Obviously from our scripture text this morning, I am not planning a typical Easter message.  We celebrate Easter every Sunday morning and we certainly celebrate Easter this morning, but I will not be preaching an Easter message, per se.

However, millions of people all over the world are celebrating Easter today.  And undoubtedly many people are attending services who rarely go to church at all except for on the major holidays like Easter and Christmas.  And I don’t want to disparage people that only come to church on major holidays.  I would always want to encourage people to come to church.

But I will say that merely observing and participating in religious ceremonies, holy days and rituals really have no bearing at all on the ultimate outcome of your soul.  Jesus makes it clear in His teaching that simply an external exercise of religion is not what God is interested in.  But God looks at the heart, and He wants a heart that is devoted totally to Him.

So today the world celebrates Easter, the resurrection of Christ. Yet it must be obvious that even though they know the story, the world has largely rejected the message.  And while I don’t want to discourage anyone from attending church on a holiday, I would hope that those that do so today are challenged to examine their hearts before God, and not just be duped into thinking that merely going through the motions of rituals and ceremonies, or giving lip service is going to please God.

Jesus said in Matt. 15:8 quoting from Isaiah that God isn’t interested in lip service, but in the heart; ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.” So God doesn’t honor lip service, and neither does He honor empty ceremonies or rituals as indicated in Heb. 10:6, “IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.”  Jesus went on to show in Luke 13:26 that going to church is not enough either; “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’ What these passages indicate is that God is more interested in the heart than He is in our words or even our actions.

Now that passage in Luke 13 was a reference to those who had an external form of religion but had an unregenerate heart. Their heart was still evil.  And Jesus says that they would be denied entrance to the kingdom of God.  Jesus added in 13:28, “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.  And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.”  What Jesus is saying is that Abraham’s children, the children of Israel will not be in the kingdom of God, but others from outside of the nation of Israel will come in and recline at the table in the kingdom of God.

Now the Jewish religious leaders understood that the kingdom of God was often likened to a banquet, or a great wedding feast, and so when Jesus uses the idea of a great banquet as a metaphor for the kingdom of God  they understand exactly what He is referring to.  And they realize that He is referring to them being denied entrance to the banquet table in the kingdom of God.

Now when you come to the next chapter, chapter 14, you see that these same Pharisees had invited Jesus to a prominent Pharisee’s house for dinner, and He uses this as an opportunity to teach them further concerning the nature of the kingdom of God by means of a couple of parables about a banquet.

I’m sure most of you are probably familiar with the Pharisees.  They should need little introduction since it seems that Jesus is constantly dealing with the Pharisees.  But I’m afraid that we often caricaturize them as terrible people; we think of them in such a negative light that we lose sight of the reality of what they were really like.  So I want to make sure you understand something about these Pharisees.  Pharisees were the most God fearing, moral, law abiding citizens in the country.  These weren’t the moral delinquents of society – no, far from it.  They knew the Bible backwards and forwards.  They knew most of the Torah by heart.  They meticulously attended every temple service, every festival, every feast day, every Sabbath observance.  They were the religious elite of the 1^st century.  If you were to ask someone in that day who for certain was going to be in the kingdom of God, everyone without question would say if anyone gets in it will be the Pharisees.

In fact, Jesus Himself said in  Matt. 5:20, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  That verse, by the way, was the verse that caused my dad to become saved.  He had been studying the Bible, and was convicted of how much of a sinner he was.  And when he found that verse, he realized that he could never be good enough to be saved.  And that is when he discovered that salvation is by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.

But the point I want to emphasize is that when Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, when He tells them they will see Abraham and Isaac and the prophets in the kingdom, but they won’t be there, when they see people coming from all quarters of the globe but they won’t be at the table, He is speaking to the most religious, God fearing, law abiding citizens on the planet.  These people worshipped the one true God, they intensely studied the scriptures and they diligently fasted, tithed and attended services and they were more zealous about it that any of us can even imagine.  And yet over and over again, Jesus calls them hypocrites, and says they will not enter the kingdom.

Now this was shocking.  That would be equivalent today  to walking into a large evangelical church and announcing that none of the leadership, none of the pastors and deacons and elders would be entering the kingdom of heaven.  And then turning to the congregation and saying the same thing.  Then saying that God had declared their hypocrisy to be so offensive that the riffraff of the world would get in, but no one in that church would enter the kingdom of heaven.  That would be a shocking statement, to say the least.  It probably wouldn’t endear you to your audience.  In fact, you would probably be lucky to get out of there without being stoned to death.

So to attempt to apply Jesus message to us today should be troublesome.  It should give you reason to examine yourselves.  In fact, it should prompt you to ask, as one of the disciples asked him in the last chapter, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And Jesus answers in the affirmative, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” According to Jesus, not many of those that think that they are going to heaven will be there.  Now that is a troublesome thing and it should give us all a reason to examine ourselves.

Now with that context in mind, let us look at this parable that Jesus gives as He is having dinner with this prominent Pharisee.  I don’t think Jesus was a great dinner guest, by the way.  Contrary to Hollywood’s portrayal of Jesus as some sort of soft spoken, demure, retiring sort of character who wouldn’t hurt a flea, Jesus has no problem calling the host out on numerous occasions when He visited in various people’s house.  And this time is no exception.

If you remember, the Pharisees had invited Him to dinner on the Sabbath because they wanted to trap Him into healing on the Sabbath so they could discredit Him.  They had a person there with dropsy and they  were trying to set Him up.  Now Jesus knew that, but He went anyway and in spite of their duplicity he was compassionate and healed the man with dropsy.  But as He questions the Pharisees and lawyers present, they remain silent.  They  are speechless.  They are afraid to answer His questions.  And so first Jesus rebukes them for their hypocrisy, then He rebukes them for the way they tried to elbow their way to the head of the table which revealed their lack of humility, then He rebukes them for their guest list which revealed their selfish motives.  Like I said, Jesus wasn’t the kind of dinner guest you would invite back again.

So maybe that’s why eventually this guy in the group calls out ““Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”  I mean, up to now they didn’t know what to say.  By this point they are feeling pretty uncomfortable.  So maybe this guy recognizes that Jesus is preaching on the kingdom of heaven, and he is trying to patronize Jesus.  Maybe He says this thinking that it might get Jesus to think that they were all on the same side.

But what is evident about this statement is that this Pharisee is obviously inferring that he is going to be at the great dinner banquet in the kingdom of God.  And I’m sure that all his friends thought the same thing.  I’m sure there were a chorus of “Amen’s” directly following that statement.  It was an attempt to say, hey Jesus, we’re all going to be in the kingdom of God at the great banquet.  Like I said earlier, if anyone was going to be there, you would think that these guys were going to be there.  And they were convinced that they were in the kingdom.  After all, one of the doctrinal distinctives of the Pharisees was that they believed in the resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife. But the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead and of heaven.  And they fully expected that they were going to be there.

So this man, as the spokesman perhaps of the group says, “Blessed is he who eats bread in the kingdom of heaven.”  They take for granted that they are in.  Yet Jesus doesn’t answer him by confirming his assumption, but rather offers a story that rebukes them all, and confronts them in their self assurance.

So Jesus tells a story about a man who gave a big dinner and he invited many people.  Now as I said last week, a banquet was a big deal in those days.  It was the primary means of socializing and entertainment.  There weren’t a lot of other options in those days other than for someone to have a dinner party, or a wedding feast, something similar to what we might think of as a ball.  And the way this was arranged according to Middle Eastern custom was they would send out two invitations.  The first one was simply to let you know that you were invited to the dinner party on a general day and time.  And the invitees would rsvp to let the host know how many to prepare for.  Everyone who was invited was expected to be there, but it was a matter of courtesy for both parties.  And then there would be a second invitation.  That one would go out on the day of the event and the messenger would say, “Come now.  Everything is prepared.”  And the people would come immediately.  They too would have been preparing to come at a moment’s notice.

Now in the story that Jesus gives, the first message had already gone out.  All the people who would normally be expected were invited and the implication is that they all said that they would come.  But then the day and hour comes when the slave went out and said, “Come; for everything is ready now.”  Everything has been prepared for them.  The house is ready.  The banquet is ready.  The food has been prepared.  The entertainment has been made ready.  The guests have already been invited in advance, now they just need to come.

Now the Pharisees would have been familiar with this scenario.  But then Jesus inserts this next section which under normal circumstances would have been unthinkable in Jewish society.  Vs. 18, “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

“And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’  And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room. “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.  ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

So here is the situation.  This parable is yet another affirmation of what Jesus said back in chapter 13 vs. 29, “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.  And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.”  In other words, the Jews were the first invitees to the banquet table of the kingdom of God, and yet they wouldn’t come.  They rejected the Son of God who had been sent to make it possible for them to enter the kingdom.  They insulted Him.  They ridiculed Him.

And though it’s a rebuke against the self righteousness of the Pharisees, it is also a picture of all who reject the gospel of salvation.  Oh yes, we all want to go to heaven when we die.  We all want to believe that somehow we are going to be included in the kingdom of heaven.  But when the invitation goes out to come now, to come today, we aren’t willing  to forsake our priorities for the kingdom.  We say we are going to be there, but in reality we are committed to our own agenda, our own priorities, and as such we reject what it takes to enter the kingdom of God.  See the invitation of God to enter the kingdom of heaven requires that we forsake the world for the sake of the kingdom.  But like these people in the parable, though we say we are believers, though we say we are in the kingdom, yet our lives reveal that we are not.  We are still committed to our own agenda.

Now as we examine the excuses these men gave in the parable they sound pretty flimsy, don’t they?  But what I think Jesus was doing here was giving us three general categories of excuses that we put before the Lord.  The first guy said I bought a piece of land and I must go look at it.  This man owns property.  It represents our possessions.  The funny thing about possessions is that a lot of times they end up owning us, don’t they?  We find ourselves enslaved to paying our mortgages, paying our car payments, paying our credit card bills.  We buy and we buy, hoping to buy satisfaction, hoping to find happiness, but we end up being enslaved to the bank so we can keep those possessions.  But those things never satisfy and they distract us from complete devotion to the Lord.

You know, if you go to Acts and look at the first church, those people were selling their property and giving it to the church.  That was the characteristic of the first revival.  The converts realized that Christianity required undivided loyalty to Christ and so they sold and gave away their possessions.  And the result was a great revival.  People in the community were in awe of what was going on in the first church.  Souls were being saved.  What a contrast there is from that attitude to the attitude of the church today that teaches that Christianity is the means by which we get more possessions.  The prosperity doctrine tells people that God wants you to have your dream house, He wants you to have a new car.  I’m sorry, but that is not the Christianity of the first century church and it wasn’t the message of Jesus.

Jesus said in Luke 12:33, “Sell your possessions and give to charity.”  He said ““For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  See, this man’s heart was for his possessions.  And God will not settle for second best.  The greatest commandment says we must love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength.  We can’t love anything more than God and be accepted by God.  Listen, do you have a lot of possessions?  If you do then Jesus later in this very passage says something that should shake you to your core. Luke 14:33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”   Do you believe that?  Do you think Jesus was just kidding?  Maybe He was exaggerating.  Certainly we don’t really have to give up all of our possessions to be Jesus disciple.  I’m sure He was just kidding.  Let’s move on.

The next guy made the excuse that he had just bought five yoke of oxen and he had to go try them out.  This man had a job to do.  He had to go to work.  I think this category represents our careers, our employment, our jobs.  This man put his work ahead of attending the banquet.  He thought the job that he wanted to do was more important than attending the banquet.  I see this so much in the church today.  I believe that the devil has a field day with work more so than almost any other temptation.  Because on the one hand we are told that work is honorable, and it can be.  We are told that work is necessary, and it can be.  But I will also tell you that work can be egocentric.  It can be a means of self sufficiency, of selfishness,  it can be a means of pride.  Many a man abandons his wife and children under the guise that he has to provide for his family when in fact he is just building his ego.  But Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Psalm 127:2 says, “It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”  Jesus said something similar in Luke 12:24, “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!”  And He went on to say in vs. 31, “But seek first His kingdom, and then these things will be added to you.”  This man in the parable exemplifies the person that forfeited the kingdom of heaven because of his work.

And the last category is that of the man whose excuse was that he had just married a wife.  Now I know a lot of men like that.  Their wife runs the house and keeps them on a short leash.  And maybe some men bring that sort of thing upon themselves.  Let me remind you of what Ephesians 5 teaches;  the husband is to be the head of the wife.  That means he is supposed to be the spiritual head of the house.  He is supposed to be the spiritual leader.  Paul said in 1 Timothy that headship was God’s design in creation and mankind fell because Adam abrogated his spiritual responsibility to his wife.

But I think this category extends further than just husband and wife.  I think Jesus is talking about anyone that puts relatives, or loved ones or friends before the kingdom of God.  He makes that clear in just a couple of verses later in this very passage, Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”  Jesus is saying that God will not play second fiddle to someone else that you love more than Him, including yourself.

Listen, I can say without a doubt that there are millions of men who have fallen away from God because they loved a woman more than God. I can assure you that there are millions of women who have fallen away from the kingdom of God because they wanted a man more than they loved God.  I personally know of many men and women right here in this community that have fallen for that trap of Satan.  And I’m not necessarily talking about adultery; though there are great numbers who fall that way as well.  But I’m talking about a young woman who said she loved God and went to church regularly, and professed to be a godly woman, and she met a man who wasn’t a believer and married him and today she no longer is living for the Lord.  Oh, she may still be a member of a church somewhere, but it isn’t a church that teaches the truth, or teaches true discipleship.  And I’ve seen the same thing with men that married a woman who wasn’t a believer and their lives were destroyed.  One of my best friends in California is a mental and financial and spiritual wreck today because his wife left him and took his children and everything he owned and left his life in a shambles.

