Many years ago, when my daughter Melissa had just learned to walk, we moved to the house that we are presently living in.  And not long after we moved in, some friends dropped by in the middle of the day to see the house and give us a house warming gift.  We gave them a brief tour of the property and were talking for a while, when suddenly I became aware that Melissa wasn’t around.   I called out her name, expecting her to be right around the corner, but there was no answer.

Immediately, all of us started looking for her.  We live on an old chicken farm, and so we were going all around the property calling out her name.  No Melissa.  That’s when I suddenly moved into panic mode.  I began running, praying and yelling at the top of my lungs.  It seemed impossible that she would have gone but so far.  It couldn’t have been but a few moments that she could have wandered away.  I remember running along a deep irrigation ditch that ran alongside one  of the fields, thinking that maybe she had fallen in.   Every horrible scenario I could imagine played out in my mind.

When I got near the end of the ditch, I noticed an older woman across the highway probably 150 yards away from our house, and she was waving at me.  And holding her hand was little Melissa.  And Melissa was holding onto our dog Goldie.  Turns out, Goldie our dog wandered across the field and across the highway and Melissa followed Goldie.  Then two men driving a work van stopped and picked up Melissa from the middle of the road and knocked on the lady’s house, thinking that she may have been her grandchild.

To this day, 12 years later, I can still recall the horror of knowing that Melissa was lost.  There must be no greater fear or nightmare on the part of a parent than losing your child.

Now, I could have made the focus of my story about losing my dog.  But I wasn’t concerned about Goldie. She would have eventually come home.  But I was terrified about my daughter, because she was my child and she was helpless. She couldn’t find her way home by herself.  And so I tell you my story to help set the context for this parable that Jesus tells about a lost sheep.  Jesus isn’t concerned about sheep, He is using sheep as a metaphor for people.  People who are lost and helpless.  And Jesus tells this story about sheep because sheep characterize the nature of people.

Isaiah 53 says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”  And the Apostle Peter says in 1Peter 2:25 that we all were continually straying like sheep.  This is the natural disposition of man.  After the fall, man was blinded by sin, and the Bible says his heart was deceitful and desperately wicked.  Romans 3:23 says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  And Paul quoting David from the Psalms in Romans 3:12 says, “ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

But the scribes and the Pharisees didn’t see themselves as lost or in need of repentance.  They were very religious.  I’m sure they voted conservative.  They kept the law.  They worshipped the one true God.  And so they viewed themselves as righteous.  They saw themselves as being the good people, and tax collectors and sinners were the bad people.  Now tax collectors were at the bottom of the barrel in their estimation.  These guys were much worse than the IRS.  These people were considered traitors to the Jewish nation.  They had gone over to the Romans, their enemies, and purchased a tax collection franchise from the Roman government whereby they levied taxes against their own people for profit.  They were the worst.  And the second worst people were what they called sinners.  Sinners wasn’t a term applied to everyone.  It was reserved for people that had given themselves over to a sinful lifestyle without apology.  They were the outcasts from decent Jewish society.  They were made up of prostitutes and low level criminals.

So when these tax collectors and sinners started to come to Jesus and listen to Him preach, the Pharisees saw an opportunity to try to discredit Jesus by proving Him guilty by association.  The Pharisees and scribes were jealous of the attention that Jesus was getting.  And because they were jealous, they had been trying to discredit Him for some time now.   For the last three chapters Jesus has been having a running dialogue with those guys who were constantly trying  to catch Him in something so that they could use to dishonor Him or shame Him in the sight of the common people.  And so in vs. 2 it says they began to grumble and said, “this man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus answers them with a parable.  He tells a story to illustrate why He would associate with these sinners.  But don’t misunderstand something folks.  Some people have used this passage as a pretext to say that there is nothing wrong with hanging out at bars because Jesus hung out with tax collectors and sinners.  But that isn’t what the Bible says.  It says they were coming to Him and listening to Him.  They were coming to be saved.  Jesus wasn’t having a few drinks down at the pub so that people would think He was just one of the boys.   He wasn’t stooping to their level of debauchery in order to relate to sinners.  No, Jesus makes it clear in this parable and the next two, that the key to His acceptance is repentance.

And repentance isn’t just saying you’re sorry, or to try to do better, but it’s being sick of your sin, mourning over your sin, and being desperate to have your sins forgiven and be delivered from the power and enslavement of sin.  That is repentance, and that is why these tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus.

Now there are three aspects to being a sheep that I would like to bring your attention to today in light of this parable;  the lost sheep as a sinner, the wandering sheep as a saint, and the lost sheep in need of a Savior.

First of all, the lost sheep as a sinner.  Jesus paints a picture of the sheep which is lost.  We can imagine that it was evening time, and the shepherd brings his sheep down from the pasture in the hills to the sheepfold down in the valley.  And as he herds them one at a time through the gate he counts them off.  But he comes up one short.  Perhaps he counts again, thinking that maybe he missed one.  But once again he comes up one short.  Maybe he realizes that it’s that one particular spotted lamb that is missing.  And as evening sets in, he can imagine it bleating on the mountain side, afraid and lost and in danger from predators.

They say that a sheep is one of the most defenseless animals in the world.  It can become lost after just straying a few dozen yards from the flock.  If it is frightened, it can literally become frightened to death.  If it falls over on it’s side, it is practically unable to get back up.  It has no defensive mechanisms.  Almost any predator can kill a sheep.  So in compassion for this lamb that was lost, the shepherd sets out with his staff in the growing dusk, to search for the lost lamb.

Jesus said that eventually the shepherd found the sheep, and he put it upon his shoulders and carried it home.  And when he arrived home, he called together his friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!”

Listen, some of you here today are lost.  Maybe you have come to the point of realizing that you  are a sinner.  If you have, then that’s a good thing.  The good thing about the tax collectors and sinners of Jesus’ day was that there was no denying that they were outcasts.  They had given up on religion.  They had become brazen in their sin.  They didn’t try to hide it.  But they had come to a place where they were sick of it.  They found out that it didn’t satisfy.  They had been trying to fill a hole in their hearts that couldn’t be filled with sex, or alcohol or drugs or money.  And they were sick of being that way.  They longed for real fulfillment.  They longed for real joy.  They longed for forgiveness and restoration with God.

And they heard some good news that day.  They heard that Jesus had come to seek and to save those that were lost.  They heard the good news that if they were willing to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, then they would be restored with God, they would attain righteousness before God, and they would gain eternal life.

I quoted Isaiah 53 while ago which says that all of us are like lost sheep. Vs. 6 says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”  That’s the bad news.  But it continues with the good news;  “But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”  Did you hear that?  Our sins were put on Jesus. 2Corinthians 5:21 says it like this; “God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

That’s the picture Jesus was sharing in this parable.  The Shepherd went searching for us, He found us lying wretched and miserable in the enslavement of our sin, and picking us up, He laid us upon His shoulders and carried us to His home, rejoicing.

