more than likely have no property or resources to persuade or influence the judge, he had little interest in helping her.

The Bible teaches that we are sort of like this widow.  We have an adversary who is the devil. 1Peter 5:8 says,  “Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  We have no resources with which to fight him on our own.  Our only hope is to go to God, the righteous judge, and plead for help from Him.

In this story, the widow went to plead her case before a judge who does not fear God nor regard man.  Notice that description by Jesus in vs 2, “there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.”  He was guilty of breaking the greatest commandment, to love God, and the second commandment, to love your neighbor.  Obviously, this judge was not concerned about justice.  And that was probably a familiar situation in that day, especially in the case of Roman courts.  The judges were notorious for accepting bribes and getting paid off to render a sympathetic judgment.  That’s why I said the widow was particularly helpless and of little interest to the judge.  Because widows typically were without financial resources.  That’s why James 1:27 tells us as Christians to visit the orphans and widows.  Two groups of people in that society particularly that were socially and financially bankrupt and without resources.

Even today in our society, I am afraid, we have seen a decline in the character of sitting justices in America.  Many of them seem more than willing to give favor to an agenda and interpret the law for the sake of their political party.  But justice should not play favorites. It should not reinterpret the law. It should not use unbalanced scales.

But this widow doesn’t give up, even though the judge is disinterested.  She is persistent.  Vs 3, “she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.”  Jesus indicates here the value of persistence, of perseverance in prayer.  I think that is really the central point that He is making. After all, Luke identifies that thought as the central teaching of this parable saying in vs 1, Jesus “was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  So her persistence in coming back to the judge is the principle that is applicable to effective prayer.

I’ve read a lot of commentaries about this parable, and some of them want to restrict this prayer to only a prayer that Jesus will return.  In other words, the persistent prayer that Jesus wants us to make is the prayer for the second coming.  And they derive that idea from the last verse, vs 8, which says, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” So they say that this prayer is limited to eschatological prayer.  But I think that unnecessary restricts this parable.  I don’t think that Jesus is trying to narrow it down like that.  The widow is pleading for protection from her adversary.  That would indicate that our prayers for anything by which we feel we are being attacked, or unjustly treated, or anything which we have no defense against, would come under the same category as the widow’s appeal.

Notice it was her not the content of her pleading that was the deciding factor, but the persistence of her pleading that won her case.  It says in vs 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’”  Her continually coming to him wore him out.  Her persistence was the key, not her plea. 

When the widow first sought the judge’s help, he refused to help her. Even when the judge refused to help her a second time, she would not take “no” for an answer. But because of her persistence, her continually coming to Him, the judge finally grew weary and granted her request.  The original language of the text literally says she will give him a black eye.  Her persistence is buffeting the judge.  She is going to war with the judge.  It reminds us of Jacob wrestling with the Lord until dawn saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” That kind of persistence in prayer is rewarded.

Charles Spurgeon said about this principle of persistence in prayer; ““Too many prayers are like boy’s runaway knocks, given, and then the giver is away before the door can be opened.” I used to love knocking on doors and then running away as a kid.  Nowadays, you can’t play that game.  They are going to catch you on their webcam on their porch.  But persistence is the key to opening the door.

Now the other key to understanding this parable is by recognizing that it shows a contrast between how human judges behave and how God behaves.  It is not teaching us that we have to keep coming to God because He is like the unjust judge and doesn’t really care about our problems.  But Jesus is showing a contrast between an unrighteous judge and God. If the unjust judge answers the widow’s request, how much more will the righteous judge, our God and Father, answer us when we call upon Him.  It’s a contrast of extremes, not of similarities.

We live in a society as Americans when we are always concerned about our rights. Unfortunately we are seeing our rights being taken away at an unprecedented pace over the last year or so. We would hope that our justice system would stand up for our rights and protect them, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case more often than not.  But even if God’s people are exploited and treated unjustly, we are not to seek vengeance upon those that take advantage of us.  Romans 12:19 says  “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 

There is coming a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, when God will right all wrongs. When God will judge every thought, and every act.  God will judge the judges.  God will judge the rulers, the authorities of this earth.  We are assured in scripture that day is coming.  And in that way I concur with the interpretation I mentioned earlier that says we are told here to pray for the second coming.  Certainly we should.  And we can look forward to seeing justice served on that day, especially if we did not see it in our lifetime.