I know of young men and women that deserted the faith because of unbelieving parents that twisted their arm financially to stay in an apostate church.  Folks, this may be a parable Jesus is teaching, but the applications are very real and have tragic  consequences.  God will not take second place to your possessions, to your career, or to your relationships.  God demands first place.

So the Pharisees were excluded from the kingdom of heaven because their hearts were not humbled before God.  They thought that they were good people.  They thought they worshipped the true God and they belonged to the right church and everyone could see that they were model law abiding citizens.  But Jesus says the man who gave the banquet was angry with them and said none of those men that were invited shall taste of my dinner.

So if the most religious people around weren’t going to be allowed to taste the dinner, that prompts the question – what characterizes the people that were going to enter into the banquet?  Well, Jesus says they were poor and crippled and blind and lame.  First of all, these poor people represented those that knew they were outcasts from society.  The poor knew they were poor.  The crippled and lame and blind knew their condition.  These are people that realize their need.  These are people that realize that they are lost.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  See, these poor and lame and blind are the kind of people that will be blessed.

Listen, when the Bible uses the word blessed what that means was that you would see God.  It doesn’t mean happy like some modern translations render it.  It means that blessed state that comes when you see the glory of God.  And Jesus is saying here that those that will be blessed in the kingdom of God will be the ones who are poor in spirit; they realize that they are spiritually bankrupt.  They know they are sinners, they know their righteousness doesn’t add up to more than the Pharisees.  They know they are lost.  They are poor, beggars seeking mercy from God.

And blessed are those that mourn because of their sin.  Listen, that is what repentance is;  it’s being sick of your sin.  It’s mourning over your sinful condition and being willing to do whatever it takes to be delivered from it.  Please understand, salvation isn’t adding a little church to your life, it’s not adding a little Jesus to your life.  If you have a pot of bad stew you can put all the ingredients in there you want and it will still be bad stew.  You need to start all over again.  You need to be born again.  That is what Jesus is saying.  The heart is desperately wicked the Bible says.  So the remedy is not religion.  It’s not going to an Easter service.  No the remedy is to get a new heart.  And the only way to do that is to come to God sick of your sin in repentance and beg Him to make you a new creature.  Like David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart O Lord and renew a right spirit within me.”  And David went on to say in response to that prayer that “a broken and contrite heart you will not despise O Lord.”

That’s what it means to be blessed, to be humble and to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  That’s the characteristic of these social outcasts Jesus was talking about.  All of us are outcasts from the kingdom of heaven.  None of us have a right to enter. Rom. 3:23 says we all have sinned and fallen short of the kingdom of God. But thank God for Rom. 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Listen, there is a banquet table that has been made ready in the kingdom of God.  God has been preparing it since the beginning of time for those that love Him.  He has prepared it for those that are willing to forsake all that the world has in exchange for eternal life with Him.  He has sent out His invitations.  Jesus said in Mat 11:28 “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.”

I’m just the messenger that God has sent to tell you to come, everything is ready.  I hope you don’t refuse Him who is inviting you.  What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul?  What shall a man give in exchange for His soul?  The answer is everything.  God wants everything.  All of you.  All of your heart.  Let’s pray.

I’m sure many of you have heard the famous story concerning a young black musician that lived in the 1920’s and 30’s named Robert Johnson.  According to a mixture of actual history and  folklore, Robert Johnson was a Mississippi blues singer and songwriter, who according to legend, sold his soul to Satan “at the crossroads” in exchange for his remarkable talent on the guitar.

Robert Johnson was born and raised in Mississippi and started playing blues guitar in the late 1920s. His wife and child died in childbirth around 1930 and afterwards he is said to have become bitter towards God and devoted himself to the guitar, heavy drinking and a wanton lifestyle. The crossroads story emerged after he dropped out of sight for a while in the early 1930s and returned as a great guitarist, much to the surprise of many of his contemporaries.  His friend and fellow blues legend Son House once told the story of him selling his soul to the devil as an explanation of Johnson’s astonishingly rapid mastery of the guitar.  As the story goes, Johnson went down to a lonely crossroads at midnight and made a deal with the devil, who tuned his guitar and showed him how to play.

Some people said that Robert’s deal with the devil came due and offered as  evidence that they had seen him on all fours, howling at the moon the night he died. Johnson died of mysterious causes at the young age of twenty-seven, and left a legacy of Delta Blues music that has influenced guitar players like Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. In 1986 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His songs included “Crossroad Blues,” “Me and the Devil Blues” and “Hellhound on my Trail.” In 2003, Johnson ranked fifth in Rolling Stone′s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

I use such a dramatic illustration to bring to your attention the importance of the crossroads that we all come to at some point in our life.  Most people’s life’s journey is punctuated by a number of crossroads, where we have to choose a direction or choose a response.  And while most of  us would never knowingly make a deal with the devil as Robert Johnson was supposed to have done, yet I’m afraid that we routinely make decisions at these crossroads of our lives without fully appreciating how momentous an effect these decisions might have on our life and even potentially disastrous consequences.  Though most of us would never intentionally make  a deal with the devil, we often inadvertently or even deliberately make a choice to turn away from the truth of God’s word for the lie of the devil.

I’m afraid that most of us view these types of crossroad decisions in our lives like the famous Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken.”  We see two roads diverging in a yellow woods, and we cavalierly choose one above the other, and somehow though we know it makes a difference, yet we fail to understand the full significance and long reaching consequences of our decisions.

If you remember out study last week, you will recall that Jesus Himself warned in Matthew 7 that not all roads lead to heaven.  He warned that the road that seemed easier, that seemed more popular, the road everyone else seemed to be on, was actually the road to hell.  And He said that the way is narrow that leads to heaven, and few there be that find it.  Jesus referenced that narrow way in our text when He answered the question posed in vs. 23, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

I’m afraid that most people today don’t give proper consideration to the day to day decisions that we all make on a routine basis. I have been appalled at some of the conversations that I have had with people over the last few years regarding decisions they have made in regards to jobs, or where they would live, or where they wanted to go to church.  Often, they had heard the truth, they may have even recognized it as the truth, and yet they made decisions to reject the truth for another version that they liked better and they didn’t realize the consequences of what they are doing.  They didn’t understand that the decision that they made so glibly, so blindly, was really a diversionary tactic of the devil and will lead them eventually to destruction if they don’t repent.  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” We don’t recognize the seriousness of decisions that we make.  We don’t really understand the consequences of our decisions as we come to crossroads in our lives.  We think we can accept a less narrow path, or a less stringent gospel, and we will still be ok.  But Satan knows that a series of little deviations from the straight path of God will add up to a big difference in destination. Proverbs 3:5 tells us to “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Starting in chapter 12, Luke has been recording a running sermon that Jesus has been preaching, which is really a warning of just this very situation.  The Jews were making the wrong choice time after time, in decision after decision, and the underlying message that Jesus has been giving is that there will come a day when their opportunity will be finished.  They have consistently rejected His message, and John the Baptist’s message before Him.  In fact, He says in vs. 34 that this rejection has been the history of the Jews since the time of Moses, rejecting prophet after prophet, even to the point of killing the prophets.  And ultimately, they would even kill the Son of God Himself.

But what they failed to realize was that their time to repent was coming to an end. John the Baptist said that the axe was already laid at the root of the tree.  And in this chapter Jesus gave a parable about the fig tree which was about to be cut down because it failed to bring forth fruit.  They failed to realize that they were at a crossroads in history and they were making a disastrous decision.

In our Wednesday evening service we are studying Genesis, and we discovered in recent weeks that contrary to evolutionary theory, according to the genealogy given in the Bible, mankind is only about 6000 years old.  And the significance of that is born out by understanding God’s timeline.

If we break down this 6000 years, we find that from Adam to Abraham was 2000 years, and from Abraham to Jesus was 2000 years, and from Jesus to our day is 2000 years.  If we consider the first 2000 years, then you will notice that Abraham was a descendent of Noah’s son Shem, and Shem was still alive in the early years of Abraham’s life.  And of course, the flood was God’s act of judgment upon the sins of the world during this first 2000 years. God found one righteous man, Noah, and preserved this man during the flood from whom came Abraham.  And God made a covenant with Abraham that from his seed would come One through whom all the world would be blessed.  It was the promise of the Messiah.

So from Adam to Abraham was 2000 years during which time God judged the world by the flood.  Then from Abraham to the coming of the Messiah was another 2000 years.  During this time God raised up from Abraham’s family the nation of Israel, who would be His chosen people, to whom He gave His law, sent His prophets, and gave His presence in the temple.  This covenant was to be consummated  by the coming of the Messiah.

But we all know the history – the children of Israel disobeyed God continually.  They wanted self rule.  They worshipped pagan idols and lusted after the pleasures of the pagan world.  They rejected God again and again.  And so God brought calamity upon them.  And when they continued still in their rebellion He brought the Chaldeans to kill them and destroy their palaces and the temple and take them away into captivity.  Eventually there was only a remnant of the Jews left who returned to Palestine to rebuild the temple under Nehemiah.  But by the time Jesus comes as the Messiah, they have once again returned to an external form of religion, but denied the power of it to change their hearts.  Judaism has become a religion of self righteousness by performing religious rituals, but their hearts are far from God.

So this is the situation during the ministry of Christ.  Though great crowds accompany Him, they are looking for miracles and following Him for the free food and to see what He might do next.  But very few are being saved.  For the most part, the religious leaders reject Him and even hate Him.  Their hatred will eventually result in crucifying Him.

But Jesus is the Son of God, and He knows not only what is in their hearts, He also knows the Father’s plan and purpose for His coming is not subject to the whims of these rulers. Vs. 31 says at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.  Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.”

These Pharisees were not concerned about Jesus.  They didn’t care that Herod was seeking to kill Jesus.  They just wanted Him to go away.  They hated His message of sin and the need for repentance.   And perhaps they thought they could scare Him off and get rid of His annoying message.  You know, I have come to realize that people who are in rebellion towards God hate the message of repentance from sin.  They hate it.  It makes them feel uncomfortable.  It makes them feel convicted.  They want self rule, they love their sin and are proud in their self righteousness just like the Israelites were.  When I hear someone complain that they don’t like to hear about sin or the need for repentance than I know that person is either not saved or they are in serious rebellion against the gospel.  Because the gospel is the message of repentance from sin.

Even though Israel had routinely rejected God and was even now rejecting their Messiah, yet what Jesus said illustrates the compassion and mercy of God.  Jesus came to Earth, not to be their political savior, but to be their substitute, the sacrifice for their sins, their Savior.  And this is what He is referring to in that statement.  That today and tomorrow He will continue to perform cures and cast out demons, and on the third day He will reach His goal.  And what He means is that the third day He will rise from the dead, after procuring salvation for those that trust in Him.  He will be in the tomb for three days, and the third day will rise from the dead, after having triumphed over sin and the grave.  And it illustrates the compassion of God in that He is resolutely planning to offer Himself as a sacrifice even as they are planning to kill Him.

But there is also a final warning in this message.  Look at vs. 34; “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!  Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’”

Jesus reiterates the compassion and love of God – “How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…”  This is the love of God, the outstretched arms of God, beseeching the children of Israel who were supposed to be His children to come under His wings, to come under His protection, but they would not.

But there is a warning  there as well.  They didn’t realize that destruction and desolation was coming on Israel for their rejection of God.  In their lifetime, within their generation, there was coming a time of judgment.  In AD 70, Titus would destroy the temple, he would desecrate the altar, and he would destroy the nation of Israel.  They trusted in the temple of Jerusalem.  It was the foundation of their faith.  They believed that it was proof of the presence of God among them.

But what they failed to recognize that God does not dwell in temples made with hands.  They didn’t realize that at some point in their continual rejection of God the glory of God had left the building.  All they had was a relic of what once was the power and pride of Israel.  Now it was just an empty building, the object of empty rituals, a place of commerce and politically appointed priests who paid bribes to Rome for the seats of authority in the temple.  God was no longer there and instead, He was bringing judgment upon them to destroy it.

The Jews trusted in the temple, and when Titus eventually surrounded the city they would seek refuge in the temple, thinking that God would spare them, but thousands would be massacred inside the temple grounds and then it would be burned to the ground.  Their house would be left desolate.  They had made one decision after another to reject the counsel of God.  They were wise in their own estimation.  They thought they were self sufficient, safe in the external edifices of their religion and Jesus pronounces judgment upon them.  For most of them listening that day, they would be slaughtered during the coming desolation of the nation of Israel.

So in AD 70 the desolation of the house of Israel happened just as Jesus had warned them.  And the time of the Gentiles was ushered in.  We live in the church age which has characterized the last 2000 years.  We live in the light of the gospel.  A greater light than that which the Jews had because we have the complete word of God to reveal God’s finished work of Christ.  We live in a greater age than the Jews because we live under the new covenant, whereas they lived under the old covenant.  We are fortunate enough to live under grace, whereas they were under the law.  But in spite of our great advantages I’m afraid that there are many similarities between the church and the nation of Israel.

It’s been another 2000 years in the timeline of God.  6000 years now since creation.  The number 6, the Bible says, is the number of man.  And I’m afraid that our time is nearly up as well.  As Jesus said in chapter 12, we know how to ascertain the signs of the weather, but we don’t know how to ascertain the signs of the times.  In spite of God’s great compassionate gift to the world, we have turned the grace of God into licentiousness.  We have used the grace of God to say as in chapter 12 vs. 45, “my master is a long time coming…”  and we have begun to live in self indulgence and wickedness and accept evil.   We have sinned against God and said it doesn’t matter.  We have turned to another version of the gospel that doesn’t ask for righteousness, that doesn’t require purity, that doesn’t require sacrifice, and we have turned the church of God into a marketplace and a place of self righteous ritualistic religion that denies the power of a consecrated, holy life.