Isaiah 53 describes Jesus bearing our sins in vs. 4, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

See, we were lost sheep, continually straying, sinners, deserving of sin and punishment.  But God sent His Son, Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, to take away the sins of the world.  This spotless Lamb of God offered Himself as a guilt offering in our place upon a cross, as Isaiah continues; “the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”

This is what Christ came to earth to do; to make it possible for sinners to be forgiven and accepted by God because the punishment that was due to us fell upon Jesus.  I hope that if you’re here today and you know that you’re lost, you will call upon Jesus to save you and repent of your sins and be saved.

Now there is another application of this parable, and it’s not just to lost sinners, but to wandering saints.  A saint, according to the Biblical definition, is anyone that has repented of their sins and been born again by faith in Jesus Christ.  But it’s possible that having become saved, at some point you have found yourself back in a place of waywardness.  You have left your first love.  Maybe your heart has become cold.

That possibility is born out in this parable in vs. 4 and 6.  Jesus says the lost sheep belongs to the shepherd.  They are His sheep.  He had 100 sheep and one wandered astray.  Jesus uses this same parable in Matthew 18 but with a different twist on it than here in Luke.  In Matthew 18, Jesus is talking about how terrible it will be for the person who puts a stumbling block in front of one of His children.  That it would be better to be cast into the depths of the sea with a millstone around your neck than to face the judgment of God upon the person that causes a child of God to stumble.

And then immediately in that context, Jesus gave this parable again about the lost sheep.  In this context, the lost sheep isn’t an unsaved person, but someone that has been saved and has fallen away, or wandered away from the fold.

In the case of Matthew 18, I think Jesus is speaking primarily of a child of God that has wandered astray.  Someone or something has caused the child to stumble.  Remember He said that there were going to be stumbling blocks in the world.  And He warned of the consequences to those that caused a child to stumble.  So in that context, I think we see that child of God that is described in I Tim. 6:10 which says they “have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” They are one of the shepherds flock that has somehow strayed.  He’s gotten off track.  Whether it was the world’s influence or perhaps even another Christian’s influence, this child of God is in trouble.

There has been a few times in my life when I’ve fallen away.  I was following the Lord pretty good for a while, then something happened and I took my eyes off Jesus.  Maybe it was a girl that came along that I was attracted to.  Or maybe it was a friend who influenced me to go in the wrong direction.  Or maybe it was the allure of climbing the corporate ladder of success.  I thought I was ok spiritually, I thought I was standing, and the next thing I know I’m off in the ditch.   Spiritually, I wandered a little further and a little further over time.  First I stopped reading my Bible. Then  I stopped praying. Eventually I stopped going to church. It started as a little thing, a little bit off track, but before I knew it I was completely messed up. It can happen to all of us.  And it probably has at some point in your life.  Lost means that somehow you’ve lost your way.  Somehow, another Christian has disappointed you.  Somehow, the church has failed you.  Somehow, you’ve lost the joy of your salvation.  Maybe you thought God should have done something and He didn’t do what you thought He should. Your faith was shaken.  And so you’ve fallen or you’ve lost your way and can’t seem to get back the Lord.

Jesus is showing through this parable His compassion for this person at this point in their life.  God is a God of reconciliation.  God wants you to be restored.  He isn’t willing for any to perish as Jesus says in Matt. 18:14.  He doesn’t want you to ruin your life or the life of others that you may be connected to.  He doesn’t want to see you ruin your testimony by making wrong decisions or being despondent.  He loved you when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and He loved you when you were living for him, and He still loves you and pursues you when you stray.

I quoted part of 1 Peter 2:25 while ago, but let me quote the whole verse; “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”  Listen, God is willing and ready to forgive you and restore you if you are willing to repent of your sins.  Nobody knew that better than Simon Peter himself.  Before the crucifixion He denied Christ three times.  But afterwards he was heartbroken over his sin. So after His resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter when he was fishing and used that as an opportunity to bring him back into the fold.  Jesus said to Peter three times, once for each denial, “Feed my sheep.”

David, the Psalmist also knew what it was like to backslide into grievous sin.  He committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then effectively murdered her husband to try to cover up his sin.  Earlier God had described David as a man after His own heart.  He was even a writer of scripture!  How does someone like that fall?  Just the same as we do.  A little bit here, and a little bit there, and before you know it you have wandered far away from God.

But David repented of his sin.  He said in Psalm 32:3, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You,  and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found.” If you are here today as a Christian and have fallen into sin like David, then you can know as he did the forgiveness and reconciliation of God.  David said that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise.

But that brings me to another aspect of a wandering sheep.  And that is the sheep who belongs to God and has wandered away from the Lord and yet will not come back. And because God loves His sheep, He will discipline them to bring them back into conformity with the image of His Son.  Jesus said in  Rev. 3:19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

Roy Gustafson, who was a close friend and coworker with Billy Graham and led many parties to Israel, told a story in his book “In His Hand” (p.46).  He said that on one of his visits, on the road down from Jerusalem through the Judean wilderness to Jericho, they met a shepherd carrying one of his sheep with a splint and a bandage on its leg. Their guide, who’d lived nearly fifty years in that area said, “The shepherd broke that sheep’s leg himself.”

Mr. Gustafson asked why he would do such a thing.  It was explained that this was a sheep that was always wandering off, and in the process leading other sheep astray. Membership in the flock carries certain responsibilities, and even though the shepherd feels a real love for his animals, it’s sometimes necessary to discipline them, as they must be kept together for their well-being and their safety.

So to cure this sheep of its self-willed ways, the shepherd had broken its leg, and then hand fed and carried it till the bone was mended.  The process of being dependent upon the shepherd and being close to him would teach the sheep stay near him and not stray when he was well.

A lot of people today don’t like to hear that God is a jealous God. They don’t want to believe that God will actually punish sin.  Or that God will chastise His children.  But the fact of whether or not they want to believe it doesn’t change the nature of God.  Jesus said just before the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18’s version, “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.”  The point is clear from Jesus’ teaching, God would rather you be lame than wander astray.  In my own life, I know that God had to break me before He could remake me.

The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in chapter 12; “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”  It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.”

Did you get that?  Make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint.  That’s a reference to God breaking the leg of the sheep, to keep it from going astray.  But if you repent, then God promises healing. Psalm 51:8, “Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice.” Hosea 6:1“Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.”

Listen, if you’re here today and you have wandered away from the Lord, and you deliberately continue to walk away from the path of His word, then if you’re a child of God He will pursue you.  You are His.  You are not your own, you are bought with a great price, the price of the blood of the Son of God.  Don’t trample His grace under your feet. If you’re God’s child and you are rebelling then one day He will discipline you to bring you back.  And if He doesn’t, then you’re not His child.