If you do a word search in the Bible for the phrase “how long” you will find 131 references, many of them in the form of a prayer.  It was a frequent question of the Psalmists.  For instance listen to David in Psalm 13:1-2, “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, [Having] sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”  And we see it expressed in Revelation as the martyred Christians who were persecuted unto death cry to the Lord, “how long” until they are revenged.  Rev. 6:10 “and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Not every appeal to our Heavenly Father will be answered in our timing.  But every prayer will be answered in God’s timing. God will repay.  Many of us wonder during our days at the injustice in the world.  We wonder about the cheating and the corruption in our political system. In a sense our politicians are our judges. They decide our laws.  They interpret our laws and apply or dismiss our laws according to their own corrupt desires.  We seem to have no leverage to do get any justice.  We feel helpless.  But we must not take our own revenge. But as Romans 12:19 says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God,] for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.”

In the book of Exodus, God reveals Himself as the one who hears the prayers of His suffering people and liberates them from bondage.  They cried out to the Lord for 400 years before He brought about their deliverance. The exodus from Egypt is a foretaste of the greater exodus in the New Testament, when God delivers His people from the world, the flesh, and the devil. But  we haven’t seen that deliverance completed as of yet. However, we are assured that it is coming. We still live in the flesh and in the world and the devil still goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  

So we pray, we pray consistently, we pray persistently, and we know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who intercedes on our behalf and who has broken the power of sin and the  devil. And so we are confident that He hears us and He will help us in our time of need.  But as the text I quoted from Revelation should show, and history shows, we may not always see that deliverance in the time and manner that we would like.  We may be persecuted and even die for our faith.  We may pass from this earth without ever being vindicated from our enemies and injustices.  But Jesus promises that we will prevail with God, because He loves us as His children and their is no injustice with God.

Jesus taught us this parable so that we would persevere in prayer and not lose heart. To lose heart is to be discouraged, to give up hope.  I’m afraid that a lot of Christians lose heart because they don’t get the answer to their prayers, and consequently lose faith in God.  Jesus indicates that  in vs 8,  “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  I think that indicates that when Jesus comes again, there will be some who have become discouraged, who have given up hope in seeing a divine resolution to their problems, and consequently have strayed from the faith.  Since they feel the Lord won’t help them, they then take whatever natural means they could find to get a resolution to their problems.  But our task is to remain faithful.  To trust God. To persevere even when we don’t get the response we are looking for.

But Jesus’s own language seems to lend itself to the idea of a quick  response to our prayers.  Notice in vs 7 He says, “now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”  And in vs 8, there is another indication of a quick response; “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

And I can only believe that Jesus spoke twice about the Lord’s quick response to prayer in order to give us hope that we may receive an answer while we are still living.  David, the psalmist, who constantly cried out to God in prayer, “O Lord, how long!” How long will You keep silent?  How long will you turn away from me?  How long until you answer me? That same David also prayed in Psalm 27:13, “I would have despaired] unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”  

Thank God that Jesus included those phrases in the parable.  But what seems quick or timely to us is not always quick and immediate in the plan of God.  Jesus said, “I come quickly.” But it’s two thousand years now and He still hasn’t come back.  But God also knows that we are but flesh. He knows that we have immediate needs.  And He will help us in real time when it serves the will of God to do so. Our responsibility is not to dictate to God the terms, ours is just to plead our case with persistence until He gives us an answer.  

Yesterday I heard a song on some radio station by the late Janis Joplin.  Most of you probably know who she was, but if not, she was a very famous rock singer from the sixties.  She sang with a rather bluesy, barroom style.   The song that I heard on the radio was “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz.”  I think she did it all acoustic. 

If you haven’t ever heard the song, it is an irreverent prayer done in song, in which she asks the Lord for three things; a Mercedes-Benz, a color tv, and a night on the town.  The song was recorded in one take, and she performed it live that night on October 1st, 1970. That was the last song she recorded. Three days later she died from a heroin overdose.  

I’m sure that she sang the song as an irreverent kind of joke.  She probably didn’t seriously consider it a prayer.  But the fact is, that she asked the Lord for the wrong thing.  She never got her requests answered  and if she had, it really wouldn’t have changed anything.  She probably would still have died from an overdose. But she should have asked the Lord for eternal life. That’s a prayer that God promises to answer.  The Bible promises that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That prayer for Jesus to save is one that is guaranteed an answer.  And it is one that will last eternally.

God is not a genie at our beck and call.  We aren’t told to ask for three wishes and He will make them come true. There isn’t some magic incantation that we can recite that assures us of the answer that we want.  John said that if we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us. And God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance.  

If you are here today and you have never been saved then that is the prayer that you need to pray.   You must come to God in repentance and faith, realizing you are lost and helpless, and your only hope is in Jesus Christ, and call upon Him to save you.  And He will do it.  You can be born into the kingdom of God, and all the blessings that come from salvation.  He is waiting and willing  for you to call upon Him.  I pray that you don’t wait, for today is the acceptable day of salvation.  