It’s been the church’s turn at 2000 years and what have we done in response to the gospel which Jesus Christ suffered and shed His precious blood to procure? Look at Hebrews 10:29 which was written to the church.  It contrasts the old covenant with the new covenant and says, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Hebrews says, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”

So with that in mind, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Listen, the day is drawing near.  I believe that we may be in the very same situation that the Jews were in the day Jesus preached this message.  This tree is about to be cut down.  This church that has become bloated and monstrously overgrown so that rather than bringing forth fruit it is become the roosts for demons and the doctrines of demons, this church that has harbored sin and not repented that is corrupted and bloated is ready to be judged by God.  He is right at the door.  He is coming back.

1Pet. 4:17 says, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  Listen, don’t be deceived.  God is going to purify His church.  Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of God.  But those that do the will of God.  The Lord will judge His people.

Oh Christian, be careful the decisions you make.  Be careful when you come to a crossroads in your life.  Don’t lean on your own understanding.  Don’t make a decision based on appearance or what your mind says is a natural decision.  Don’t make a decision based on your desires or your lusts.  We need to stop serving the almighty dollar and start serving the Almighty God. We need to sacrifice our bodies on the altar to God as an acceptable sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. Listen, the time past is sufficient to have carried out the lusts of the Gentiles.  God is right at the door.  The decisions you make today will have lifelong consequences.  Fear God.  The problem with the church today is there is no fear of God before their eyes. These are like the times of Noah when every man did what was right in his own eyes.  I believe we are at a crossroads in history.  We are at the crossroads of the last days.  And I’m afraid most Christians are blithely going about their business, living for the moment, buying and selling as if things were going to continue this way forever, and we don’t realize that Christ is right at the door.

Jesus said earlier in chapter 12:5 in this same sermon; “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”  He continues in vs. 45, “But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes,

but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”  O listen church, we have been entrusted with much.  Much will be required of you.  God is at the door.  He is coming soon.

And for those of you that aren’t saved, remember what Jesus said in chapter 12 vs. 49, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!” Listen, at the end of the first 2000 years the world was destroyed by water.  But Peter says in the last days it will be destroyed by fire.  2 Peter 3:4, ““Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

Listen, there is coming a day of judgment upon all the world.  And salvation simply means being saved from the judgment that is coming upon the world.  Jesus said in Luke 13:34, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!”  When I was a little boy in Sunday School in North Carolina, I remember my mother teaching a story on what they used to call a flannelgraph; a board covered in flannel that you could put pictures on and they would stick to it.  And the story I remember best that she told was of a farmer who had livestock that he housed in a great big barn.  And a mother hen had just had her eggs hatch and she had three little chicks.  But that night a fire broke out and the barn burnt down.  The next morning the farmer was examining the ruins of the barn and he noticed a burnt carcass on the ground.  He walked over to it and pushed it over with his hoe and discovered three little chicks came running out from beneath.  The burnt carcass was the mother hen who had sacrificed herself for her chicks by covering them with her wings.

Jesus says in this passage that this is the purpose that He came into the world.  He came to offer us salvation for the judgment that is coming on the world for sin.  He stretches out His arms to you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.  Will you come under His wings?  Or will you be like the stiff necked Israelites who would not come? Who would not accept God’s Son?  I pray that you will humble yourself today and repent of your sins, and ask God to save you. God promises that in response to faith and repentance He will transfer your sins to Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness to you. Jesus is waiting with arms outstretched for you.  But He won’t wait forever.  One day the door will be closed and God will come in judgment.  I pray you won’t be found lacking in that day.  Today you stand at the crossroads, and the only way anyone will escape that day of judgment is by the cross of Christ: if we are under the wings of God’s grace, having repented of our sins, and trusted in the righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover our sins.  Let us pray.

I like the old Welsh hymn that we sung today.  It is a good hymn, teaching sound doctrine, and one that I find refreshing in a time when so much Christian music is favored not because of what it says, but because of the way the music sounds.  But though the origin of this hymn preceded the Welsh Revival by about 20 years, it found a certain measure of fame from it’s use in what became known as the Welsh Revival of 1904, 1905.

There were a number of revivals or spiritual awakenings that happened both in this country and abroad in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.   But I want to quote from Wikipedia about the distinction of some aspects of the Welsh Revival as opposed to previous revivals.  “Unlike earlier religious revivals based on powerful preaching, the revival of 1904-05 relied primarily on music and on alleged paranormal phenomena as exemplified by the visions of Evan Roberts.”

I am not qualified to speak authoritatively on the veracity of  the revival that happened in Wales during that year.  Undoubtedly, some people were saved.  There are many reports of lives being transformed, bars being closed, policemen not having anyone to arrest because entire towns were being transformed.  There seems to be ample evidence of true repentance in many cases, resulting in real conversion.

But at one point Evan Roberts claimed to have a vision in which he saw that he would be the means by which a 100,000 people would come to Christ.  And such was the effect of the revival throughout the countryside that many claimed that there were indeed 100,000 souls saved in a six month period.  However, this number was arrived at by arbitrary means, for there was no real way to confirm that number.  But the report of this number of conversions was in and of itself a sort of confirmation to many that this was a great new work of the Holy Spirit.

But at the same time, there was obviously a counterfeit work that was going on concurrently with the revival.  Several of the histories that I read emphasized that much of the paranormal phenomena was centered particularly upon young teenage girls who became a driving force in the revival.  As a consequence of the emphasis on the paranormal, much  of what was initially attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit was in fact eventually deemed to be not of God at all.  Evan Roberts himself had a nervous breakdown after the first year of the revival.  He began to suffer from serious depression.  He was taken in by a well known patron of the movement, a woman named Jessie Penn-Lewis, who was a prominent religious author.  As a result of this and other events, the revival declined as quickly as it had begun.

Together, Roberts and Penn-Lewis would author a book a few years later renouncing much of what went on during the revival.  The book was called “War on the Saints” and detailed the way in which Satan and his demons counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit, made especially deceitful when naïve people readily accept all spiritual phenomena as being of God, without discernment of the fact that there are many deceitful spirits gone out in the world.

The main point that I wish to make from this illustration though is that great numbers are not necessarily an indication of true revival in the hearts of believers.  Undoubtedly, many people were saved.  But just as certainly, many more were simply swept along in the emotion and frenzy of the moment and when that had passed, they were no longer as zealous for the things of God as they once were.

Today we see much of the same thing happening in our culture.  Joel Olsteen’s church is held in an football stadium and they have supposedly 60,000 people in attendance on Sundays.  Tens of thousands of people regularly show up in stadiums around the country to hear him speak.

But this fascination with large crowds and great numbers isn’t just limited to Joel Olsteen.  Many evangelists such as Joseph Prince conduct services around the world to packed out audiences numbering in the tens of thousands.  On a national level, mega churches boast several thousands of members at multiple services and some even have multiple satellite church campuses around their cities.  As Americans, we tend to think that bigger is always better.  We think there is no greater testimony to a pastor’s success than the size of his congregation.  And I’m afraid there is no greater assurance to his congregation than the self confirming  knowledge that they are part of a huge congregation.

But great numbers or large churches have never been the credentials of a godly prophet or pastor or a work of God.  Though Jesus Himself had thousands of people following Him, only 500 were in attendance at His ascension, and only 120 in the upper room on the day of Pentecost.

I think there is going to be a great upset at heaven’s Bema seat judgment one day, when some of the preachers and evangelists that received the most accolades here on earth will be last, and those unknown faithful missionaries in foreign lands and pastors of tiny churches in the boondocks will be first.  Jesus says that very thing in vs. 30; “And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.”

I think this seemingly contradictory element of ministry was the basis for the scenario that we see identified in this passage.  Jesus has this great crowd numbering in the thousands that is following Him around and waiting for Him to do a miracle or some great thing.  But yet there weren’t many that were actually getting saved.  And someone in the crowd recognizes this and questions Jesus by saying, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?”

It’s obvious that this  question was prompted by the two parables Jesus had just finished giving to that effect in vs. 18-21.  In both of them He showed that the kingdom of God was something that would have an unhealthy, unnatural, even monstrous element to it.  In the first parable Jesus relates the kingdom of God, which by the way is simply a way of speaking of the church, that the church becomes a large tree where the birds of the air nest in it’s branches.  As we said last week, mustard seeds produce mustard bushes, not trees.  And so this picture is of a monstrosity, a seed that produced a tree that instead of producing fruit, had birds of the air nesting in it’s branches.  And I showed you last week that in Jesus prior parable about the soils, that He identifies the birds of the air as being the devil and his angels.  So the devil and his angels (demons) nests in the branches of the church.

And the other parable is basically indicating the same thing.  In this case it’s leaven, always a picture of sin in the Bible, that is hidden in the three pecks of flour until it’s all leavened.  And we told you last week that the three pecks of flour, which are likened to the kingdom of God, the church, comes from the Old Testament idea of the grain offering which was offered to the Lord in worship.  And so the picture is of sin being in the worship of the church, and the entire church being corrupted by it.

Now that is the scenario then when someone from the crowd asks Jesus the question, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?”  Whoever it was, and I think it may have been the disciples, was kind of confused.  There were all these people following Jesus around, seeing His miracles and listening to Him preach.  There was all kinds of enthusiasm, and emotion, and expectations that surrounded His ministry.  And yet it was apparent from His teaching that the majority of those listening were not entering into the kingdom. And furthermore, Jesus is making it clear in His messages that not all that thought that they were of the kingdom were really in it.

And so Jesus gives an answer to this person that is instructive for us today as well as we consider the great tree that has become the church, and as we recognize that doctrines of demons have found residence in the church, and that sin has corrupted the church and it’s worship.  And many of us are left wondering at how the crowds rush to embrace the next new church trend, while those of us that try to be faithful to God’s original blueprint of the church are left feeling and looking like an archaic, out of touch relic of the Reformation.

It’s a question that gives rise to speculation that perhaps if we just adapted to what other churches were doing, perhaps if we just loosened up on some of the doctrines of the church, if we just followed some of the strategies that seem to be working so well for others, then perhaps we could enjoy some of the same success.  We might become more popular.  This thinking progresses along the lines of “it’s got to be our fault. We need to update.  Maybe we need different music, or a younger, hipper pastor.”  After all, whatever brings more people into the church can’t be a bad thing.

But notice that Jesus doesn’t really even answer those questions.  He doesn’t even directly answer the question that was posed to Him.  But what He does say is to present a version of salvation that is totally at odds with most evangelical’s approach to salvation.  Jesus presents salvation without a formula, without a sinner’s prayer, or even using the Roman’s Road.  He doesn’t give a method for invitations, or a method for church growth.  He doesn’t give the number of how many will be saved.  But what He does is present yet another picture of salvation, of entering in the kingdom that is at odds with most people’s understanding.

Note that first of all, Jesus says in vs. 24, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  Strive is an interesting word.  It comes from the Greek word “agōnizomai”.    It means to contend, to fight, to struggle to endeavor.  It was used to depict the struggles of a sport or a fight.

And I dare say that it is a principle that I have never heard a preacher use in relation to salvation.  Salvation is presented as accepting a gift, of receiving a blessing, of being given something for nothing.  But Jesus is presenting it as something that you have to battle for.

Now what on earth does He mean?  I’ll tell you what He means.  He means that you have to battle with yourself, fight against your sin nature, your selfish nature, your desire for self rule, for self gratification, for self fulfillment.  Salvation means nothing less than being willing to give up your will for His will, your desires for His desires.  And the flesh doesn’t want that.  Satan doesn’t want that. The world doesn’t want that.  So there is a great conflict in coming to Christ.  Because most of us come to Christ wanting something, wanting deliverance from a crisis, or deliverance from hell, but unwilling to sacrifice anything to get it.  And yet salvation does not come without a cost.

Jesus said we must count the cost of following Him.  You say, “But Roy, I thought Jesus paid it all, and grace is free.”  You don’t understand grace.  Grace is Jesus paying a price you could never, ever pay.  But there is a cost for  you as well.  Jesus said in chapter 12 that it is the cost of division between mother and daughter, between father and son.  It is the cost of not having a place to lay your head.  It is the cost of giving up your possessions.  It is the cost of taking up your cross and following Him in the fellowship of His sufferings.  It is the cost of rejection by the world, it is the cost of losing business, it is the cost of being an outcast in society.  There is a cost to following Jesus which involves a battle between your natural inclinations and God’s will, your natural instincts and God’s commandments, your common sense and God’s wisdom.  It’s a struggle, and it’s an epic struggle.

Now look at the rest of the statement, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  Note second of all that it is a narrow door.  It’s not necessarily easy to find, nor is it easy to go through.  It’s not a door that allows you to carry a bunch of baggage in with you.  You can’t enter into the kingdom of heaven with the world on your back.  You have to leave the world on the other side.  And it’s a door that you have to go through individually.  It’s not entered as part of a crowd, or a congregation, or by a race or nationality.

Jesus said in Matt.7:13, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Listen, there are many who seek to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  There are many that think that they are already in the kingdom of heaven, but if what Jesus says is true then most of them are not in the kingdom of heaven after all.  Many statistics have come out in recent years that show that about 80% of Americans consider themselves to be Christians.   And yet the percentage that believe in the inspiration of the Bible as God’s word is just a tiny fraction of that.  The percentage that believe in a literal hell is just a tiny fraction.  There is a great difference between those that think that they are on the road to heaven, and those that will find it.