One last application.  The sheep in need of a Savior. If we are to follow Jesus as His disciples, then we must be willing to go after the lost as He did.  As Jesus said in the last chapter of Luke we looked at a couple of weeks ago, the master sent his servants to go out into the highways and byways and compel them to go in.

We have a commission from Jesus Himself to go out into all areas of the world, starting in our neighborhoods, to our cities, country and then to the uttermost parts of the world and make disciples.  Telling people that there is good news for sinners who are willing to repent and be saved.  That Jesus the Savior has offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins that we might be made righteous before God.

James 5:19 says “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back,  let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  You want to do God’s will?  You want to make a difference for the kingdom of heaven?  Then devote some time to reaching the child of God who has strayed.  Go to that child in love and compassion and reach him with the truth and in his need.

Jude 1:22 says, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting;  save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

This is our calling.  It’s a noble calling.  A great commission.  Jesus said to Peter if you love Me, you will tend my flock.  Feed my sheep.  Feed my lambs.  Jesus has called us as Christians to shepherd the flock of God. Jesus uses people to serve his people.  Jesus wants to use you to reach his sheep.  That is what it means to be part of a church.  We don’t go to church just to watch a performance or hear a message.  Ephesians 4 tells us that we go to church to become equipped to do the work of service of building up the body.  In other words, you become the church.  You begin to serve.  You begin to witness.  You begin to pray for others.

I think so many people fall short of usefulness because they underestimate the power of prayer in the church.  They think because they can’t preach or lead singing then there isn’t anything for them to do.  But if they just understood the power of prayer then they could have a mighty impact for the kingdom of God.  Pray for those that are lost.  Pray for those that are in rebellion.  Pray for God to send someone to search for that lost sheep and bring them back to God.  Pray that God will send you.

So many people say “well I want to do the will of God, but I just haven’t figured out what that is yet.”  Well, in Matthew 18:14 at the conclusion of the parable of the lost sheep the will of God is written right there so you won’t get confused. “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” That’s His will.  Now let’s get to it. Go search out and bring in the lost sheep that they will not perish.

In closing then, it should be apparent that we are all like sheep.  And like sheep, we have all gone astray.  If you confess that you are a sinner and are willing to repent of your sins, willing to forsake your sins, then Jesus is teaching here that there is a place for you in heaven if you trust in His atonement. Jesus said heaven is waiting with bated breath for you to repent.  The angels are standing on the parapets of heaven ready to break out in joyous celebration for one sinner that repents.  That is why Jesus came, to save sinners.  All that stopping you from being saved today is your rebellion.  I hope that today is the day of your salvation.

And if you are a sheep that belongs to Christ but have wandered away from the path of God, then I urge you today to repent. A contrite and broken heart God will not despise.  But if you continue in your rebellion, then know for certain that a good and loving God will not let you stray forever.  He is calling you to come home in repentance right now.  I hope that you answer His call.  And finally, let us follow the Great Shepherd’s example.  Let’s go out into the world and compel sinners to come to repentance.  Let’s tell them the good news, that Christ has come to bind up the broken hearted, to heal broken hearts to forgive us our sins and provide reconciliation with God.  That is our mission, our purpose, so let us be about the Father’s business of bringing the lost to salvation.

For the last couple of chapters or so, we have been looking at a running message that Jesus has been preaching concerning the characteristics of the kingdom of God. And perhaps the key to that entire sermon was His pronouncement in chapter 13 vs. 24 that the way into the kingdom of God was by a narrow gate, and few there were that would enter it. Jesus gives a variety of illustrations and examples that show that simply a form of religion, or nationality, or good intentions did not qualify one to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The summation of that principle was found in our last study in chapter 14, vs. 16-24 in which Jesus presented a parable which likened the kingdom of God to a great dinner banquet. And if you will remember, the thrust of this story was that the invited guests found themselves preoccupied with their own commitments on the day of the feast, and so the master invited the lame, blind and crippled, the people of the streets to come in and enjoy his hospitality. But he said about those first invitees, “none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

The moral of the story was that those that were initially invited valued their own agenda more than the invitation to the great banquet. They valued their possessions more than the kingdom, they valued their work more than the kingdom and they valued their relationships more than the kingdom. And Jesus is saying that because of their priorities, they were disqualified from entering the kingdom of God. So contrary to the popular idea that the kingdom of God is a great big open door and all you have to do to enter is believe in God, Jesus uses one example after another to divide, to subtract, and to reveal that only a few are really going to be accepted into the kingdom of God. And what Jesus makes clear here is that true discipleship is synonymous with the kingdom of God. You can’t be in the kingdom and not a disciple. It is the same thing.

Now after saying all that, Jesus leaves the Pharisee’s house where He had been eating dinner and He begins traveling again towards Jerusalem. And it says in vs. 25 that great crowds are following Him. Now for most Christians, that would be perceived as a good thing, would it not? I mean, there can be no greater testimony to a work of God than to see a great crowd, or so we’re led to believe. But Jesus consistently goes against the Christian church planter stereotype here. He obviously didn’t read the best selling book “The Purpose Driven Church.” But all jesting aside, Jesus is not interested in building a great church simply on the basis of numbers. Without question, He was the greatest evangelist, the greatest preacher, the greatest shepherd that ever lived. If anyone should have been filling a football stadium every weekend He should have. But Jesus doesn’t seem to be interested in that. Jesus isn’t interested in building a big church – He is interested in building disciples. He knows that most of the people following Him were not committed enough to become disciples. In fact, they weren’t really interested in becoming disciples. They were following Him because for the moment He was a popular figure. He was a novelty. There was occasionally free food that miraculously appeared. There were people that were being healed, even dead people raised from the grave. He was by far the greatest thing to happen in their community in their life times. Jesus was a sensation. And people poured out of the towns to see Him. But Jesus isn’t interested in popularity. He knows that popularity is a fickle thing. The crowd that swelled after Him today would be calling for His crucifixion tomorrow.

We see the same thing in our society today. What’s wildly popular today is old hat tomorrow. My daughter and I were having one of our frequent talks about fashion just the other day and I said virtually the same thing. I warned her not to be a slave of fashion. By the time you get your wardrobe fashionable, the fashion has changed and you are out of style again. I can’t wait for some of our current fashions to change. Unfortunately, they just keep recycling themselves again every few years. I think I’ve lived through at least 3 separate 60’s revivals. It’s starting to feel like groundhog day.