Last week I remarked about how Paul in his imprisonment is believed to have had a guard chained to him at all times. And I made note of the fact that the scripture says that as a result of being in close proximity to Paul for many hours every day, every day of the week, for two years, many of the Praetorian guard became believers in Christ. And I posed the question to you, that those who are in close proximity to you in work or in some endeavor that you are a part of, would they end up becoming a Christian on the basis of your testimony to them for all those hours you spend together?

Well, in this passage, we see more people that were a part of the Apostle’s daily life while he was in prison. Now this was a prison, yet not like what we might think of today. It was his own rented quarters, a private house, but in which he was imprisoned and unable to leave. But it’s evident that he was able to receive visitors there, and perhaps some of them were even able to stay in the house.

So Paul actually had a church in his prison. And that should serve to be a reminder to us, that the church is not a building, it’s not an organization. The church does not consist of a lot of programs or special events. You know, we sometimes see people leave our church because they want more of what they think the church is supposed to be. And a lot of times it’s something like a church that has a good youth group program, or children’s ministry. Or they claim they are looking for a way to be involved in a church that has resources like financial or marriage counseling that are better suited to their talents.

But here in Paul’s prison church we see that the church is just people that are committed to Christ, that are committed to one another, and are committed to the spread of the gospel. Now if you remember in this epistle back in chapter 3, Paul made an appeal to the Colossians to be the church, saying “since you have been raised up with Christ,” or since they had received new life in Christ, keep your focus on things above and not things on earth. And then Paul gives a series of practical admonitions of how we are to live now as the church.

The church is made up of Christians. We are the church. And so though this section might easily be dismissed as just a series of personal greetings and so forth, I think Paul might also be displaying a group of people from his church, who were living illustrations of what it means to be the church of Christ, whose focus are on things above, and not the things of this earth.

So I want to try to take each person that Paul mentions here, and give each a vignette of sorts which I hope will show their ministry to the church, which should serve as a model for the church today.

Paul’s first mention is a man named Tychicus. He is a man with a servant’s heart. Paul says in vs 7, “As to all my affairs, Tychicus, [our] beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information.”

The name Tychicus means fortunate. And he was certainly fortunate because of the time that he spent with the apostle Paul. He’s mentioned in five different places in scripture, and each time only very briefly. But from these references we can determine that Tychicus was a faithful servant of Paul throughout his ministry.

We hear initially about Tychicus in Acts 20. Paul is collecting offerings from the churches in Macedonia for the saints in Jerusalem. And he is joined by Tychicus in his journey. In those days journey’s such as this were quite difficult affairs. You couldn’t just book a ticket on an airline. Such journeys often took months. But Tychicus left his home and family to travel with Paul, perhaps to provide security for Paul. I get the feeling that Tychicus was a very capable man, physically speaking as well as spiritually. We see Tychicus making many such trips in which he safeguarded something valuable and important for the churches. He had to travel through all kinds of terrain, over the sea, in all kinds of weather, sleeping often out in the open at night, on guard against all kinds of robbers and thieves who preyed upon the traveler.

We see him again in Titus 3:12. Paul sends him to Titus, possibly to relieve Titus as a substitute pastor while Titus visits Paul in Nicopolis. (Nick Demopolis’s hometown) That shows that not only was Tychicus very capable physically, but he was capable spiritually as well. He is able to sub for the pastor, Titus.

And in 2 Timothy 4:12, we see a similar situation with Timothy. Paul wants Timothy to come to him and bring his cloak and parchments, and he sends Tychicus to hold down the fort for Timothy. This is probably near the end of Paul’s life, and we can see that Tychicus has obviously matured as a Christian, from just a man with a servant’s heart, to a man that could take the pulpit so to speak from a person such as Timothy who was Paul’s prodigy and who would take up the mantle of Paul when he was gone.

The first time that Paul was in prison in Rome is when he writes the letter to the Colossians. And Tychicus has been with Paul at that point about 4 years. And Paul indicates in this epistle that he is going to send this letter by Tychicus. But it wasn’t just this letter, but it’s also believed that he carried the letter to the Ephesians as well as the epistle to Philemon. Just imagine the importance of that trip. Three of the Bible’s epistles were under the care and guardianship of Tychicus. Not only does that indicate a servant’s heart, but a faithful man. A man that would not let anything stop him or deter him. I can’t help but think of this guy as a former soldier who had been converted and discipled by Paul. I cannot prove that of course. But I look forward to meeting this guy one day in heaven. He was a tough, very capable, disciplined, determined and faithful soldier of Christ who Paul leaned on quite heavily. Thank God for men like Tychicus.