Everyone wants to go to heaven.  Only a fool is an agnostic.  Only a fool is an atheist.  But merely believing to some extent in God does not bring about salvation.  Even just believing that Jesus existed and lived on the earth does not constitute salvation, otherwise Jesus would have just shown that everyone who was looking at Him in the flesh on that day would have been saved.  That He was alive was irrefutable.  And all Jews believed in the existence of God.  But yet He says that few there are that are saved. Obviously just believing in His existence did not save them.

I’m afraid that many people in churches today are not saved.  I fear that over zealous evangelists and preachers have used gimmickry to get people to make an emotional response to the gospel.  As I have studied some of these revivals and the men that led them, it’s apparent that many of them used theatrics, music, emotional appeals and every thing imaginable to get people to come forward in an invitation and say a prayer and then counted as having made a decision for Christ.  But even a cursory look at some of those results a year or two later and you will find very few of them living a Christian life.  But I’m afraid that vast numbers of people like that fill our pews on Sunday mornings, under the illusion that they are good with God.

This is a tragedy, that people are being deceived into thinking that they are in the kingdom of God, and yet one day they will find out that they are not.  Jesus presents an illustration of this point.  He says, “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

It’s possible to be caught up in the enthusiasm, to be a part of the congregation, to think that you have been accepted in the kingdom of God, and one day the door is closed and you find yourself on the outside.  What a horrible thought.

Vs. 26, “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’;”.  These are people that think that they are in the kingdom.  They went to church.  They took communion.  They listened to sermons, participated in the worship. They were members on the rolls.  They may have even taught Sunday School.   They thought they were in.  But they are not.

Vs. 27, “and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’”   Here is the distinction folks, don’t miss it.  There is a distinction between those that claim to be in the kingdom and are not, and those that are in the kingdom.  And the distinction is their fruit.  Now please understand something;  fruit is not the means of salvation, but it is the evidence of salvation.  Look once again to Matthew 7:16, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?  So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”  Twice Jesus says that you will know true believers by their fruits.

Now what are fruits?  The text makes it clear that fruit is simply doing the will of God, obeying the word of God.  The contrast is in the next verse; to not do the will of God is to practice lawlessness.  Vs. 21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

So salvation is not dependent upon saying “Lord, Lord.” Salvation isn’t dependent upon what comes out of the mouth, but what comes out of the heart.  But salvation is dependent upon doing the will of God.  This throws much of our contemporary theology right out of their stained glass windows, doesn’t it?  But they will say, “Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Didn’t we cast out demons? Didn’t we do miracles in your name?”

Hey, these guys had all the spiritual gifts going, didn’t they?  One of the problems of many charismatic churches is that the proof of their salvation is that they speak in tongues, they prophesy.  One of the proofs of their salvation is that they think that they are empowered by the Holy Spirit in all sorts of paranormal phenomena.  And naïve congregations clap and hoot and holler at the histrionics of their leaders, not knowing what spirit they are of.

Listen, I’m not hear to tell you today who is saved and who isn’t.  I don’t know.  I might make an educated guess by examining the fruit of someone that claims to be saved.  But I can’t know for sure.  But God knows.  He knows the hearts.  He knows the deeds that we do in secret.  He knows whether or not we have ever really repented of our sins and have in fact turned away from sin and the world.  Whether or not we have forsaken sin.

Listen, the only way to have fruit in your life is to first of all be a fruit tree.  In our natural state, we are not fruit trees. In our natural state we are unable to produce righteousness. But by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ we are grafted into the body of Christ.  That is the first step.  It’s coming to Christ in desperation and poverty and bankruptcy, begging God for forgiveness and mercy. Begging God to be transformed and changed from a sinner to a child of God.  And God promises that whoever comes to Him like that will not be cast out, but will be adopted into the family of God.  And when we are grafted into this body, then we will bring forth fruit.  We will be in Christ and Christ will be in us.  We will be new creatures, living a new life in and through Christ who lives in and through us.  And then it is going to be evident to everyone that we are bearing fruit. We live righteously because we have been made righteous.

That invitation to be grafted into the body of Christ is universal.  The Jews thought that it was a physical thing, that their salvation depended on being sons of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  They thought they could get in based on heredity.  Based on nationality.  Based on religion.  But in vs. 29 Jesus says that those that are going to be in the kingdom “will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.             And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.”

There is an invitation that is inherent in Christ’s message.  There is good news and that is that Jesus has paid the price you could never pay.  And for those that are willing to forsake sin and the world to follow Him there is salvation from the judgment to come.  But please understand what it means to follow Christ, to forsake the world.  It’s a battle of the will to let go of everything for this pearl of great price.  But it is a battle that has eternal reward.

I hope no one here has been deceived into thinking that somehow they have entered into the kingdom without the struggle of repentance and forsaking sin.  I hope no one thinks that they are in because of an association, or membership, or their relationship to someone who is in.  I hope that on that day when God shuts the door, you won’t find yourself on the outside wondering what happened.  There is going to be a terrible day of judgment that day is coming soon when the door will be closed.

I’m afraid that the point Jesus is making in this message is that most people lack true repentance. They lack the true contrition, true brokenness. They have never come  in desperation. They don’t have a true relationship to Jesus Christ. They just hang around the church and think that is enough. They don’t know what it means to bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  They want a gospel that doesn’t ask for repentance. They want a gospel that has no threat of condemnation or judgment. They want a gospel that allows them to have some superficial attachment to Jesus, but not a bowing to His absolute sovereignty at any cost. They want a gospel that fixes them in this world to make them more comfortable. But that’s not the gospel that Jesus is preaching. And that’s not what Jesus offers.

Listen, the word revival is not even in the Bible.  Don’t be deceived great movements, great signs and wonders. Jesus says that the church will be characterized by an unnatural growth, it will be the roost for doctrines of demons, it will be puffed up by the corruption of sin, but not all that think that they are part of the kingdom are actually known by God.  They thought that the way was easy, the road was broad, but in fact the road was narrow, and the gate was small.  It is with difficulty that people are saved.  It is by striving, by contending, and by struggling with sin and false doctrine.  The church of God is not going to be characterized in these last days by great revivals where thousands and tens of thousands are swept into the kingdom in a wave of emotion and ecstasy. But true revival is an individual process of repentance, and then bringing forth the fruit in keeping with repentance.

A few years after I left college, I was working in the hotel business and on one occasion I had a long weekend break from work.  An old college buddy of mine named Ivan happened to call and we made plans to go to Charleston, SC for the weekend.   At the time, I had fallen away in my walk with God and was, to use an old fashioned term, in a backslidden condition.  Ivan wasn’t living for God either.  But both of us had been raised by Christian parents and attended Christian schools, and so we both were more or less aware that we were in rebellion against God.

On the way home after a weekend of partying, Ivan began to talk about how depressed he was.  And as we talked, he admitted that he did not know whether or not  that he was saved.  Being backslidden myself, I found the conversation uncomfortable.  But I remember that I vaguely tried to reassure him as we drove the long drive back home in the dark. We were both young men in the prime of our lives. Ivan was beginning a new career in a couple of weeks as an airline pilot.  And I had recently gained a promotion in the hospitality management field.  We thought we had the future ahead of us, and a lifetime to make the most of every opportunity.

After we got home that night, we parted ways, making plans to reconnect in a few weeks and take another road trip.  But  I never got to speak to Ivan again.  On his maiden training flight with the cargo airline he started working for, his plane crashed with him and three other crew members aboard.  They think that something caused the plane to blow up in mid air.  Their bodies were scattered over a four block area.

When I got the phone call, I was very disturbed as I remembered the last conversation I had with Ivan.  I don’t know if he ever made peace with God.  Knowing Ivan, I doubt that he did.  As for me, it should have been a wakeup call.  However, I’m sad to say that it wasn’t. I continued to live in rebellion against God.  Yet I wondered why he was taken and I wasn’t.  After all, we were both more or less in the same boat.  And yet, God chose to let Ivan die while I continued to live in rebellion against God.  It was another 3 or 4 years before I finally got right with God.  However, even to this day I find myself wondering why Ivan was taken, while I was given another chance.

As Jesus is finishing up a long sermon to a large mixed crowd of disciples and curious onlookers, He found Himself confronted with a similar scenario.  Jesus had been preaching on the judgment to come and how that day can come upon you at a time when you are not expecting it.  And someone in the crowd, after listening to His message about judgment, asked Him about a current event that everyone in the crowd must have been familiar with.  They asked Him about a group of Galileans who had been killed by the Romans while offering sacrifices in the temple.  And there had been such a slaughter that their blood was mingled with the blood of the sacrifices.  It must have been a horrific event, and one that was particularly hard for Jews to come to grips with because it would have happened in the temple.  These Galileans were probably insurrectionists that had been found in the temple and massacred by the Roman soldiers as the temple sacrifices were going on.  So they obviously were connecting a calamity of this magnitude with the judgment of God.

That’s an assumption that perhaps we have all made from time to time as we have processed some great catastrophe that we have heard about on the news.  It’s the sort of questions that were frequently raised after the calamity in this country following  9-11.  The question they asked Jesus was similar to questions that I’m sure we all have asked ourselves at times like that; “Were these people worse sinners than everyone else? Did the judgment of God fall upon them because they were such evil people?”

And Jesus answered this question by saying, ““I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  Then Jesus followed up that remark with another recent headline that would have been familiar to them all.  There had been another group of Jews, eighteen persons in all, that had been crushed to death when a tower in Siloam had fallen on them.  And Jesus asks a rhetorical question, “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?”  His answer is exactly the same as before; “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Now to properly understand this, we need to realize that the Jews had a theology that basically said they were the chosen people of God, the fortunate people.  They were the people of God’s blessing.  And so to their minds, the only way misfortune could happen to them was if the people involved were particularly evil people who were being punished by God.  Because they believed that the normal situation was that the Jews were favored by God.  Bad things could happen to pagans and deservedly so, but not to Jews.

By the way, that same theology is very common in modern evangelicalism isn’t it? Especially in American evangelicalism there is a predominate teaching and mindset that says that Christians are somehow exempt from all the troubles and trials of the world.  That if we claim to be Christians and just have some form of faith, we can be assured that we can avoid the calamities that befall the rest of the world.  Such false doctrine has given rise to the Joel Olsteens and the Kenneth Hagins of the modern church which teach a health, wealth and happiness philosophy that has been called the prosperity doctrine. Such false teaching has  given rise to the faith healers like Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts and others that teach that sickness and calamity are never ever going to happen to believers if they have enough faith.

Unfortunately, Jesus Christ did not teach these doctrines. In fact, this very passage teaches that calamity comes on us all.   Jesus makes it very clear that the calamity that fell upon these two groups of people did not happen because they were greater sinners than others.  But what Jesus is teaching is that sin is the underlying reason for all death and calamity.  It is the nature of a fallen world. Romans 8:22 says that“the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. In other words, as a result of sin, the world is under a curse.  Nature is under the curse.  And man is under the curse.  All of creation suffers under the effects of sin and is waiting for the day of  redemption.

The correct perspective of understanding such tragedies is that sin has caused death to come upon the world, and all of mankind is doomed to death.  That is what Jesus means when He says unless you repent you will all likewise perish.  There is a fate worse than death, and that is eternal death and destruction at the judgment of God.  Physical death is just the gateway to judgment and the judgment is  eternal death.  Hebrews chapter 9 says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.  But for the grace of God, we all are destined to die an eternal death.  What time we have on this earth is but a temporary reprieve, an opportunity to respond to the gospel in repentance and be saved from the destruction that we all deserve and are destined to receive.

Just because you or I have escaped some calamity up till now is no indication of a favored position with God.  It simply means that you have been given more time to repent, to turn to God for forgiveness. Romans 2:4 says, “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”  But for the grace of God we all should suffer some calamity.  But God has given us time to repent, and whatever time we have in this world is due to the kindness of God that should cause us to repent.

But I’m afraid that most of us respond to the kindness of God much the same way as I did when I found out that my friend Ivan had died in a plane crash.  I thought it was a tragedy, but at the same time I thought that somehow I was exempt from such suffering, even though I was in the same sinful condition.  Most people go through life presuming upon the grace of God when they are able to continue in sin without calamity, and then blaming God when calamity strikes.

Now I think it’s obvious that Jesus is using these two events to reinforce the need for repentance. The idea of perishing is not talking about just physical death which comes upon us all, but Jesus is speaking of eternally perishing without God and finding yourself at the judgment being cast into eternal hell.  So repentance is the means of escaping that calamity that is due to befall everyone.  That calamity is greater than any disaster that might happen to us on earth, to be ushered into the presence of God and found wanting.  And what Jesus is making clear here is that the only way to escape that calamity is by repentance.

I’m afraid that in the salvation message today the need for repentance has been obscured by offering people a dumbed down version of the gospel that minimizes the need for repentance, and instead emphasizes the benefits of blessing.  It’s a false doctrine similar to what the Jews of Jesus day were believing in.  Today there is a great appeal to the world to come as you are, to have a relationship with Jesus and that He will solve all your problems and you will have an enriched, fuller, more successful life as a result.

Consequently, I’m afraid that a lot of people claim Christianity that in actuality haven’t ever been saved.  Because Jesus makes it clear that repentances is the means of salvation.  There must be a complete realization of our sinful condition before God and the judgment that we completely deserve.  Repentance then is the recognition of our sinful condition, of being cut off from God and deserving of God’s judgment, and then calling out to God for forgiveness and in a desire to give my life to God if He will give me life.  It’s an exchange of my life for His life.  My sin for His righteousness.  My will for His will.  It’s an act of grace, whereby I am completely undeserving, but God in His mercy has provided a way of escape through the substitution of Jesus Christ.