So Jesus isn’t interested in furthering His own popularity. If He lived on earth in our day I seriously doubt that He would have a facebook page with thousands of friends. But He is interested in making disciples. However, He isn’t interested in fair weather disciples, He wants a total commitment. He isn’t interested in superficial followers but He wants them to know what it will cost them. This is not a call to come to Christ so that you can have your best life now. This is not a call to come to Christ so that all your problems can be solved, or so that you can be successful, or so that you can realize your full potential, or even to come to Christ to get out of hell. To borrow a quote from John McArthur, Jesus is not calling for a makeover; He’s calling for a takeover. He is calling to become sovereign Lord, divine dictator, ruler, controller and king of your life. Never did Jesus call for a short, easy prayer to receive eternal life. Never did He call on people to make an emotional decision induced by some pleadings by someone or some music or some moving environment. Never did Jesus offer an easy believism or an easy way to Heaven. What Jesus is saying in these verses is that becoming a disciple of Christ requires a complete capitulation and real discipleship has a real cost involved. And He is warning them that unless they are willing to pay the price, they will never be His disciples.

You know, I’m going to go against my wife’s advice here and make a statement regarding the cost of true discipleship. And that is that I will predict that there are some who are sitting here today that will no longer be here three or four months from now. There undoubtedly are some here today who want to be in the kingdom, may even think they are disciples of Jesus Christ, and yet they have never fully surrendered, they have never fully counted the cost. And one day they will find themselves in a position where they have to choose between a relationship or a complete commitment to Christ, and they will choose the relationship to have first place. Or one day they will find themselves facing a choice between their career or their allegiance to Christ first, and they will choose the career. Or maybe one day they will face the choice between riches and possessions or between putting Christ first, and they will choose what Jesus calls mammon, the riches of the world.

Please understand, I don’t want to see people leave our church. I’m not encouraging someone to fall away. But I am warning you that it regularly happens and that history shows that most people fall away because they are not really, truly committed to put Christ first in their lives, no matter what the cost. The landscape of modern Christianity is littered with half started, desolate houses of those people that abandoned their commitment to Christ for the sake of the things of the world.

And so as Jesus concludes His message He gives them three costs to discipleship. Three separate times Jesus says you cannot be my disciple unless you bear the cost. The first cost is the cost of relationships. He turns around to the crowd that is following Him and says in vs. 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.” Now I believe that Jesus says this in just this way in order to be deliberately confrontational. He deliberately wants to be shocking. There is no other way to understand this statement. This is not a soft spoken, music playing in the background sort of emotional appeal to come to Jesus. This is an extreme challenge to their motivation to follow Christ.

Now how are we to understand this statement? Are we really supposed to hate our family members? Doesn’t the Bible tell husbands to love their wives as their own selves? Didn’t Jesus tell us to love our neighbors? Doesn’t the Bible teach us to even love our enemies? So how do we reconcile this statement with what we know to be true in other scriptures? Well, we understand scripture by comparing it with scripture. And so if those other statements are true, then we must recognize that Jesus isn’t telling us to hate our families. But rather it is a Hebrew idiom. It’s a way of saying that my love for Christ is so great, that my love for my wife is like hate in comparison. That is what it means. He is speaking of the kind of love required in the great commandment, which says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. When you love God like that, then everything else is subjugated to that love. The love of a wife is nothing in comparison. The love of a boyfriend or girlfriend is nothing in comparison.

That’s why when I give marriage counseling I always use a triangle for illustration. And I point out that their allegiance to God must be first, at the top, their love for God must be paramount. And if that is right, then their love for each other will be right. If you will be a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you must subjugate every familial relationship to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He must have preeminence. He will not settle for second place in your life.

Not only are we to put Christ ahead of our relationships, but we must put Him even above our own lives. And so in vs. 27 Jesus says that not only are we to hate our family relationships, but that we must even hate our own lives. And that principle is fleshed out in vs. 27; “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” I think there is enough of Walter Mitty in most of us that we can imagine ourselves in some dire circumstance where we would be told to deny Christ or die. And if you’re like me, you can imagine sacrificing your life as a martyr for Christ, if it came to that. But if you are like me, then secretly you are relieved to think that the likelihood of that happening is slim to none living in America in this day and age. Though how much longer we can take that for granted is a matter of some concern.

But I think what Jesus was referring to in vs. 27 is not so much a martyr’s death, though many of His disciples would indeed suffer that fate in the near future. But what is of a more immediate concern is that we are willing to sacrifice our lives in the sense of our day to day lives. Our priorities. Our goals, our dreams, our ambitions for the sake of knowing Jesus. He isn’t calling for some morbid, suicidal notion on our part, He isn’t calling for the kind of fanaticism that the terrorists practice where they blow themselves up in the name of God.

What Jesus means is that you consider your life; your will and your ambition and your desire and your purposes as minor, insignificant, unimportant compared to your desire to do what honors your Lord. You’re not just adding Jesus as another ingredient to your personal recipe for success. But you live your life in such a way that each day begins with the assessment that what I do today is for the glory of God. My will is not important, but His will be done in my life.

And there is yet a third cost of discipleship outlined in vs. 33; “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Now how are we to understand this? Are we really supposed to give up everything and live on the street? Are we not supposed to have cars or houses? We have to be careful not to take the teeth out of what Jesus is saying, and yet at the same time carefully figure out how this is to be done practically. God may indeed call you to give up all your possessions. That may be part of your discipleship. That may be the refining fire which God uses to purge away the impurities and make you useful to Him.

I can speak to that reality personally. There was a time in my life when God took everything I owned away. I’m still coming to grips with the difficulty of that sometimes. Especially us men are oftentimes defined by what kind of job we do, what kind of house we live in and what kind of car we drive. They say the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Men like their toys. And I liked mine. Furthermore, I viewed them as some sort of proof of God’s blessing on my life. I even thought they were a testimony for God, sort of an example that I could offer others that would induce them to become disciples as well. But God had other plans. He wanted me to become a true disciple. And to do that He first took away everything I counted on, everything I defined myself by. He had to break me before He could remake me. So I can attest to the fact that Christ does in fact many times demands of His disciples that they give it all up.

But that is my story. It may not be the way God deals with you. However I will tell you what it means for all of us. What it means is this. You become a steward of everything and an owner of nothing. You give everything to God and He gives back to you what He wants you to use for Him. Everything that I have belongs to Christ and I become just a caretaker of His stuff. It’s not my money, it is given to me to use for His glory. It’s not my house or my car, it’s loaned me by God to use for His glory. You are a steward. And it’s required of stewards that they are found faithful and that they use it for the purposes of the kingdom of God. Being a disciple means coming to the point where I hate, or despise any possession that comes between me and the Lord. That like Paul we can say, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” Phil. 3:8

Now in Jesus’ preaching, He always presents only two possible choices or two possible outcomes for our lives. Going back to what I said was the key to this message in chapter 13, Jesus said you were either in the kingdom or you were outside the door of the kingdom. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral corner. Jesus said elsewhere that you are either for Me or against Me. There is not a spiritual no man’s land. And the scary thing is that He makes it clear in both chapter 13 and 14 that there will be many who think that they are for God and yet they are not. They think that they are in the kingdom and yet they are not. In 13:25 Jesus says they will bang 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.’ 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.’ Only two outcomes, you are either in or you’re out.