Paul calls him a beloved brother, a faithful servant and a fellow bond servant in the Lord. That’s a pretty high commendation. In 1Cor. 4:2 Paul speaks of a servant of Christ being a steward, one to whom is entrusted something, and he says in that passage, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” There is no higher commendation that a man is found to be faithful.

The second man mentioned here is Onesimus. Paul says he that accompanying Tychicus on this journey is Onesimus, vs. 9, “and with him Onesimus, [our] faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your [number.] They will inform you about the whole situation here.” Onesimus is a man with a sinful past. Now all of us have sinful pasts. But if we have been raised up with Christ, then our old past should be in the past, and all things have become new. Onesimus had a past, but he became a new creation who God can use in His kingdom.

Now if we know who Onesimus is, then we can understand why Tychicus is bringing a letter to Philemon as well as to the church at Ephesus and Colossae. If you have read the letter to Philemon, then you know the story. Onesimus was the slave of Philemon who it would seem had stolen something and ran away from Philemon. That was an offense that in those days was punishable by death. But as providence would have it, Onesimus ended up in Rome, and somehow or another ended up being led to Christ by the apostle Paul.

Now when Paul learned of Onesimus’s background, he realized the connection, because Paul had also led Philemon to the Lord. And furthermore the church at Colossae met at Philemon’s house. That indicates that he was a wealthy man as he would have the biggest house suitable for holding church. Somehow in his journey’s Paul had led Philemon to the Lord because he says in the letter, “you owe to me even your own self as well.” So in the letter, which Onesimus and Tychicus are delivering, are instructions for Philemon to forgive Onesimus, and whatever he owed Philemon from the theft, to charge it to Paul’s account.

What is also very interesting is that there is a letter that has been found which is written by Ignatius, one of the early church fathers just after the death of the apostles, and he is writing to the church at Colossae, in which he mentions the pastor of their church, who is none other than Onesimus. Imagine that. A former runaway slave, a criminal, who repents and is restored to his master, and eventually ends up becoming the pastor of the church there at Colossae. What a wonderful testimony of the grace of God upon sinners, that He is able to make all things new, and use even the least of us as examples of His grace.

Next, Paul mentions a man named Aristarchus, who he describes as my fellow prisoner. We might say about Aristarchus as a man with a sympathetic heart. Now Aristarchus’ name appears elsewhere in the New Testament in association with the town of Thessalonica. Aristarchus is mentioned about 5 times in scripture. You might remember on one occasion he was with Paul in Ephesus, and he and Gaius were arrested. It seems quite likely that Aristarchus continued with Paul in his ministry because the next time we see him he is boarding the ship with Paul on his way to Rome. If so, that could be the reason Paul calls him his fellow prisoner. It would seem that he continued with Paul throughout his imprisonment, and he did so because he was sympathetic towards Paul, and wanted to share his burden. He was willing to forego his own liberty to help Paul spread the gospel.

The fourth man Paul mentions is a man whom we might say is given a second chance. Really that is true about all Christians, but we see it illustrated here particularly in the case of Mark. He describes him as “Barnabas’s cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him).”

You may remember Mark who went with Paul and Barnabas on missionary journey and somewhere along the way he decided he wanted to go back home. We don’t know the reason but it may have been loneliness or just missing home. He was a young man. Later, when Barnabas wanted to take Mark along on another missionary trip, Paul wouldn’t hear of it, because he considered Mark a deserter.They ended up getting in such a disagreement about it, that Paul and Barnabas split up, with Barnabas taking along Mark on a missions trip, and Paul taking Silas on another.

Well, by the time of this letter some time has passed, and it’s obvious that Mark has matured as a Christian and is now reconciled to Paul. In fact, later on Paul will say in 2 Timothy 4:11, “Take Mark and bring him with you, for he’s profitable to me for the ministry.” That was near the end of Paul’s life. But what is also very interesting is that somewhere along the way Mark became a prodigy of Peter. And after years of spending time with Peter God used Mark through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write the Gospel of Mark.

So it should be very encouraging for us to see that God is the God of second chances. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful. God is a God of reconciliation, and He has chosen to use us, the weak things, to do mighty things for Him.

Another man is mentioned here in this closing passage by Paul. One that I’m sure you have never heard of. In vs 11, speaking of the coming of Mark Paul adds, “and [also] Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.”

I suppose that they called him Justus rather than Jesus because he did not consider himself fit to be called Jesus. Even though in Hebrew Jesus was Joshua and it was a fairly common name. But interestingly, the name Justus means righteous. So we have some indication from his name that this was a man who was committed in his faith. And that is what we might say concerning Justus, he was a man with a strong commitment.