That’s the process of salvation.  I’m afraid though that isn’t what a lot of people who claim Christianity have done.  They have added a certain measure of Christianity to their lives in hopes of enriching their lives here on earth, or in hopes that God will enable them to escape some bad habit, or undesirable consequence of their sin, but there has never been repentance; to hunger and thirst after righteousness.  To become sick of your sin, and to understand that repentance is a desire to turn away from sin and live for God.

That sort of repentance will produce something else in a person’s life which is lacking in modern Christianity.  That sort of repentance will produce forsaking the world and living for God, to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  This part of salvation is what is called sanctification.  Hebrews 12:14 tells us that without this sanctification, no one will see the Lord.  Sanctification is the process of working out your salvation with fear and trembling, as we grow and mature in Christ and ultimately bring forth fruit.  True repentance produces three things in the life of the saved; saved from sin’s penalty, being saved from sin’s power, and one day saved from sin’s presence.  That is the three stages of Christianity, salvation, sanctification and one day glorification when sin is done away with forever.

The problem with modern Christianity is that we have a lot of people claiming salvation, but lacking sanctification.  And I’m here to warn you today that sanctification is the fruit of repentance; it’s the fruit of salvation.  I’m here to warn you that a life lived without a desire after the things of God, a life lived without being conformed to the image of God, a life lived without any visible signs of spiritual fruit needs to be examined in light of what God’s word really says.

Jesus said in Matt. 7:16, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

Now looking back again at our text, Jesus teaches this very important principle by using a parable about a fig tree that was planted in a vineyard. Luke 13:6, “And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.  And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?  And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;  and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

Now the illustration of the fig tree obviously refers to the nation of Israel in this parable.  And for three years Jesus  had been teaching and preaching the gospel of repentance.  John the Baptist had preached it prior to Christ.  And so Jesus is saying that because they were rejecting His message and not bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, God was ready to cut down the  tree.  John the Baptist had said that the axe was already laid  at the root of the tree.  And Jesus would be with them just a little while longer and then He would be taken away.  The time for the Jews to repent and start bearing fruit was now.

But history shows that they did not.  And within the lifetime of many of those who heard the message that day, in AD 70 the Romans would come and destroy the temple.  The massacre of the Galileans who blood mingled with the sacrifices in the temple would pale in comparison to the calamity that would come upon them then as thousands upon thousands  would be slaughtered while taking refuge in the temple.  And the temple itself would be burned and not one stone left upon another. God’s judgment would fall upon the Jews because they rejected His Son.  They had received all the care and benefits of being in God’s vineyard and yet they had not brought forth fruit.

Though this parable speaks primarily to the nation of Israel, it also has individual applications as well.  I know in my own life, I mentioned earlier that I eventually returned to the Lord.  And yet I did not return with my whole heart.  Perhaps I thought I was ok at the time.  I eventually married my wife, had children and became more involved in my church.  I thought I was doing more than most Christians.  I taught Sunday School.  I participated in various church functions and regularly attended services.  I tithed. I read my Bible every morning.  When I compared myself to most other people in the church I thought I was doing better than most of them.  And yet I held on to certain things.  My priorities took precedence over God’s priorities.  I was still in charge of my life and I wasn’t really producing much fruit.

The funny thing is, I was an ardent believer in the prosperity doctrine.  I thought I was a living example of God’s blessing.  I had built a beautiful home.  I had a great career.  I had a beautiful family.  I drove nice cars.  And I thought that I could offer myself to the unbeliever as an example of someone who was blessed by God.  That my example would be an inducement for others to come to Christ, that they might be successful like I was.

But God had other ideas.  He began to prune away the branches that were not fruitful.  He began to dig around my roots so to speak, and work in fertilizer that I might bring forth more fruit.  It took about three years, but by the time God was done with me I was broken physically and spiritually, bankrupt and ready to get serious about the things of God.

You all are familiar with my testimony, so I won’t belabor it.  But I will tell you that I learned that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  That means we are to exercise our faith, live it out in our daily lives.   Christ didn’t suffer the indignities of human existence and rejection and the sufferings of the cross so that I might use Him as a talisman to ensure that I can enjoy all that life can offer and still get a free get out of hell card.  Christ suffered so that He might purchase salvation for us by the price of His blood, that we might be made righteous, and having been made righteous we might be transformed to live no longer for this world, but to live for Him.

I encourage you today to examine your life.  I believe that I was saved when I was a little kid.  And though there were times when you might have looked into my life and seen a period of spiritual stagnation, or even backslidden-ness, yet as I look over the timeline of my life I can see the hand of God working in me and bringing me into a closer walk with God.  I can see a progression of growth and fruitfulness.  Maybe not as much as I would like to see, but a steady progression in my life as God worked in me, and disciplined me, pruned and fertilized in order to bring about more growth and greater fruit for Him.

And so I would ask you to examine yourself.  Some of you I know have fallen from time to time.  That’s ok.  Get back up, repent and ask God to help you not to fall again.  Confess your need for the Lord to help you walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh.  God says if you sin 70 x 7 times, and repent, He will forgive you.  But when you say that you have no sin, you are deceiving yourself and the truth is not in you.  The sin that God hates is the sin of hypocrisy; the sin that says it isn’t sin.  The sinner that won’t repent.  That thinks that they are ok in their complacency, in their apathy.

Listen, the Bible says that if you are a true child of God then God will discipline those He loves.  But if you aren’t a true child but an illegitimate child, then there will be no discipline in your life and as a result there will be no fruit.  But there will be one day a certain terrifying certainty of judgment upon all that have not repented of their evil deeds.  I hope that you are a true son or daughter of God today.  If you examine yourself and find that something is lacking, then call upon God in repentance and faith today that you might be saved and that you might bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

The other day I was engaged in a conversation with a young man who is not a part of this church, but who nevertheless endeavored to explain to me what, in his opinion should be the defining characteristics of Christianity and the church. This young man proceeded to tell me that the message of Jesus Christ was one of love and inclusiveness.  That Jesus came to bring peace and togetherness.  That love and acceptance should be the hallmarks of the church and that judgment and exclusiveness are never Christian virtues.

And afterwards as I was thinking about what he had said in relation to the message I was preparing today, I couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that so often the presumptions of man concerning the truth of Christianity are at odds with the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I wanted to ask this young man, exactly which God are you talking about? Are you talking about the God of the Bible, the God that condemned all of the human race to eternal death because two people ate an apple?  Are you talking about the God who destroyed by drowning all life on the earth in the flood?  Are you talking about the God who killed all the first born children of Egypt?  Are you talking about the same God?  Are you talking about the God who opened up the ground and swallowed up the children of Israel that rebelled against Moses?  Are you talking about the same God that ordered the Israelites to wipe out men, women and children from the land they entered?  Is that the God you are talking about?  Are you talking about the God who struck dead the man who lifted up his hand to keep the arc of the covenant from tipping over?  Are you talking about the same God who struck Ananias and Sapphira dead in the middle of the church when they came to give their offering?  Are you talking about the God that one day will come back in judgment and cast everyone that didn’t follow His Son into everlasting fire?  Are you talking about the God of the Bible or is this god you speak so fondly of just a figment of your imagination?  Jesus said they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  And I’m afraid this young man had no real idea of the truth about the God of the Bible.

Unfortunately, this presumption is found not only with unbelievers and their expectations of Christianity, but also  within the church.  In the church we often find that many times when the truth of the gospel is really proclaimed without apology in it’s fullness, people are offended, and in some cases they actually recoil from the message.

We find such a situation here today in the sermon that Jesus Christ is preaching.  He is speaking primarily to His disciples, but even though they are followers of Jesus they must find that what He says to them is shocking.  He says in vs. 51, “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.”  Now this would have been a shocking statement.  In fact, Jesus has said several shocking things in this message already.  Things that were contrary to the popular consensus of what the Messiah would bring about.  The common teaching of the priests and rabbis of the Messianic period was that the Messiah would bring peace on earth.  In fact, Isaiah 9 says explicitly that He would be the Prince of Peace.  And so for Jesus to say that He did not come to grant peace but division would be a shocking statement that seems at odds with their expectations.

This message is really going to set the stage for the rest of Jesus ministry.  In this last year of His ministry He is going to provoke even more antagonism towards His preaching by those that reject Him.  He calls  the religious leaders hypocrites.  He calls rich people fools.  He tells people that they need to sell their possessions and give them to charity.   He says that unfaithful stewards will be cut in pieces and assigned a place with the unbelievers.  No matter how you slice that, it’s a harsh message.  And now as we continue in this sermon, Jesus turns up the heat even more.  He says He came to cast fire to the earth.  And He says He didn’t come to bring peace, but division, even to the division of family members.

I would suggest that just as the disciples and the crowd must have been shocked by this statement,  most 21^st century Christians would also recoil from the idea that Christ came to bring division and not peace.  It is an assertion that is at odds with what most of us think Christianity is supposed to be about.

The mantra of the culturally relevant church tells us that we shouldn’t be negative.  That everyone is entitled to an opinion and we shouldn’t speak ill of what others believe. Far too many modern churches operate on the principle of declare and share.  They espouse the idea that a passage of scripture can be interpreted or applied in a variety of ways according to individual preference.  But actually we are told in Titus 1:9 that pastors are to be “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”  We must hold fast to the truth and refute that which is not truth.  Truth is by nature exclusive.  Truth is by nature divisive.  Not everything can be true or else nothing is true.  2+2=4.  And if we start saying that sometimes it can be five, or three, then we do so to the eventual destruction of all reason.  And when we start being ambiguous in the gospel in regards to the truth, then we do so to the eventual destruction of our faith.  God has given us a plumb line, a blueprint of His plan of redemption, and we must accept all of it, or discard all of it.  It is not open to discussion, there is no private interpretation.

We live in a social environment today that disdains dogmatism. The only thing we are allowed to be dogmatic about is that you cannot be dogmatic about anything.  Cultural relevance has trumped absolute authority.  The world thinks we are arrogant and bigoted to speak of Jesus as the only way, the only truth and the only way to life and that no one comes to the Father but through Him.

But the fact is that true Christians believe that God has spoken to us authoritatively and absolutely in His Word.  We believe that it is the plumb line of truth.  Everything must be measured in terms of what the Bible says.  And we must accept what the Bible says about God, whether we like it or not or whether or not it fits into societal norms.

You know, I can’t really blame the young man that I spoke to the other day for his misunderstanding of the gospel.  Instead I blame the modern day church for it’s inaccurate rendition of the gospel.  The gospel today has been reduced to an appeal to man’s self interest.  We offer a gospel that is just another version of a self help manual that is designed to produce health, wealth and happiness.  Listen carefully, happiness is not the primary goal of the gospel.  That may be the goal of the American citizen, as stated in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  And it actually mentions God.  But let me tell you something, it may sound wonderful that Americans are guaranteed happiness, but that is not Christianity – that is American idealism.  It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ and happiness is not a measure of our faith.

I want to be happy just as much as the next man.  I enjoy certain activities that make me happy.  But I better not ascribe my expectations  of happiness upon the gospel.  Look at your Bibles and tell me how often you find it recorded that Jesus laughed.  I’m not suggesting that He never laughed, but I am telling you that the Bible does not record happiness as a predominate characteristic of His nature.  Hebrews 12 says about Jesus that “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”  It was the joy set before Him that He endured His sufferings. It was something in the future.  It wasn’t joyful to go to the cross.  It wasn’t joyful to be crushed for our iniquities.  It wasn’t joyful to be slandered and reviled and spit upon and rejected by men.  But for the joy set before Him He suffered for our sakes.

The problem with the modern day version of the gospel is that too often we try to appeal to man’s self interest as an inducement to salvation.  We have reworked the gospel proclamation to the point of asking people if they would you like to be successful.  We ask them if they would like to be happy, to be healthy, to be fulfilled? And the average American who wants his inalienable rights says, “Yes, I would. That sounds great.”  And so then we disguise the gospel to appeal to that desire.  We tell Him that all that is possible by knowing Jesus Christ.

But for many people living today in 21^st century America that doesn’t work.  We ask them, “would you like to be successful?”  And their answer is  “Yes, I am quite  successful.  Did you see my house, did you see the car I drive and the job that I have?  I am quite successful already.  Thank you very much.” So we try, “Well, would you like to be happy?”   And they answer, “Yes, I am very happy. I have everything I want.  I am satisfied with my life. I have all that I desire.”  How about healthy?  Would you like to be healthy?  Maybe you need healing?  And the average person says, “No, I’m fine thank you.  I never felt better.”  And so we have nothing to offer these people.  But the truth of the matter is that we never really had these things to offer them in the first place.

Jesus says to those that would be His followers; “did you think I came to bring peace?  Did you think I came to build a community of followers on the basis of the lowest common denominator, that you can opt in at whatever point you choose, and with any vague idea of religion that you want to embrace and we will wrap it all up under the guise of Christian fellowship?”  Is this what Jesus came to bring about?  Is this what Jesus suffered and died on a cross for?

No, Jesus said.  “If you come to me then I will turn your life upside down, and even your family upside down. If you come to Me you must come 100%.  If you come after Me you better be prepared to carry a cross.  I came to kindle a fire and bring about a baptism and to bring a division that will separate.  If you’re going to follow Me you better be willing to leave everything.  You better be willing to forsake your possessions.  You better be willing to even be separated from your friends and family for My sake. You better be willing to lay down your life as you know it.”