And so in our text Jesus illustrates again this terrible tragedy of thinking you are a disciple, thinking that you are a follower of Christ, but in fact finding yourself outside of the kingdom. And He illustrates this by means of two short parables that are closely related. They are both speaking of the outcome of a life lived without full capitulation to Christ as Lord. Of a person that thought that they could hang on to some of the affectations of the world, that they could have their cake and eat it too. But at the end of their life, at the completion, find that though they had gained the world, they had lost their own soul. Jesus says in vs.28, “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Notice three times the idea of finishing or completing is mentioned in this parable. The principle is simply this; it’s possible to have good intentions to follow the Lord, but it is also possible to fall short, to not persevere unto the end. To not be able to finish. It’s possible to have a reverence for God, to go to church now and then, to even pray and worship God, and yet fall short in your commitment to true discipleship. To one day find yourself at the end of your life and yet not be found in the kingdom of God. This has been the warning that Christ has been giving all along in this sermon. That narrow is the gate and few there be that find it. That not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of God, but they that do the will of God. That God looks at the heart, and examines our motives and God will not accept our hypocrisy. That God will not accept second place in our lives. God demands first place.

Oh ladies and gentlemen, this is why I rail against a soft, easy believism, come as you are-stay as you are style of Christianity that is being taught in so many churches today. I don’t want to see people with good intentions misled into thinking that the way of the cross doesn’t demand that you also carry your cross. That you must die to self and die to the world. I hate to see people duped into thinking that you can add God into your life and improve your life and that is somehow Christianity. I can assure you that by Christ’s standard, that is not discipleship.

Discipleship has a cost and if you don’t consider that at the outset, then the tragedy is that at the end of your life you won’t be counted as a disciple. Jesus will say, I never knew you. What a tragedy to sell short the gospel and peddle a form of religion that only serves to make you the popular church. I have given up on being popular. I just want to make disciples.

There is a solution to this dilemma though, thank God. Jesus gives the second parable to illustrate the solution. Vs. 31; “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” Listen, the solution for this king was to surrender. He asks for terms of peace. And that is exactly our solution. We were told by the devil and this world that our life would be fulfilling, it would be fun, exciting and rewarding. But we failed to realize that their was a judgment coming against us. That there would be a day when every thought, every word, every action and even the secrets of our heart would be judged by the Almighty God.

There is only one possible solution; to raise the white flag and surrender. To say I give up my priorities, I give up my life of pleasure, my life of self fulfillment and I will do whatever it is you ask of me. I surrender all. Every relationship, every possession, every career decision is subjected to the Lordship of Christ. That is how we have peace with God. When we submit by faith to Christ we have peace with God because He paid the price of our penalty that we might be reconciled to God. Christ is our peace. Listen to how Colossians explains that peace found in Christ. Col 1:13 says, “that Christ has rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Listen folks, is it not proper that such a One as Christ demands our all? Demands every allegiance. He who gave up all the glories of heaven to become crucified for us, should He not deserve our complete allegiance? Thank God that He has provided a way that we can have peace with God. It is the only way that we might be found in Him complete when the day of judgment comes. That we might stand boldly before the throne on that day, holy and blameless and without reproach because of His sacrifice for us.That is our solution if we are willing to accept it. If we are willing to recognize that in our own efforts we fall short, and ask for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Jesus gives us one final warning in regards to the cost of discipleship. It is related to the cost of possessions found in vs.33, “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” First of all note that the principle of salt is related to the principle of possessions by the word therefore. It ties them together. Now in Matthew 5:13 Jesus says almost the same thing concerning salt, except that He prefaces it by saying that “you are the salt of the earth.” In the next verse He says that “you are the light of the earth.” So we can understand then that this is a reference to those who would be disciples.

But the warning is that defilement from the world makes the salt worthless. Salt in those days was highly prized as a preservative. It was also used as a means of payment, especially for soldiers. That is where the expression “worth your salt” comes from. It meant worth your pay. But the primary purpose of salt was as a preservative against corruption in a arid or Mediterranean climate before the days of refrigeration. And the warning is simply that a true disciple cannot be corrupted by possessions or any of the things that once contaminated them.

Peter said virtually the same thing in 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. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

He isn’t talking about losing your salvation here. But he is talking about a person that comes to a point of hearing the call to discipleship, maybe having the good intention of becoming a disciple, maybe even making a profession of being a disciple, and yet because they did not fully consider the cost of discipleship they fell back into the contamination of sin. And the last state becomes worse than the first. There are going to be degrees of punishment in hell. I don’t know exactly how it will work. But Jesus said in Luke 12:47, “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.”

Listen, Christ is calling all of us to a true, committed discipleship. The call is as wide as the ocean, it goes out to everyone. But the way of entry is very narrow and there will only be a few that are willing to give up everything to enter it. I hope and pray that all of you here today have made peace with God. That you have counted the cost and realized that you cannot come into the kingdom of God on your own merit. That the only way to enter is by way of the narrow door, who is Jesus Christ. Call on Him today while there is still time and make peace with God. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Let him take action. The call is to you, to everyone who will take up his cross and follow Christ.

As most of you know, I was traveling last week to a pastor’s conference in California and while I was on the trip I came into contact  with a lot of people as a matter of course.  And from time to time as I traveled to various places and waited in line at airports or car rentals or wherever, people would out of a sense of friendliness would speak hello and say something about the weather.  And I found myself reflecting that perhaps the most common topic of conversation today is that of the weather.  It is a rather innocuous way of making small talk with someone that you may not know very well, or because you want to fill an awkward silence between someone you are next to and have nothing else in common to talk about. I think the reason we like talking about the weather is that it is a safe conversational topic.  We all know that proper social etiquette requires that we don’t speak of anything too serious in polite conversation.  We have been warned that we should avoid talking of politics or religion, for instance.

And that is understandable to a certain degree.  Sometimes there may be a place for banal conversation.  But I don’t quite understand people’s fascination with the weather.  Especially in a place like Los Angles.  I saw a monitor in the airport showing the weather forecast for the next five days in LA and it said 71 degrees every day for the next week.  But yet they still want to talk about it.  The weather seems to predominate the news nowadays.  They have an entire network on television that is all about the weather.  And even on our local television stations news programs more time is spent on the weather than almost all other considerations.  There could be wars going on all over the world, and every kind of scandal going on in Washington DC, and yet all of that can be eclipsed by whether or not they think  it may rain the next day.

It really should be disconcerting that people’s lives are filled with trivial things like talking about the weather, or entertainment or sports and yet we studiously avoid talking about what is really important.  There is nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves if they are kept in perspective.  But I’m afraid our fascination with these trivial subjects have taken precedence over focusing on what is really important.