Now what gives us that idea is that Paul says Justus and Mark and Aristarchus are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision. What that indicates is that they were the only Jewish men who were working with Paul. Whenever Paul went into a new area he always began by ministering to the Jewish community. And it took a lot of commitment for a Jewish man to leave his people and all the heritage and traditions of the Jewish religion and follow someone like Paul. It would seem that only these three men were all that had come out from among the Jews. And Paul says that they were a source of encouragement to him.

Let’s look at the next person, Epaphras. Vs. 12 “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.” We might say that Epaphras was a man of single purpose.

Epaphras was the pastor of the church at Colossae. He had come to Rome to tell Paul the trouble that the false teachers were teaching to the Colossians. And Paul is writing this letter to the Colossians in answer to what Epaphras has told him. Epaphras is going to stay awhile longer and spend more time with Paul. So Paul says he sends his greeting.

Notice that Paul says this pastor is always laboring for them in his prayers. A pastor should be a man of prayer and always be lifting up his people before the Lord. Furthermore, this pastor is concerned that they become mature in their faith. He is not just interested in filling an auditorium or even with just making converts. But he is concerned that they know the will of God and are completed in their faith. Not remaining infants, but mature. That’s the hallmark of a godly pastor. To disciple and shepherd his church.

He says in vs 13, “For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.” That word translated as a deep concern is more literally translated as much toil or great pain. His concern over his church is such that it causes him pain, he suffers because of his deep concern for the church. And that’s why he labors so intensely in prayer. He contends with God in prayer for his church. That’s the kind of leadership we see in a man like Moses who regularly went to bat for his people before the Lord, even to the point of wishing that he might be accursed in their place. Paul said the same thing about his countrymen. That’s the purpose of a pastor, to see His people come to maturity in Christ.

The next one Paul mentions is Luke. Now he should be a familiar figure to us all. Paul says in vs 14, “Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings.” Luke was a physician. He attended to Paul. Paul, we believe, had problems with his eyes. Some say that it was the result of the Damascus road experience. Some say that the situation with his eyes might have been the thorn in the flesh that he asked God to take from him three times, and God did not. But God did give Dr. Luke to be a companion of Paul, to minister to him. God gave Paul his own personal physician.

Luke is a great illustration of a man who had a talent to offer to God. And he gave his talent to God, and God took his talent and gave him back a gift that was much greater. He gave up his practice in medicine, but he gained the privilege of being used by the Holy Spirit to write two of the books of the New Testament; the gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts. The gift that this man gave to the church, not just of that period, but for over 2000 years is something that cannot be compared to whatever fortunes that he might have given up for the sake of following Christ.

The last guy that Paul mentions is Demas. Demas was a man that seemed to be in good standing at that time, but in fact he had a sad future. In 2 Timothy 4:9, Paul says to Timothy, “Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Demas abandoned Paul because he fell in love with the world. Demas is like a lot of people in the church today. They hang in for a while, they are around for a while, but they end up loving this present world more than they love God. It’s a life in contrast to chapter 3 vs 1, “since you have been raised up with Christ, then keep seeking the things above. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” But for so many people like Demas, the things of this earth have a greater allure and they end up turning back to this present world and forsake the things of God. Perhaps Demas never was saved, we don’t know. But he certainly made a bad trade, giving up the eternal rewards of heaven for the temporary pleasures of this world.

Paul closes the letter in vs 15 saying, “Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house. When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter [that is coming] from Laodicea. Say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.’ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.

Notice that the church at Laodicea met at the house of Nympha. Laodicea was a neighboring town, sort of like Bethany is to Rehoboth. So there was a house church in Laodicea that met int he house of Nympha. We saw earlier that same situation in Colossae, where they met at the house of Philemon. Now neither Nympha nor Philemon are pastors, but they probably were wealthy enough to have a large house which served as the meeting place for the church. But even with a large house, it’s doubtful that these churches had more than 75 people or so in their congregation. Probably a lot less than that.

I think that Christianity today has gotten the wrong idea of what a church should look like. It’s evident from biblical history that those churches were small, intimate groups of people meeting together and serving one another in house churches. Today the church in America for the most part is the polar opposite. Pastors don’t even know the majority of their congregations names. Paul indicates an intimate knowledge of the people in his church and those churches that he had visited. And I think that kind of relationship is important if you are going to make diisciples, and fulfill the completion of their spiritual maturity as Epaphras was praying for his church.

The last person we should question is who is Archippus mentioned in vs17? Paul says to him, “Take heed of the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it.” In Philemon we read, “To the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.” Commentators believe that Apphia was Philemon’s wife and Archippus was Philemon’s son. Now Paul calls him a fellow soldier, but that may not be a reference to the military, but to a calling of God on his life to go into the ministry. And that seems to agree with the context of Colossians where Paul says take heed of the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. Paul is encouraging him to continue to follow the Lord’s leading in his life. To continue to fulfill the ministry which God has given him to do. And in a prophetic sense, he is encouraging you and I to fulfill our ministry which we have been given in the Lord.