Frankly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not what most people are willing to accept.  If people fall away from the faith it is because they are not willing to accept the truth of the gospel.  They are looking for something that doesn’t require any sacrifice, something not so dogmatic, something less confrontational.  And you can be sure that the Devil has another version of religion on every other street corner that is designed to be appealing to our sensibilities, but it isn’t the truth of the gospel.  In fact, it is designed to bring about destruction rather than life. Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Just in case some may think I am dramatizing this all a bit too much, I would ask you to look at another shocking message of Christ in John 6:54 where Jesus says,  “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.”  And the disciples said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”  Jesus watched them go away and then turned around to the 12 and said, “Do you want to go away too?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”  And that really is the key, isn’t it?  The word of God is the words of eternal life. It is the plumb line of truth by which we gain heaven.  And we are given the responsibility to learn what God has to say about Himself, and what He requires to gain eternal life. What we think should be the character of God doesn’t matter.  What we think is fair doesn’t matter.  What we think is right doesn’t matter.  It is only by obedience to what God’s word says that we will find life.

Just prior to vs. 49 Jesus is talking about coming in judgment.  He says He will come to judge the wicked and the righteous.  He comes it says in vs. 48 to judge our deeds, and to judge our stewardship of what we have been given.  I said last week and I must say it again; as Christians we have been given so much.  We have been given grace.  We have been given forgiveness.  We have been given salvation.  We have been given the Holy Spirit to live in us.  And we have been given the Word of God.  And I must ask you again, what have you done with what you have been given?  I can assure you that we will be held even more accountable than the Israelites were.  The prophets of old longed to see what we have seen.  They longed to have the completion of scripture that we have today. The Jews were given only the law and were held accountable for what they produced.  And God judged the Jewish nation severely for their lack of stewardship.  But we have been given grace which is greater than the law, and should produce a greater produce than the law ever could.

Hebrews 12 says that we have come “to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”

Now I think that consuming fire is what Jesus is talking about in vs. 49; when He says, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!”  There are two primary ways that fire is talked about in the Bible.  One is as a refining fire, and the other is as a destroying fire. The same fire destroys what is combustible and refines what is non combustible.

I think Jesus is talking about casting both kinds of fire upon the earth.  John the Baptist said in Matt. 3:11, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  Some like to teach that the Holy Spirit is a form of fire.  But John makes it clear that fire is the fire of destruction, burning up the wicked.

But there is also another fire spoken of in regards to the coming of the Messiah in Malachi 3:2; “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.”

So we see that Jesus is speaking metaphorically of Himself in vs.49 as kindling a fire that will judge men’s works, refining them as silver and purifying them of their impurities so that they may present offerings of righteousness to the Lord.  A refiner’s fire burns out the impurities to produce a higher grade of silver. It relates back to vs. 48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” That is the work of the refiner, to produce a more pure silver, a greater produce of righteousness.

Peter also speaks of that refiner’s fire as something which comes upon us for testing to make us stronger and purer. 1Pet. 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” This refiner’s fire then comes as a form of testing, to purify you and prove you, that you might become stronger in your faith.

Not only does Christ say He comes to cast fire, but He says in vs. 51, “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”  What is this baptism that Jesus speaks of?  We saw earlier that He already had been baptized by John so what is He talking about?  I think it’s clear that He is talking about a baptism of fire.  Baptism means to be immersed.  And He is talking about an immersion in the sufferings that He was appointed for.  This is why He came, to undergo a baptism of fire for our benefit, to take our punishment for sin upon Himself.

I think that this is proved by 1Peter 4:12 which we just looked at.  Peter said we should not be surprised at the fiery ordeal we are going through which is for our testing, as though something strange was happening to us.  It’s not strange because it happened to Jesus first.  And Jesus said a servant is not greater than His master.  He said we must take up our cross and follow Him.  And so Peter says our sufferings are to be understood to the degree that you share the sufferings of your Master.  Our fiery ordeal is likened to the sufferings of Christ.  He died in the flesh, so we die to the flesh.  He mortified sin, we mortify sin.  He became poor, so we are poor.  He suffered rejection of men, so we suffer rejection of men.  He was obedient unto death, so we are obedient unto death.  And as we suffer with Him, Peter says in the same manner we will rejoice in the glory of His revelation with exultation.

Just one quick note about what Jesus said about being distressed.  It speaks of stress, of an oppression, of a constraint upon Him.  And what it means is that Jesus was resolute.  He was pressing on towards the goal of the cross.  It was distressful, it was an affliction that He was tormented by as He suffered in the flesh.  We cannot even imagine the horrors of the Holy God taking upon Himself the sins of the world.  It was a great burden on Him as God was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, bruising Him for our iniquities, and scourging Him with stripes that we might be healed. And yet it says He was anxious to get on with it.  He wanted it to be consummated.  His goal was the cross and the grave and even the gates of Hell itself.  And I think that is what baptism is really getting at; burial.  The grave.  That is what baptism represents when you are lowered in the water, you signify that you are dying with Christ to your old way of life, and then rising from the water in newness of life.  So baptism speaks of the grave and all that it represented to Him.

Alistair Begg said that “this is not Jesus Christ on a deck chair, this is Christ hanging on a cross with His eyes wide open and groaning, and bleeding and suffering.”  That reminds me of an advertisement I heard about a Christian cruise ship where you go on vacation and have talks about God and listen to praise bands and so forth.  It sounds lovely, but I doubt it’s in my price range.  But even so, I’m not sure I would go if I had the money.  Because I don’t believe that Christ has suffered and died to call us to service on the Love Boat, with an all you can eat buffet and Zumba classes on the Lido Deck, but Christ has called us to serve on a battleship.  And the sooner we wake up to that reality the better.

The church, my friends, is not a country club.  It’s not a social hall.  We can find fellowship in all of those places, but that is not church.  Fellowship is found in the church in the truth of God’s word.  It is found in sound doctrine and in our commitment to obey it.  And in doing so, we will be called dogmatic, judgmental, confrontational, exclusionary.  But we must be faithful to God first and foremost.

Jesus says that such a doctrine will sometimes mean suffering the loss of family and friends. Vs.51, “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

As I alluded to earlier, at first this seems a contradictory statement of Christ.  After all, the Messiah was prophesied to be the Prince of Peace.  But what Jesus is talking about here is not world peace, or even peace with God, but He is talking about the peace that brings people together.  That is what peace means in it’s most basic form.  It means reaching an accord,  an agreement that causes both sides to get along.  But Jesus says that isn’t what He came to do.  He did not come to find the lowest common denominator to bring about peace or even fellowship.  But rather Jesus came to delineate truth as coming down from heaven from the Father.  Establishing a plumb line of truth and righteousness that would actually cause division rather than unity. And He goes on to say that that plumb line of truth may result in a division even to the point of family.

Jesus isn’t asking us to do something that He wasn’t willing to do.  You remember when Jesus mother and brothers were reported to be outside waiting for Him when He was teaching in someone’s house?  And He said, “My mother and my brothers are those that do my will.”  Jesus said on another occasion in Matt. 10:35, “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

Listen, I know this is a tough message.  Some of you have suffered the loss of family for the sake of following Jesus Christ.  It would be easy to compromise and say that God’s word isn’t that important.  The world tells us that it isn’t cool to get too serious about your Christianity.  The worldly church tells us that the way is wide, that it is all inclusive, that nothing is worth getting all that worked up over.  That fellowship is better than discipleship.  That we just need to find the lowest common denominator and then everybody will get along.  After all, isn’t Christianity supposed to be about love?  Doesn’t love mean we are  supposed to accept everything and everybody just the way they are?

That may be the modern version of Christianity, but I’m afraid it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus has made it clear so far in this message that gospel of Jesus Christ is exclusive.  It is exclusive because it will divide between truth and error.  Between man’s view and God’s view.  Yes, it is a difficult message.  And a lot of people fall away because it is difficult.  Jesus said to Peter, “blessed is He who does not stumble over Me.”

I’m not here to tell you today that following Jesus completely and fully is going to be easy.   There is a cost to following Christ.  There is a cross for us to carry.  And sometimes that results in separation from our loved ones who won’t accept the gospel.  But there is also a reward for those that are found faithful.

Peter said in Luke 18:28 “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.”And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

There is joy that is set before us as we endure the refiner’s fire here on earth.  There is glory that will be revealed at the coming of Christ for His bride.  There will be exultation when we will one day be welcomed into the presence of God and He says, “Welcome home, My good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Master.”  I hope you are looking forward to that day.  And I hope and pray that you will not fall away because of the difficulty of following the example of Jesus Christ.

As we come to this passage of scripture today, we must remember that we are entering into the middle portion of an ongoing sermon of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we must keep in mind the context of this sermon, what has been said so far.  For Christ is building a message, precept upon precept.  And in order to correctly understand what we are looking at today, we must remember what Christ has already been preaching, and consider it in that context.

So what has Christ said so far in His message?  Well, He started out criticizing the Pharisees who He said were hypocrites.  The sin of hypocrisy, you will remember, is thinking that you are hiding your sin while outwardly putting on a religious front.  And the Pharisees were very good at that.  But Jesus says, that which is hidden in the heart, God actually sees.  And one day, God will reveal the hearts of men at the judgment.  He said that we should fear God who has the power to not only take away life, but is able to cast the soul of man into hell.

And this is really the theme of the message up to this point, to show that there is coming a day of reckoning for every man and woman on earth.  He illustrated it with the parable of the rich man, who stored up treasures on earth and thought he was going to be able to live luxuriously for the rest of his life and enjoy himself.  But God called him a fool, and said that that night his soul would be required of him.

But to his disciples, Jesus reiterates that they should not concern themselves with the things of this world such as clothing and food and shelter.  But rather they should be concerned with the things of the kingdom of God.  He teaches them the principle that if they seek first the kingdom of God, then all the earthly things will be added unto them.

So this has been the emphasis of Jesus message up to now, to contrast the life of the citizen of the kingdom who is working for the kingdom and investing in the kingdom with the life of the unconverted person, who is living a self indulgent life for his own interests.  Jesus is speaking primarily to his disciples in saying that God has chosen gladly to give them the kingdom, and so in return they should work for the kingdom, put the kingdom of God first in their lives, and lay up treasure in the kingdom of heaven.

So Jesus continues with this theme in this next section.  He teaches that there will be a day of reckoning for all men and women, and that those that are of the kingdom of God will be rewarded according to their works for the kingdom, but those that are not of the kingdom of God will be judged accordingly.  But Jesus introduces a new concept here in this passage.  He is not just talking about a person dying and going to receive his reward, but He also introduces the principle that He Himself will one day come back and be the judge of all things.  In vs. 40, Jesus says, “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

So this section introduces the essential doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ.  He alluded to it in chapter 9 starting in vs. 25, “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”  In chapter 10 and 11, Jesus referred to a day of judgment, but now He is adding more specific information.  He is revealing that He Himself is coming back to bring judgment to the earth.  He makes that clear in the next passage which we will look at next week; in vs.49 He says He came to cast fire upon the earth.  And in vs. 51, He says, “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.” Matthew records Him saying at another time virtually the same thing but in a more direct method, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matt. 10:34)  He is coming again to divide the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous.  To bring reward to the righteous and judgment upon the unrighteous.

Jesus illustrates what I have been saying to you for some time now.  That there is a progressive nature to the gospel, especially in regards to revelation.  There is a principle that as you believe and obey, God will give you more.  And that is borne out by this passage.  But with that revelation comes responsibility.  That is why the principle of faith is always connected to the principle of obedience.

Listen, the gospel is simple enough that a child can accept it and be saved.  That is why Jesus said that one must enter the kingdom as a little child.  A childlike faith is characterized by trusting and obeying. So Jesus invited  children to be brought to Him.  But though the gospel is simple, yet it is also a mystery.  And as a mystery it is understood in a progressive nature as we grow up in Christ and maturity is tied directly to obedience and perseverance.  In other words, there is no such thing as being converted and yet remaining unchanged any more than it is possible for a child to remain a child and never grow up.

Today the church in America is in crisis because the gospel has been dumbed down to the point of some sort of relationship without any sort of responsibility.  But this passage is one of many that illustrate that concept is at odds with the full counsel of God’s word.  I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the working of a plumb line.  In it’s simplest form it is a weight that is tied to a string.  And the string is let down from a height to determine a straight line to reveal if something is true, or straight.

I believe God’s word is the plumb line of truth.  I believe that truth is absolute. God has given us the word of God that we might know the truth and that the truth would set us free.  But we have a responsibility to rightly divide the word of truth as it says in  2Tim. 2:15; “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  Why would someone be ashamed?  Because on the day of judgment they will find out that they did not correctly divide the word of truth.  Their lack of scholarship resulted in a flawed doctrine which will make them ashamed at His coming.

And so I am afraid that there are a number of doctrinal issues in which the church today is being deceived.  We looked at that last Wednesday evening in regards to the spiritual warfare that we are engaged in. We were reminded that Satan is the father of lies and a great deceiver, and that his strategy has always been to subvert the truth.   That’s why Eph. 6 tells us that the first piece of armor that we are to put on is the belt of truth.  All the other armor hinges upon the truth.  Our doctrine of grace hinges upon the truth.  Our doctrine concerning the nature of God hinges upon the truth.  Our doctrine of faith hinges upon the truth. All of these things are rendered ineffective if truth is lacking.  Our very salvation is dependent upon the truth.

But truth in the Bible is revealed by being obedient to the Spirit of truth. John 16:13 says, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”   And Paul makes it clear that obedience to the truth results in righteousness; Rom. 6:16, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

In other words, there is a plumb line of truth coming down from heaven which is found in the word of God. 2 Peter 1:20 says that truth is not dependent upon personal interpretation but upon divine revelation.  And we must be responsible, faithful workmen in regards to accurately handling the word of God that we might discern the truth and be obedient to it.  I am concerned that the scheme of Satan has always been to twist and subvert the word of God.  Sometimes that is done by the pendulum swinging too far in one direction or the other.  You can err by using some scriptures and to establish a doctrine but at the expense of ignoring other scriptures. And the end result will be a false doctrine.  Just enough error to cause you to go astray.  But a careful examination of the full gospel of Jesus Christ will put things in the correct balance.