Perhaps that is why Jesus uses an illustration of discerning the weather as a metaphor in His sermon about the judgment of God.  At first glance, it seems like suddenly Jesus throws a couple of unrelated illustrations in at the close of His message that don’t really seem to have much relevance to what He has been preaching so far.

If you look back in this chapter at the beginning of Christ’s sermon, we see Him using one illustration after another to build a case before the crowd that there is coming for every man a day of reckoning with God.  A day when the thoughts of man will be revealed.  When what was whispered in the back room will be shouted on the housetops.  There will be a day of judgment as He illustrated with His parable of the rich fool who laid up so much treasure here on earth that he needed to build more barns to hold it all, and yet  failed to plan for his death and the subsequent judgment of his soul.

The theme of Jesus sermon up to this point has been to present one scenario after another to show that man needs to be concerned first about the kingdom of heaven and emphasizing the fact that what a man has done in response to His knowledge of God will be required of him at the judgment.  Jesus goes on to allude to this coming judgment as a judgment of fire,  which will burn up those things that can be burned up, leaving only what is eternal.  He says that this judgment will divide between those that have accepted Him and those that rejected Him.

And then suddenly in the midst of this message Jesus starts talking about the weather.  In an agrarian community, the weather would have been a familiar topic.   And so Jesus says in vs. 54, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out.  And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way.”

Now that was sort of common knowledge.  You didn’t have to be a trained meteorologist to be able to know that in that country, as well as in ours, weather typically moves from west to east.  And even though they didn’t have the radar maps and computer models that we have today, still they would have taken note of the fact that when clouds appeared on the western horizon they usually brought rain and storms as they moved east.  And again, you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to notice that when the wind blew out of the south the air got warmer, and when the wind blows out of the north the weather gets colder.  This would have been pretty elementary stuff for most people in that day who could not depend upon flipping on the TV at night to hear the weather forecast.

So what’s the point that Jesus is making?  Well, look at vs. 56, Jesus continues; “You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?”  In other words, you can deduce the upcoming weather from analyzing the characteristics of the sky and the wind, but you can’t discern the signs of the times, which are just as obvious.

And I think it’s interesting that Jesus calls them hypocrites.  At first, we might wonder what is hypocritical about lacking discernment.  After all, earlier in the chapter we saw hypocrites being defined as someone who hides their sin, while pretending to be righteous.  So why call these people hypocrites?  Well, the answer is that Jesus is saying that they are choosing to believe a lie so that they can continue living in sin.  This form of hypocrisy denies the truth and believes a lie.  Jesus is saying that they have had ample evidence that He was the promised Messiah and yet they had chosen to disregard it. They chose to believe a lie because they loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

Look at Rom 1:18 for a moment which says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

What that passage is saying is that God’s wrath is coming upon all men because they have rejected truth and loved sin.  Listen, Paul isn’t just talking hypothetically about a few reprobates out there that have turned away from the truth and indulged themselves in gross sin.  But he is talking about the nature of all mankind.  As he said in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  This is the curse of the fall, that all men by nature reject the truth of God because they love their sin.  It’s the characteristic of all of us, that at one time we rejected salvation. We liked being our own master and lord, to be the captain of our destiny, so to speak.  And it comes naturally to all of us.

But ever since the beginning, Paul says, God made it clear to men that their was a God by virtue of the creation, of the stars, the heavens, the earth and it’s produce and all the wonders of creation, all of that order, all of that precision, all of that creativity, all of the wonder of creation illustrated that there was a God.  And furthermore, Paul says, creation alone was enough to reveal to men the invisible attributes of God, His eternal power and divine nature.  And yet Paul goes on to say that men rejected that revealed truth about God and substituted instead something out of their own imagination.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie because their deeds were evil.  That is the hypocrisy.  That truth was available and yet they said it wasn’t and so therefore they claimed immunity and the freedom to do as they wanted.

Jesus says that is why they were hypocrites.  They had not only the benefit of all men by the wonders of creation, but they had the additional benefit of witnessing the life and words and miracles of Jesus Christ and yet they still rejected Him.  In spite of all that He was, in spite of His teaching of which they said, “Never a man spoke like this man spoke,”  in spite of His miracles which numbered in the hundreds and were indisputable proof of His deity, yet they called for more signs as the reason that they still did not believe.  But it wasn’t for a lack of signs.  Many people had believed and had less signs than they did, but Jesus said it was because they wanted to continue in their form of religion without the fruit of it.  They wanted to claim citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, but they were not willing to renounce the kingdom of darkness.

And so they are by their rejection of Jesus bringing upon themselves the judgment that they rightly deserve.  Jesus speaks of this coming judgment again by means of another illustration starting  in vs.57, “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.  I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”

What Jesus is illustrating here is someone who has done wrong against someone in his community, and so they send the magistrate to arrest him and bring him before a judge who will announce his sentence and his punishment.  And Jesus says, why wouldn’t you try to settle with the one who you defrauded before you go to court?  Why wouldn’t you try to make things right with him on your own?  You know you sinned against the man.  You know you’re going to have to make retribution for that sin.  So why not do what is right and reconcile with him on your own.  Why wait for the court to come after you?  You’re just going to make it worse on yourself.

The parallel here should have been clear from the context of His message.  The parallel is this.  We  have all sinned against God.  We have defrauded Him who made us for His glory by denying Him and serving ourselves.  We had the truth revealed in creation, we had the truth revealed in Jesus Christ, and yet we rejected the truth because we loved our sin.  Jesus says, you have time right now to go to your Heavenly Father and ask for forgiveness.  You have time now to reconcile with God.  But there is a day coming, and coming soon, when your reprieve will be up.  And when that day comes, it will be too late then to try to work out a deal.  God will judge you by what you have done in response to His Truth.  When that day comes, every man will give an account for himself before God.  Every man, every woman, every teenager will stand before God and give an account for what he or she did with God’s truth.  And on that day, God will test every man’s work by fire, and what is of earthly wood, hay and stubble will be burned up.  But that which is eternal will endure. Those that are found wanting will be cast into the Lake of Fire and their punishment will be eternal torment.

How are we then to apply this message?  What should our response be?  I know what my response is.  On that day, when I stand before God I don’t want to be ashamed.  I don’t want to be found lacking, having determined my own version of what I think life is all about.  Having lived a life according to what the world said was important and finding myself wanting in the day of judgment.  The Bible says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.  I don’t want that to be my judgment.  I don’t want to be ashamed when I stand before God.

The good news is that Romans 1:16 tells me how that is possible.  It says “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”  That’s the good news, that is what the word gospel means.  That there is salvation available to every one that believes in Jesus Christ.  That means that if we believe in Jesus Christ, and accept by faith the righteousness of Christ which is offered to us, we will be saved from that wrath which is to come.  The wrath we so rightly deserved.