All of the people here mentioned at the close of this letter have a ministry. Most of them seem to be fulfilling it. Demas did not. He deserted. Mark deserted for a while as well, but he came back and accomplished great things for God. Archippus is just starting out it would seem. And Paul is encouraging him to complete his ministry, to fulfill it.

We are the church. We are the people God has chosen for ministry in this community. I hope you know what ministry you have been called to fulfill. We have all been called to be ministers of the kingdom of God, ambassadors of Christ. I urge you by the Spirit of God to be found faithful in completing your ministry. And if you are found faithful in the little things, then God will entrust you with greater things. I pray for each of you today, take heed of the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it.

Our speech is indicative of what we believe. Jesus said in Matt. 15:18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.” Your heart is revealed by your speech. There used to be a saying that I heard when I was growing up, which was the way to a man’s heart is through his mouth. I guess that was an inducement to young ladies that if they wanted to land a husband, they needed to be able to cook a good meal. I think that sort of thinking is out of vogue now. Nowadays, they just need to know how to text some nice restaurant and they can have it delivered.

But what Paul is indicating here in this passage before us is that which is in the heart comes out of the mouth. And if we have a new heart, since we are a new creation in Christ, we should be characterized by a new type of speech.

James speaking of the speech says in James 3:11 “Can a fountain send out from the same opening [both] fresh and bitter [water?]” Our new lives ought to reflect a new way of speaking, a new pattern of speech. And so this brief section of scripture here at the end of this little epistle is about this new speech that we should have in this new life we have in Christ.

Now there are four patterns of speech, or four areas of speech that Paul talks about here which should be emblematic of our new life in Christ. And the first is what we might call the speech of prayer. That’s found in vs 2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Prayer should be the primary element in our speech as we live out this new life in the Spirit. Prayer is spiritual communication with God. And if we are “in Christ” and we are to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh, then it stands to reason that we are in constant communication with God. He is the Master and Commander of our lives, and if we are to live as He would have us live, in His power, then we must be in constant communication with Him.

I cannot imagine deliberately sinning, or preparing to sin, and praying beforehand, can you? Prayer precludes sin. If you are tempted to sin, and someone asks you to pray, you would have to be so convicted that it would prevent you from continuing in that sin. Prayer is a preventive. Jesus said in Matt.26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

And prayer is a restorative. When you sin, you have the immediate recourse to prayer and cleansing and restoration. 1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And furthermore, you might say that prayer is a preparative. It prepares you to walk by the Spirit, so that you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. It prepares you to receive the power to do the will of God.

Now Paul speaks here of a devotion to prayer. Devote can be translated to mean to continue, to persevere, to constantly engage in. It’s to have a constant attitude of prayer. 1Thess. 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.” And Eph 6:18 says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” We should constantly be in communication with the Lord who is the source of our life. It’s the primary speech pattern of the new life.

I think prayer is the most under appreciated aspect of the Christian life. And it’s also probably the most misunderstood. Let me clarify something else about prayer. Prayer is not speaking in tongues in an unknown language to God, where you have no idea what you have said. That makes no sense whatsoever. It’s not the Holy Spirit praying through your lips. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need your lips to communicate to the Father. Prayer must be articulate, it must be intelligent. Prayer must be meaningful. Prayer is not meaningless repetition. Jesus said in Matt. 6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” So this idea that speaking in tongues is prayer to God is just not biblical. At it’s best it is meaningless repetition that means nothing to you and consequently accomplishes nothing with God.

Paul says continue or devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it. In the KJV it says keeping watch in prayer. Some theologians have said that word “watch” refers to looking for the second advent of the Lord, or the second coming of Christ. The idea of watching is sometimes associated in scripture with Jesus Christ coming back. That expectation should certainly color our lives. It should be something we expect to happen at any time. We should live in the constant expectancy and hope that today might be the day that the Lord returns.

But I don’t think that is what Paul means when he says keep alert or keep watch. I think it goes back to what Jesus said which I quoted before from Matthew 26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” I think keep watching in prayer or keep alert in prayer is reminiscent of Peter’s admonition in 1Peter 5:8 “Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Be on the alert in prayer, because it is the Lord who will deliver you from the jaws of the lion. We don’t see the devil, but we can be on the alert for his schemes through prayer.