Let me give you some examples;  the scriptures teach that God is love, but God is also just.  It teaches that God is merciful, but God is also the faithful and righteous judge.  The gospel offers salvation, but there is also damnation.  There is a heaven, but there is also a hell.  And in practically every doctrine of the faith, you will find this sort of balance.  There is the doctrine of election and predestination, and there is also a doctrine of free will, that whosoever will may come.  They both have to be taken together, and rightly dividing the truth is comparing scripture to scripture and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit bringing all of it together as the truth.

I say all of this because there is a degree of either laziness, or apathy or selfish motivation that has permeated what passes for church doctrine today.  And so many are teaching only a piece of the gospel.  Let me tell you something folks; the gospel starts in Genesis chapter one and continues to Revelation 22.  Churches today are teaching grace without growth, love without responsibility, salvation without sanctification.  And it really gets worse and worse by the decade.  There is very little talk of heaven in most churches today because they want to believe that the best that God has for us is available right here and now.  There is practically nothing taught about judgment today.  Hell is a non-topic.  But in the 18^th and 19^th centuries of the Great Awakening, most sermons were about either heaven or hell.  Jonathan Edwards best known  message was “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”  He read his message aloud and half way  through people were sobbing and weeping and prostrating themselves on the floor in repentance and getting right with God.  Today if a pastor read that message from the pulpits of most evangelical churches he would be run out of the church in a heartbeat on the grounds that he was a legalist and uncompassionate.

Today the typical message on a Sunday morning in most churches is often on topics  like “Seven steps to financial freedom.”  A pastor I know personally very well recently kicked off a new series of messages on Sunday mornings at his church on the Daniel Plan.  The Daniel Plan, for those of you that haven’t heard of it, is a diet plan book written by Rick Warren.  And for a certain price you can buy a sermon series from him, complete with diet books and helpful guidelines for healthy living which are suitable for small group meetings.  And if you really want to do it up right, you can incorporate special workouts at the church as well. It’s a big hit.  It’s exactly what the self absorbed modern Christian wants to hear. I think a better title for the book might have been, “How to have your cake and eat it too.” Churches today are doing away with midweek Bible studies and adding exercise classes but 1Tim. 4:8 says that “bodily exercise is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Folks, there is something seriously wrong with the church today in America when this sort of stuff passes for preaching the word of God.  What should be clear from the teaching of Jesus in this passage is that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world are diametrically opposed.  That friendship with the world is enmity with God.  That you are either laying up treasures on earth or you are storing up treasure in heaven.  Jesus preached unapologetically that message.  And He called anyone who focused on this world either a hypocrite or a fool.  There was no middle ground with Jesus.  You were either working for the kingdom of God or you are working for the kingdom of yourself.  Jesus said, where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

So Jesus adds now another dimension to this sermon.  In vs. 35 He says, “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit.”  The KJV puts it more literally; “let your loins be girded…”  It comes from Exodus 12, when God told Moses in the instructions concerning the Passover, that they were to eat it standing up with their staff in their hand and their loins girded.  They were to tie their robes up under their belt in order to be able to move fast.  In other words, they were ready to march.  They were ready to go out of the land of Egypt on a moment’s notice.  And that is what Jesus is saying here.  If you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, then you are to have that attitude of readiness.  You are ready to leave this world.  You are looking forward to the next world.  This world is not your home.

But since we are looking at Ephesians 6 this week on Wednesday, I can’t help but remind you of the first piece of our spiritual armor that is described in Eph. 6:14,  “Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.”  Truth is tied to that idea of readiness, isn’t it?  If you have the plumb line of truth as your foundation, then you will be ready when Jesus comes.

And then He says “keep your lamps lit.”  Now what does that mean?  Well, for one it is a reference to  Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  But it also can refer to a parable Jesus gave in Matt. 25 about the ten virgins.  In the story, Jesus tells of ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom.  And five of them were foolish and five were wise.  The foolish ones did not bring enough oil and so their lamps went out.  But the wise virgins had brought extra oil, so when the bridegroom came late, the foolish virgins were without lamps and were left out of the wedding feast.  Whereas the wise virgins refilled their lamps and so had light in their lamps and they were ready when the bride groom came.

Well, what does that all mean?  The most obvious meaning is that we are to be waiting and ready for the appearing of the bridegroom who is Jesus Christ.  But there is another implication in the oil for the lamps.  Without oil, the lamps go out.  Oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit.  So what this is signifying is that there is a need for being constantly filled with the Holy Spirit.  In Ephesians 5 we looked at that principle in vs.18 which says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”  It is talking about a constant supply from  the Holy Spirit that comes as a result of being obedient to the Holy Spirit.

The opposite of being filled with the Holy Spirit is to be drunk with wine; out of control, of dissipation which is self indulgence.  But Gal 5:22 tells us what being filled with the Spirit produces:  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Paul is saying that walking by the Spirit is putting to death the deeds of the flesh, it’s passions and it’s desires and having self control.  That’s a Spirit filled life.

And so Jesus is saying that we are to be ready for His return.  That means girding our loins with truth, and keeping our lamps lit by walking in obedience to the Spirit.  Jesus continues in vs. 36; “Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.”   To understand the metaphor Jesus is using here you have to understand the Jewish wedding ceremony of that time period. There were three stages to a Jewish wedding in that day. The first was engagement – a formal agreement made by the fathers. The second was betrothal – the ceremony where mutual promises are made. The third was marriage – approximately one year later when the bridegroom came at an unexpected time for his bride.

So Jesus is referring here to the bridegroom’s friends that were part of the wedding party.  They would have been preparing the house for him to return with his bride.  Jesus is saying that blessed are those men that are waiting and ready for the bridegroom.  These are the faithful men who have been preparing for his arrival.  Now look at what He says He will do when He finds them ready.

Vs. 37, ““Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.” Here is the principle; those that have been faithful in serving Christ, will one day be invited to His marriage supper in which He will serve them. In Revelation 19 there is a prophecy concerning the marriage supper of the Lamb.  It is a metaphor of the time of celebration and consummation between the Lamb of God and His bride, the church.  But it is also a prophecy concerning the judgment that comes upon the earth.  Following the invitation of the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19:9,  John writes in vs. 11, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”  So those that are ready are invited to the marriage supper, but those that are not are judged by the Word of God.

So even though Jesus has just commended the faithful slaves who were ready when He came, now in an almost contradictory fashion Jesus adds this warning in vs. 39, “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”  Allow me to emphasize what Jesus said.   Jesus is coming again at a time you do not expect.  I think far too much attention is given today to trying to figure out all the signs and prophecies concerning the future, and not enough emphasis given concerning our present responsibility to be about the business of the kingdom of God. Jesus doesn’t elaborate on all the details that we like to focus on.  He doesn’t mention a rapture, for instance.  He just says He is coming back and we need to be ready.

Let’s restate vs.39 like this.  If you knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow at midnight, what would you do during those last 36 hours?  Jesus is basically saying that you need to live like it’s your last hours on earth.  Because it just might be.

This teaching is sort of unnerving for most of us Christians, isn’t it?  We like to think that we don’t have anything to worry about because we are good to go.  To quote Crocodile Dundee, “Me and God be mates.”  We want to believe that we have nothing to worry about because somewhere in our past we walked an isle, or said a sinner’s prayer or had some sort of spiritual experience.  And so we can sympathize with Peter’s question in vs. 41, “Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?”  “Hey Lord, you’re not talking about us are you? Certainly not us.  Right?” Peter wants to know if they are off the hook or not.

Well we can have all kinds of theological debates and try to wriggle out of the following passage in a number of different ways.  But since Jesus didn’t let Peter off the hook, I won’t let you off the hook either.  However, I would challenge you to just consider the plain truth of what Jesus is saying.  If you asked Peter’s question of Jesus that day and this is what He answered you, what would you think?  Let’s just take Jesus’ entire answer at face value for a moment.

Vs. 42-48  is Jesus answer to Peter’s question. “And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers.  And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”

Well, I don’t imagine that that answer let Peter and the disciples off the hook.  Here is the gist of what Jesus is saying.  If you are a faithful and sensible steward who is found doing what he was commanded to do, then you will be rewarded with good things.  But if you are a foolish steward who is sinful and does what is pleasing to himself then you will receive punishment.

We can slice and dice that statement any number of ways in an effort to get ourselves off the hook so to speak.  But I can suggest how Peter might have answered that himself a few years later because he did so in 1Pet. 4:17, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  Here is what Jesus’ statement means at the very minimum.  It means that you can’t separate faith and obedience. It means that if you are filled with the Spirit then you will do the works of the Spirit.  It means according to James 2:26 that faith without works is dead.  It means according to Matt. 7:20 that you will know them by their fruits.  Not by their professions, but by their works. Matt. 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”  Listen, God isn’t interested in a kingdom of people who only give lip service and then go live like they want.  That was the picture of Gideon’s army.  Those that laid down and lapped the water like a dog could go home.  God didn’t want them in his army.  He would rather have a few that were ready and willing than thousands of self indulgent soldiers in name only.

There is one final aspect to this statement that I want to examine quickly in closing.  It is a warning to me and to you, of this I can assure you unequivocally. Jesus said, “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”

Have you been given much?  Has Christ not given His precious blood for your salvation?  There can be no greater gift than the gift of our salvation.  There can be no greater gift than the gift of God’s word.  There can be no greater gift than the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And the word of God was given that we might know His will.  The Holy Spirit was given that we might understand His word and have the power to do God’s will. But Jesus says if we know His will and did not get ready or act in accordance to His will, we will receive many lashes.

You know, I have to bear that burden as a preacher. James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”  But all of us have to bear that burden to some extent.  Because to some extent we are all teachers.  If not by our words, then by our actions.  Your life is a testimony to what you believe.  You are teaching others by what you do or don’t do.

Listen, don’t get mad at me.  I have to tell you what Jesus says or I will receive greater judgment for my dereliction of duty.  As Jesus said in vs. 48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”  I would just close with this question, “how are you doing with what God has given you?”  Modern Christians love to claim the gifts, but what is that grace producing?  Are you using your life to further the kingdom?  Or are you using it on your own pleasures and passions?  Are you a faithful and sensible steward that is about the kingdom of God?  Jesus says you are going to be held accountable for what you have been given.  From His simplest commands to His noblest aspirations for us, as we have been entrusted with much we shall be asked of much.  Jesus says one day there will be a judgment and you will be judged by your fruits.  I hope you are ready and unashamed when that day comes.  That you will be found faithful.  That Jesus might say as in Matt. 25:23, “‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’”

There is a dangerous tendency when coming across a passage of Scripture such as this one, to isolate these verses from it’s context.  It’s dangerous because when you do that, what you end up with is a flawed doctrine.  And a flawed doctrine is one that you cannot fully rely upon.  You can’t fully trust it.  It may sound good, it may seem true from a superficial reading, but when a real crisis hits your life that flawed doctrine isn’t going to hold water and it can cause shipwreck to your faith.

A superficial view of this passage would suggest that Jesus is teaching a sort of Christianized version of the song from the Lion King; “Hakuna Matata.”  Or to put it another way, “don’t worry, be happy.”  Such a flawed theology professes that Jesus is promising an unconditional elimination of worry – that a person doesn’t need to be concerned about finances or worry about needs or even worry about any unfulfilled desires you might have because God loves you and wants to fill your life with blessings. God just wants you to be happy.  That’s His ultimate goal for your life.

It kind of reminds me of this plaque that someone gave me the other day.  It was a quote supposedly taken from a text of Scripture in Matthew 21:22.  It had a nice little frame and this artsy lettering which was well suited for hanging somewhere above the kitchen sink.  It said, “Pray for anything, and if you have faith you will receive it.”  I thanked the person who gave it to me, and then I promptly threw it in the garbage can.  Not only is it a poor translation of the original scripture, but that statement on a plaque over the window  proposes a blanket doctrine devoid of all context, and yet only within the proper context can it be truly understood.  It was never intended to be a cure-all statement akin to rubbing a genie bottle.

We have to avoid the tendency to prescribe to platitudes that are supposedly formed on Scripture, yet cannot be fully understood without considering the framework in which they were given.   For instance, in this passage Jesus is not advocating a carefree, hakuna matata lifestyle, in which God is obligated to work out every wish and desire that I have, irrespective of His will.  As if God’s reason for existence is to serve me and my desires.  No, the fact is that these promises are conditional upon the fulfillment of certain principles of the kingdom of heaven.  IF you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, IF you have as your priority the priorities of the kingdom of heaven, IF you are living for the kingdom of heaven, then these things are true.

Notice Jesus is speaking to his disciples. These promises are never intended for all men in general. These promises are only for those who have sacrificed everything for the sake of the kingdom.  These are people that have given up this world, given up their jobs, given up their religion, given up their families, given up their source of wealth or income, to follow Jesus.  Peter acknowledged this in  Matt.  19:27, “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”  And Jesus said to them, “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.”