Because the gospel tells us in 2 Cor. 5:21, that “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  This righteousness which we receive by faith is the only way we might stand before God unashamed.  And this gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful in that it is able to accomplish that transaction for everyone who confesses their sinfulness and their need for a Savior.

God has provided reconciliation through Jesus Christ. God wants you to settle out of court and the way you settle is to make peace with Him through His Son, through faith in Christ, whom God made sin for us that we might be made the righteous of God in Him. God punished Him, the just for the unjust, that we might be brought to God. Grace is available. Forgiveness is available. Freedom from sin is available. Freedom from punishment, the hope of eternal life, escape from judgment. You can settle with God out of court. If you don’t, you’ll get to court and you will pay in full down to the last cent.

I would close by asking you this simple question.  Have you personally accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior?  Have you called out in faith and repentance to God and asked Jesus to take your life and make it clean?  Sometimes I think that some people come to an intellectual acknowledgement of the gospel, they more or less see the truth in it, and they more or less see the value in it, but they have yet to call upon God and ask Him to come into their life and change it.  To forgive them from sin and give them the righteousness that has been procured by Jesus Christ.   I hope you will honestly examine yourself and see if you have actually called on God to save you.

Today, this is your chance.  2 Corinthians 6 says  that “Today is the acceptable time of salvation.”  And Isaiah 55 says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near.”  Don’t wait until it’s too late.  The Jews had no idea when Jesus warned them that the judgment would come upon the nation of Israel within their lifetimes.  In just 30 years the Romans would destroy the temple and kill thousands upon thousands of Jews, scattering them into the far corners of the world, displaced from their homeland and everything that they held dear.

God’s judgment is coming on the entire world.  The signs of the times point to His imminent return.  It could be any day.  I hope you will call upon Him today and make peace with God.  I hope you will know the peace that comes from forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

While I was away this last week, for some reason I found myself thinking a lot about my own mortality.  And while that may sound depressing, it really wasn’t.  It actually was a time of confirmation, that I was doing what God wanted me to do.  And as I think about my mortality, I know that I want to use the time that I have left in the service of the King.  I decided I would rather die for something, than to live for nothing. And what nobler cause to give my life for than in service to Jesus Christ.

One thing that might have contributed to this sense of mortality was some conversations that the key note speakers had during a question and answer period during one of the sessions.  These were some of the highest profile religious leaders and thinkers of the conservative evangelical movement.  And what came out of those talks was that they were seriously concerned about the future of the church in America as we know it.  There are precedents in the courts already established that if applied to our situation, and there is mounting pressure from our enemies for them to do so, that can effectively shut down  churches all across America.  They may never shut down the preaching of the  gospel completely, but what we have taken for granted in terms of the church in America may be  but a memory in just a few short years.  And as Christians we may find ourselves in the midst of a persecution that rivals that which happened to the Jews in AD 70.

Folks, we need to make the most of the time, because the days are evil.  We need to discern the signs of the times and make the most of the opportunities that we have today to do the work of the kingdom. Romans 13:11 says, “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

The other night my wife and daughter and I were watching an old movie called “It could happen to you.”  It was the story of a guy who did not have the money for a tip at a restaurant and so he told the waitress that if he won the lottery he would give her half of what he won.  So as Hollywood would have it,  that night he finds out he did in fact win the lottery and he ends up having  this great debate with his wife who was not quite so honorable as he was about whether or not to honor the commitment he made to the waitress to split the lottery winnings with her.

Now I don’t want to spoil the movie for you if you haven’t seen it.  And by no means in telling this story should you infer that I endorse playing the lottery.  But I say all that to say that the movie prompted a discussion in my family about what we would do if we won a lot of money  like the man did in the movie. It’s kind of fun to fantasize about what you would do with a couple of million dollars, isn’t it?  I mean, I had it all figured out; how much I would spend on a new car, what new surfing gear I would buy, how much I’d use to pay off bills, how much to invest, the whole works.

And then a couple of days later I started studying for this message.  And I realized that I wasn’t much better than the rich man in Jesus’ parable.   Never once when I played that fantasy scenario of winning the lottery in my mind did I think how I would invest any of that money in the kingdom of heaven. It never crossed my mind to think of spending it on anyone other than myself.  I would hope that in real life I would consider what purpose the Lord would have for that money and that I would use at least a percentage of it for the kingdom.  So I have to say at the outset that on a personal level I was convicted by this parable.

Now what Christ is teaching here in this parable is not so much a diatribe against riches, or against making a lot of money, but what Christ is illustrating is that a man’s heart is revealed by his actions.  This section of scripture is actually a continuation of what we have been looking at for the last couple of weeks.  We first looked at the end of chapter 11 at the nature of hypocrisy, then last week we saw the crisis, the cure and the curse of hypocrisy, and now today we are looking at the fruit of hypocrisy.  The principle that what is in the heart comes out  in our actions.  That is the fruit of hypocrisy that we are examining today in light of the word.

As we look back in the text we see that Jesus was teaching concerning hypocrisy that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.  And then, seemingly out of nowhere and completely unrelated to the message, some random guy in the crowd calls out that he wants Jesus to intervene in a family dispute about his inheritance.  And many commentators and students of the Bible scratch their heads and wonder what does this have to do with what Jesus is preaching about?  But when you consider how Jesus uses this as an opportunity to illustrate the principle of hypocrisy, then it becomes clear why Luke includes this interruption here.

So in vs. 13, this random guy yells out to Jesus as He was preaching, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  Seems totally unrelated to what was going on, doesn’t it?  But Jesus turns this into an opportunity to teach the truth.  Vs. 14, “But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”  Now an arbitrator was a type of judge that settled civil disputes.  And this would have been a position provided through the government or even possibly through the synagogue to judge civil affairs, matters of property, and boundary lines and so forth.  And even a certain portion of the Levitical law was given to arbitrate in civil matters, because the people of God were designed to operate under a theocracy, and the priests and rabbis and synagogue officials would implement that function of arbitrator in the Jewish community.

But Jesus doesn’t want to get sidelined by that sort of petty legal wrangling.  Jesus said to Nicodemus in  John 3:17 that “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”  See, it’s not that Jesus didn’t care about the man’s petty problems.  But His purpose in coming to earth was not to settle property disputes but to save men’s hearts.  Jesus knew that when the heart is right with God, then a right heart will produce right actions.  The way to bring peace on the earth was not for Him to set up a throne in Jerusalem and start hearing court cases in an effort to help people to start getting along, but the way to bring peace on the earth is to convict men of their sinful nature, have them repent and be saved, and then their new heart will produce works of righteousness. Eph. 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

So Jesus is concerned with the heart of man.  God told Samuel that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.  And so this whole teaching then comes out of His earlier teaching about hypocrisy and sin being likened to leaven, which produces fermentation in the loaf of bread and how that corruption becomes evident by the bread rising.  In other words, what is in the heart is revealed in one’s actions.  And so following up on that message, Jesus is going to use this man’s question to segue into another manifestation of hypocrisy which is the sin of greed.