And our prayers to that effect should be coupled with thanksgiving, Paul says. Now that does not mean that we dutifully check off a list of things we thank God for so we can then move on to our petitions. But what it does indicate is that thankfulness precludes envy and dissatisfaction. If we remind ourselves of what we have to be thankful for, then we are less likely to find ourselves dissatisfied and grumpy about what lot our lives have been given. Even in the midst of troubles and trials and tribulations, Paul found plenty to be thankful for. Remember he is writing this epistle from prison, while in chains. And yet he starts the epistle in chapter one vs three saying, “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.” We need to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness, regardless of our immediate circumstances. So the new life should be characterized by new speech which continues in prayer.

The second attribute of speech in this new life is the speech, not of prayer, but verse 3 and 4, the speech of proclamation. “praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”  Twice you see the word “speak.”  Once you see the phrase, “the word.”  Once you see the word “clear.”  And all of those words have to do with of the speech of proclamation. 

Notice that Paul says pray that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is simply the gospel. Our new speech in this new life should be that which speaks forth the gospel as revealed by the word. We are ministers of the word. You are ministers, not in the sense of a pastor, but in the sense of an official, an ambassador of the kingdom of God. It’s important that you know the word. It’s important that you are able to proclaim the word. To share the word.

Paul wrote something very similar in Ephesians 6:19, “Pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  He says pray for me that I might be bold; pray for me that a door for the Word might be opened up.  This man was aware that he had been given a mission, a ministry.  He didn’t ask them to pray for his personal needs.  He didn’t say, “Pray for me that I’ll hold up under the stress.”  He didn’t say, “Pray for me that I get released from prison.”  He just said, “Pray for me, that I’ll open my mouth, and find an open door to proclaim the Word.”

The priority of this new speech is the proclamation of the gospel. That was Paul’s priority, and it should be our priority. I’m afraid that far too often though its not something we think too much about. We’re too concerned about whether or not we might offend someone. We are too concerned that it might seem awkward to talk about the gospel. But the gospel really is the most important thing in the world, that people might know how they can be made right with God and receive eternal life.

We need to pray, like Paul, that God would open a door for us to speak to our friends and loved ones concerning the gospel. To have an open door means to have an opportunity. You know, when I seek the Lord’s will concerning things I ask Him to either open or shut the door. And I can tell you that the majority of the time it seems that God shuts the door. And the way that I think God leads me is that there is only one door left that seems to be open. But then we have to walk through that door. God is not going to carry us across the threshold. But He will open a door for us to proclaim the gospel if we ask Him to.

In Revelation, chapter 3, verse 7, it says this: “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David, He that opens and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens.”  He says, “I know your works: I have set before you an open door.” God can and will open a door for us to proclaim His gospel.

Paul goes on to say in vs 4, “that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”  I’m afraid sometimes that a good message proclaimed in a bad way will do just about as much harm as a bad message.  Paul asks for prayer that he would speak the way he should, and that he would speak it correctly, to speak the way God would have him speak about the gospel.

You know, there are a number of ways that you can speak the gospel incorrectly. I will give you four ways which it is commonly presented incorrectly. One, is the experience centered proclamation. That’s where someone gets up and tells a story of how their life was changed. They never really present the gospel, or the word of God, just the experience that happened to them, whatever that might be. And so the hearer may be drawn to have a similar experience, but he doesn’t understand what’s involved in salvation according to the word.

The second way to falsely proclaim, is what might be called an ego-centric proclamation. You appeal to their ego. To their desires. Christ can solve all your problems. Christ can heal you, restore your marriage, help you financially. And so the person responds on that basis, expecting God to solve all their problems. And so often they end up disillusioned and end up falling away because Christ didn’t deliver in the way they thought He should.

The third way can be called expedience proclamation, where all you want is some sort of commitment, regardless of what they know or don’t know. Those kinds of presentations often rely on another method, which is emotional proclamation, where the emotions are manipulated to get people to respond. The music is playing softly, the appeal is couched in some heartbreaking story, and the person starts crying, and they respond with an emotional commitment to something that they think has to do with God, but they don’t really know what happened other than they felt something or had some sort of emotional experience.

Paul says, let me speak in a way that is clear, that makes clear the truth of the gospel, and let me proclaim it as God would have me to do it. That should be our goal as well.

The third way our speech is different now that we are Christians is the new man is going to have the speech of what we might call performance. Verse 5: “Walk in wisdom toward them that are outside, redeeming the time.” Here he’s talking about the speech of performance, or how you act. 

Have you ever heard the saying, “Your actions are so loud I cannot hear what you are saying?” What Paul is indicating here is a lifestyle that speaks louder than your words. Walk, he says. That’s lifestyle. That’s behavior. What you do comes before what you say. People aren’t going to listen to you prattle on about the Lord if your actions are contrary to His teaching.