Notice that Jesus isn’t suggesting that He will restore all their fortunes in this life on this earth. But Jesus says that in the regeneration, which is the final part of the kingdom when Christ will sit on His throne and we will be resurrected with a glorified body, THEN they will also sit on thrones.  The fact is, on this earth, all of the apostles ended up losing their lives as a martyr, except for John.  Jesus goes on to say that anyone who gives up his possessions or his family here on earth for the sake of the kingdom of God, will receive many times more and will inherit eternal life.  The promise is simply this; that God offers the blessings of His kingdom for those that are willing to give up the earthly rewards of this life for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

That is what Christianity really is, by the way.  There are a lot of people running around claiming to be Christians and yet they have never truly renounced sin, they have never given their lives to be lived solely for Christ.  They essentially just added an outward form of Christianity to their lives.  Kind of like the way somebody might add a life insurance policy to their portfolio.  And I cannot help but wonder if a lot of those people are truly saved, whether they are truly children of God.  Salvation is not necessarily obtained through an emotional experience you had sometime in your past.  That may have been a factor in coming to Christ, but somewhere along the line there needs to be a recognition that salvation is an exchange; not only an exchange of your sins for Christ’s righteousness.  But also an exchange of your priorities for God’s priorities.  An exchange of your goals for Christ’s goals.  An exchange of your desires for God’s desires.  An exchange of your life, for His life lived through you.  Don’t kid yourself, folks, anything less than that is not salvation. Anything less is just religion. It’s just adding a little Jesus like a good luck charm to your life to help you accomplish all that your goals.  But that ain’t salvation.

Salvation means to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of this world, to the kingdom of God.  You once were of the world system, you were captured by the sin of this world and were under the domination of the ruler of this world, Satan.  But when the grace of God appeared, Christ transferred you to the kingdom of God, and that resulted in a change of mind, a change of heart and a change of action. Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, [who are] zealous for good deeds.”

So when you consider all that Jesus has been saying in our text, it is obvious that the characteristic of a citizen of the kingdom of God is a complete surrender of your will to God’s will.  He started off in vs. 1 by saying that anything less than a transformed heart resulting in a change of behavior is hypocrisy; it’s not really salvation.  It’s just empty religion unless the heart is changed and that transformation will produce a behavior change, or else it’s not real.

Then Jesus says in vs. 2, 3 that God sees the heart.  Nothing is hidden from God; not your thoughts, not your motivations, everything is laid open before the eyes of God.  And then Jesus tells us in vs.5 to fear God! Now that would seem a direct contradiction to the passage we are looking at today.  How do you fear God and not worry at the same time?  Well the answer is that those that are not really a citizen of the kingdom of God should fear God who will cast them into hell one day. But those that are of the kingdom of God don’t need to fear Him, because those that are truly His children do what He wants them to do and He takes care of them.

Jesus then goes on to teach the disciples in vs. 15 that kingdom life is not about accumulating possessions.  That’s the world view, the view of the kingdom of darkness is to say that he who dies with the most toys wins.  That we should just focus on being happy and whatever brings you happiness is ok.  But God doesn’t promise you a perpetual state of happiness as a Christian.  And blessings are not measured by material things.  That view is contrary to Scripture.  But Jesus calls that kind of thinking the plans of a fool, and He says that judgment awaits such a person who thinks and lives a materialistic life.  Jesus says in vs. 21 that rather than being focused on the riches of this world, we need to focus on being rich towards God.

So that’s the context in which these promises are placed.  They are first and foremost for the citizens of the kingdom of God who are living for the kingdom and who have died to the things of this world. They have renounced the world’s view of life, and are living solely for the kingdom of God.  The overarching principle to understanding all of this is found in vs. 31, “But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”  Matthew adds the phrase, “seek first His kingdom…”  The priority of the kingdom of God in your life is the condition by which all these things are so.

You know, I hate to sound harsh, but for some people we could just stop right here.  There is no sense in going on about all these promises that God has for us if we are still living carnal lives that are only concerned with our needs and our desires.  If your allegiance to God is dependent upon getting what you want in this life, then you might as well just stop right here.  Because that is not Christianity, that is not discipleship and that is not the hallmark of true salvation.  If you love this life more than you desire the next, and you’re not willing to give up this life in exchange for the one that God has for you, then you are fooling yourself.  The promises of God have no place in you.

Don’t be deceived, Christ is not talking about an easy believism, “name it and claim it” type of Christianity.  That is why back in vs. 11 He says, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”  This isn’t some idle speculation.  This is a promise founded on a prophecy that they would be brought up before trial for what they believed. They would give up their lives for the gospel.

It’s sad that the gospel of Jesus Christ that not only the apostles were martyred for, but thousands upon thousands of men and women through history have died for has been watered down and twisted and perverted to the point that it has been reduced to the prosperity doctrine that it has become today.  In it’s modern dilution, the gospel has neither the power to deliver from sin nor the power to save.  But that is not the true gospel and that is not the gospel of our forefathers in the faith.  Those men and women are described in Hebrews as those that “looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”  “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”  “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

I recently read the story of such a man of faith as that which I would like to share with you. In a book first printed in 1890, John Ryle describes the death of Rowland Taylor, who was executed in England because he believed that priests could marry and that the bread and wine of communion did not become the actual, literal, body and blood of Jesus.

On the last day of January 1555, Taylor appeared with two others before the Bishop of Winchester, and was charged with heresy and dividing the church. When they refused to change their minds, they were condemned to death. When condemned, they replied back to the Bishop, “We know that God, the righteous Judge, will require our blood at your hands, and the proudest of all of you shall repent this receiving again of Antichrist, and of the tyranny you now show against the flock of Christ.”

On February 4, Taylor was kicked out of the priesthood, and that night, his wife and son were permitted to eat dinner with him. After dinner they left, with much affection and tears. The next day, he was led out to Hadleigh to be executed, so that he would be burned to death in the city where he served as a pastor and in front of his congregation.

When the left the London jail on the morning of February 5, it was still dark. Taylor’s wife suspected he might be taken that morning, so she waited with her two daughters outside the jail. When she called out to him, the sheriff allowed her to come with her daughters for one last meeting with her husband. Rowland Taylor took his little daughter Mary up in his arms, while Elizabeth knelt with him and said the Lord’s Prayer. They prayed together, then kissed and hugged, and Taylor said to his wife: “Farewell, my dear wife: be of good comfort, for I am quiet in my conscience. God shall raise up a father for my children.” He kissed his daughter Mary and said, “God bless you, and make you His servant;” and, kissing Elizabeth, he said, “God bless you. I pray you all stand strong and steadfast to Christ and His Word.” As he was led away, his wife called out, “God be with you, dear Rowland: I will, with God’s grace, meet you at Hadleigh.”

The journey from London to Hadleigh took several days, and all along on the trip, Rowland Taylor was joyful and merry, as if he were going to a banquet or a party. But on February 9, 1555, they came into Hadleigh. When they were still two miles from town, Taylor leapt off his horse and started on foot-but he was walking fast, almost as if he were dancing. The sheriff asked him how he felt, and he said, “Well, God be praised, good master sheriff, never better; for now I know I am almost at home … even at my Father’s house… O good Lord, I thank You! I shall yet once before I die, see my flock whom You, Lord, know I have most heartily loved and most truly taught. Good Lord, bless them, and keep them steadfast in Thy Word and truth.”

When they came into Hadleigh, they put a hood over his head and came over a bridge. At the foot of the bridge was a poor man with five children, who cried out, “O dear father and good shepherd, Dr. Taylor, God help you, as you have many a time helped me and my poor children.” The streets were crowded on both sides with people who wanted to see him; when they saw him being led to death, they cried and wept with all their strength. People cried out, “Ah, good Lord, there goes our good shepherd from us, that so faithfully has taught us, so fatherly has cared for us, and so godly has governed us. O merciful God! What shall we poor scattered lambs do? What shall come of this most wicked world? God Lord, strengthen him and comfort him.” Taylor answered back, “I have preached to you God’s Word and truth, and am come this day to seal it with my blood.”

When they came to the town square, he heard a great multitude and asked where they were. When they told him they were at the place he would be executed, he said “Thank God, I am even at home,” and he took the hood from his head. When the people saw his face, there was an outpouring of emotion. They wept and cried out, “God save you, good Dr. Taylor! Jesus Christ strengthen you; the Holy Spirit comfort you,” and many other such things. Taylor wanted to speak to the people one last time, but as soon has he opened his mouth, a guard put a spear right up to his open mouth, and made him stop.

He started giving away his clothes-first his boots, then his coat and jacket, till all he had left was his pants and shirt. He then cried out with a loud voice, “Good people, I have taught you nothing but God’s Holy Word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God’s blessed Book, the Holy Bible; and I am come here today to seal it with my blood.” But then one of the guards clubbed him over the head and said, “Is that keeping your promise of silence, you heretic?” So, seeing he could not speak, he knelt down to pray. A poor woman came to kneel beside him and pray, and the guards tried to push her away but she would not go.

When he had prayed, he came to the stake he would be tied to and he kissed it, stepped into a barrel, and stood with his hands folded in prayer and his eyes towards heaven as they tied him to the stake. After some agonizing delays, they finally lit the fire, and Rowland Taylor prayed out loud: “Merciful Father of heaven, for Jesus Christ my Saviour’s sake, receive my soul into Your hands.” Then he stood perfectly still as the fires arose around him, without crying or moving, until a guard clubbed him on the head and his brains fell out, and his dead corpse fell into the fire. A marker was left that simply said, 1555: Dr. Taylor, in defending that which was good, at this place left his blood.

It is obvious that this man loved the kingdom of heaven more than all this world had to offer.  And though such a story might seem drastic to our 21^st century ears, such an attitude is the hallmark of true discipleship.  For those that are willing to bow their knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every facet of their lives, then Christ promises that God will take care of them. They need not worry about earthly things such as food and clothing.  They have a higher calling.  They have been commissioned by God Almighty.  And though they may suffer the loss of all things here on earth, God will reward them.  God the righteous judge will one day set things aright.  This life lasts but a moment.  But eternity lasts forever.  The riches of this world will one day be burned up, but the riches laid up in heaven will  never fade away.  But some of you are clinging to the things of this world, and in so doing precluding the promises of the next.

Jesus says in vs. 22 to those willing to forsake all to follow Him: “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”  It has taken me almost half my life to come to realize that it is far better to have lived for the Lord and have little, than to live a lifetime without Him but have much. It is far better to burn out for Christ, than to rust away in the world.

Here is the principle; God will take care of His own. “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!”  David said in  Psalm 37:25, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.”  Now that is a general principle about God’s provision.  And without contradiction listen to how Paul said that is worked out in his life; Phil. 4:12, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”  Paul was sold out for Christ.  He said he considered all the things of this world as rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ. And so Paul knew he could trust Christ to take care of him.

The citizen of the kingdom of heaven must first come to give his life to God to use as He wills and trust that God values His life and will use it for His glory.  Jesus explains the freedom that comes from having that understanding in vs. 25, “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?”

And Jesus illustrates that with an example of the flowers in a field.  Now at first reading this seems to be about clothing.  But I don’t think it’s talking about clothing at all.  I think Jesus is saying to consider how meticulously God created the flowers and how beautiful they are.  They are a picture of our lives which are precious to God.  And yet those flowers are so short lived that they are here today and gone tomorrow.  But how much more value are we than the flowers. Let’s read vs. 28  “But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!”  Isaiah 40 says, “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.” Our lives are but a fleeting vapor.  We can’t hold onto it.  We can’t add to it.  But if we are citizens of the kingdom, then Jesus promises that our lives will count for something if we give them to God for Him to use.

Jesus continues to contrast the way people of the kingdom of God are as opposed to the kingdom of this world. Vs. 29, “And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.  But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.  Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”

There is a book out called “Fearless”, the biography of Adam Brown.  He was a former drug addict who was saved while going to Teen Challenge.  After graduating from college, he joined the Navy to become a member of Seal Team 6.  And one day he paid the ultimate sacrifice by drawing enemy fire to himself in order to save his comrades.  But just before he died he sent a letter to his wife and children which said in part, “I’m not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this earth because I know, no matter what, nothing can take my spirit from me.”  He knew he had eternal life, he knew that he had an inheritance awaiting him in the kingdom of God and so he didn’t fear losing his life here on earth for the sake of a higher calling.

I don’t think that we fully appreciate the nature of this inheritance we have in the kingdom of God.  We have been given the right to be joint heirs with Christ! Listen to  Rom. 8:16, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”  I’m afraid that we commonly swap the treasures of heaven for the baubles of this world much like Esau traded his birthright for a cup of stew.  We rightly condemn Esau for making such a dumb trade, but we commonly trade the glory of heaven for the garbage of this world and think nothing of it.

Christ gives one more set of characteristics of those that are children of the kingdom. Vs. 33 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Having no fear, having no worries results in the freedom to give yourself totally and completely to the Lord.  So that rather than accumulating possessions as the rich fool did, the citizen of the kingdom gives his possessions away.  Rather than storing up treasures on earth, the citizen of the kingdom makes a money belt that doesn’t wear out because it’s resource is in heaven.  If God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine, then because He is our Father then they are mine as well.  That gives me the freedom to give without my right hand knowing what my life hand is doing, because God my Father has endless resources.

But if my treasures is wrapped up in things of this earth, in my possessions, in the fulfillment of my agenda, my desires, my will, then that shows that my heart is still unregenerate.  My heart never has really been transformed.  If I am afraid to live fully and unreservedly for the kingdom of God, then that shows that I have a heart that is still trapped in the kingdom of darkness.  Or at the very least, I show that I have allowed the enemy to take back territory that was claimed for the kingdom of God.

Listen, if we claim to be a child of the King, a citizen of the kingdom of God, then we should act like it.  We should live fearlessly, fully throwing ourselves into the work of the kingdom and not allow ourselves to get caught up again in the worries of this world. 2Pet. 2:20, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.”

I am going to close with a warning from Hebrews 12, starting in vs. 15. “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.  For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.  For they could not bear the command, “IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.  See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.  And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”