Paul is talking about our testimony before outsiders; meaning those outside the church. These are the unsaved. He says walk or act with wisdom towards those who are unsaved. What does he mean by wisdom? A wisdom of this world? Are we to make sure we talk in a way that is hip, that is relevant, so that the people of the world think we’re cool and they will listen to us? Are we to model the look and dress and behavior and sounds of the world so that they will accept us and then listen to us? Is that what he is saying?

It certainly seems to be the way a lot of churches today interpret this. One well known church in Chicago a number of years ago, which became a model for most of the large modern churches today, in the beginning of their ministry they sent out a questionnaire to the community, and they asked them what features that turned them off about church, and what kind of things that they would like to see in a church. And after all the responses were evaluated, they designed their church to be like what the unsaved people in the community wanted to see. They called it the seeker friendly church. And they were very popular for a while and built a mega church that became a template for hundreds of other churches to emulate. But is that walking in wisdom towards outsiders? I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about.

It simply means walking in the wisdom of the word. Colossians 1:9,“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.”  You have been saved, you have been given wisdom to understand the mystery of the gospel. And you need to be filled with the wisdom of godly living that you might walk in it. Wisdom is the application of knowledge.  Especially in our testimony to the unsaved, we need to live lives that are a reflection of Christ. We need to apply the truth of the gospel to our daily lives. We need to live godly. We need to avoid the temptations of the world. We need to put on the behaviors which Paul enumerated in the previous chapter.

Here is walking in wisdom. Ch. 3:12-17 “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things [put on] love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” That’s walking in wisdom, and we should make sure that our lives exemplify that lifestyle to the eyes of a watching world.

Then he says, “Redeeming the time,” that’s the literal translation of the end of vs 5. What does that mean?  Time there is not kronos, from which we chronology or chronograph, which means time in terms of clock time.  It is kairos, which means time in terms of opportunity.  It should translate “making the most of every opportunity.”  Psalm 90 says “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”  It’s a matter of making the most of opportunity.  You know, opportunity is fleeting.  Life is short.  People are dying.  You don’t know how much time you have.  Jesus is coming soon. So make the most of the opportunity that you have to speak the truth to someone.

The Bible talks about the door being shut.  The Bible talks about the night that’s coming, when no man can work.  The Bible talks about Jesus removing the candlestick which is the light of the church. It’s important that we recognize that time is fleeting, and opportunity doesn’t always give us a second chance. You have today. You have the opportunity today to make sure you have said everything that can be said to your loved one or to your friend or co worker. The night is coming when no man can work.

That leads us to the fourth type of speech characteristic of the new life – the speech of perfection. Vs 6 “Let your speech always be with grace, [as though] seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Now this phrase, “Let your speech be always with grace.”  He’s talking about our general conversation.  The mouth of a Christian should utter the speech of perfection.  Never out of the mouth of a Christian should come that stuff that Paul listed in chapter 3: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech and lying.

But rather Paul says let your mouth speak graciousness.  What is courteous, what is kind, what is tasteful.  What is purposeful, what is complimenting, what is gentle, what is truthful, what is loving, what is thoughtful.  Not bitter, abrasive, vindictive, sarcastic, angry, cutting, boastful, none of those things should characterize your speech.  Your speech should be gracious.

Then Paul adds, “Seasoned with salt.”  Not just gracious, but your speech ought to be worth something. Salt was used for money in those days. Salt was also used as a preservative to stop corruption. Salt was used to cleanse as well. So your speech should be a purifier that prevents corruption.  Your speech should act as a purifying, wholesome, cleansing influence, rescuing the sinner from the corruption that is in the world.

The Greeks had another thought here.  They said the idea of salt was the idea of wit.  And wit is the ability to say just the right thing at just the right time.  There is a saying which was penned by Shakespeare which is; “brevity is the soul of wit.” It means the essence of an effective statement lies in its concise wording and delivery.

And isn’t that what Paul is saying?  “That you may know how you ought to answer every man.”  You’ve got the right answer for just the right time, and just the right person.   The right word at the right time to the right person, the speech of perfection. And that perfect speech is gained through prayer, through the study of God’s word, and through practice in proclamation.

I can tell you from experience that you get better at articulating the gospel the more that you do it. The more you practice it the more comfortable you become, and the better you become at finding the right words. A lot of people are afraid of speaking to someone about the gospel because they have never done it. They’re afraid that they won’t know what to say. But the fact is that God can help you know what to say. And as you step out in faith, and are obedient to His command to be a witness, He not only will provide the help you need, but you will develop more confidence and competence as you commit yourself to doing it.

Well, thank God we have a new life in Christ. An as a result we are to have a new type of speech. Devote yourselves to prayer. Pray that a door would be opened for proclamation of the gospel. Then act in wisdom towards those who are outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. And finally, practice the speech of perfection; Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” May God grant us the desire to obey His will in our speech.