So first Jesus gives the principle. Look at vs. 15, “Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”    Notice first of all that this principle starts off with a warning, “Beware, be on your guard…”  Basically the same thing He said earlier in regards to hypocrisy in vs. 12.  “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Beware of hypocrisy, beware of greed.  Both are indicators of a corrupt spiritual nature. Both are the fruit of an evil heart.

So be on your guard, beware every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.  The point Jesus is making is very critical, especially with the modern prosperity view of Christianity that is so prevalent today.  The point is this, that abundance isn’t evidence of an abundant life.  Or to put it another way, earthly blessings don’t necessarily produce a godly life.  Or simply, abundant life is defined as much more than the sum total of your possessions.  But I will tell you what a godly life does produce –  a godly life produces blessings to others.  A godly life gives as God gives, loves as God loves, is faithful as God is faithful. A godly life is not measured by possessions, but by godly fruit.

See the type of life Jesus is talking about is not a quality of life defined by possessions, or how much you make, or what you have achieved in social stature or worldly fame, but the Greek word used for life is zoe, which means real life, the fullness of life designed for man by the Creator.   Jesus said in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”  Same word, zoe, talking about the fullness of everlasting life, and yet so many people today want to take this to mean the exact opposite of what Jesus is talking about.  They want to use this verse to claim that God is promising prosperity in earthly possessions and wealth.  We have somehow gotten the wrong view of Christianity here in America.  It’s a view that God loves Christians in America more than Christians in China, or Russia, or Africa.  And as an extension of that love we are somehow guaranteed a lifestyle that is light years away from what the other parts of the body around the world would dare to even dream of.  Even those of us that live at the poverty level in America are wealthy by the  standards of most Christians in those countries.

Christians today too often equate prosperity with blessing.  Such a mindset indicates that we have fallen for the seduction of the world.  Our minds have been conformed to the world rather than being transformed into the image of Christ.  But Jesus is saying here that abundant life is not found in possessions.  It’s not found in wealth.  An abundant life is found in a transformed heart.  And to illustrate that He gives them a parable.

Vs. 16, “And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.”  In other words, a rich man made a lot of money from his farmland.  The Bible says that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust, on the righteous and the unrighteous.  Romans 2:4 says that God does this so that His kindness will draw men to repentance.  God doesn’t always strike down the ungodly.  God in His sovereign wisdom rains His mercy on both the good and the evil.  His purpose is to show Himself good and to cause men to give thanks to Him.  But gratefulness doesn’t come from the heart of this rich man.  He doesn’t see the hand of God in the land producing a bountiful crop.  He doesn’t see the hand of God in the sunshine or the rain.  But in his arrogance, he sees this all as just the rightful return on his own labor.  You know, I have heard of a lot of rich men that claimed to be self made men.  But I have yet to truly meet one.  No one is self made. God made you.  God gives gifts to men of life, of breath, of health, of the earth and of peace on the earth. And yet very few so called self made men ever thank God for that.

So this rich man won the lottery so to speak.  He got considerably more wealthy from this very productive season.  And in vs. 17 Jesus tells us what the man decided to do with this windfall.  “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.”  Do you see what’s striking about that? There are eight I’s and four my’s in two verses. That gives us some insight into his heart.  His heart is not spiritual but carnal, and so what he thinks of when he gets this great harvest is himself.  He has no thoughts for others, no thought for the synagogue or the temple, no thoughts of God, but only thoughts for himself.  It’s his money and he will use it for his pleasure and enjoyment.  It’s the natural outpouring of an unregenerate heart.  It’s all self indulgence, self fulfillment and selfish ambition.

See, Jesus is illustrating that what’s in the heart comes out of the mouth, what’s in a man’s heart comes out in their actions or in this case, his heart is revealed by his bank account.  See, Jesus isn’t speaking against the guy making a lot of money, but He is showing that how the man acts in response to money reveals his heart.  I’ve heard it said  before that you can tell a lot about a man by his checkbook.  And I believe you can tell a lot about a man’s faith by his checkbook as well.

A person who is first of all God’s steward will use his resources for God’s purposes.  I try my best not to talk  very much about money from this pulpit.  I neglect teaching about giving very often to our church’s detriment.  But please understand something.  Jesus is using money here as an illustration only because it has universal application.  He could just as easily be talking about time, or commitment, or responsibility, or faithfulness, or even being a witness.  There are many things that we are commanded to do in the New Testament.  Giving is just one of them.  But money happens to be something that pertains to all of us to one degree or another.

But don’t forget that all of this is coming under the heading of hypocrisy.  See, the flip side of this is that if you are God’s child, if you have a heart for God then that should result in a desire to give back to the Lord.  But the hypocrite claims  some sort of self righteousness, but their lack of fruit, their lack of consistency, their lack of commitment, their lack of generosity prove otherwise.  When  people ask me about their responsibility to tithe, I tell them that tithing is an Old Testament commandment.  We aren’t under that requirement the same way that the Jews were.  But please understand something.  If grace provides more than the law ever could, then shouldn’t being under grace produce more than the law did?  Of course it should.  So being under grace then do you give more or less than the law required? Is grace a license to sin or an impetus to give?  The Bible says that we are not to give under compulsion anymore; that is we’re not under the requirement of the law to tithe.  But it says that God loves a cheerful giver. So then if we give cheerfully, not under compulsion, but under grace, do we give less then than the law required or do we give more?  If you are under the greater law of grace, then is your giving greater or less than the law?  The Biblical principle is that grace doesn’t provide less than the law, grace provides more.

So when people ask me about giving I say you are not under the law of tithing.  The law required 10%.  But you are under grace.  And grace isn’t 10%.  Grace is 100%.  Grace says Jesus paid all your debt that the law could never pay so that He might be Lord of all.  Lord of all of you, all of your resources, all of your energies, all of your affection, all of your service, all of your commitment, all of your faithfulness.  All the law is summarized in two laws;  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. That’s 100%.  And then you are to love your neighbor as yourself.  That’s 110%.  Going the extra mile.

Listen, when Jesus commended the poor widow that dropped in two half pennies in the box at the temple He said she gave more than all the hypocrites who had come before her giving ten percent because she gave all that she had to live on.  She gave 100%. That was commendable to God.  I’m sure that she willingly gave 100% because she knew the chorus that I used to sing in Sunday School growing up as a boy,  “that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine.  He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills, the sun and stars that shine.  Wonderful riches more than tongue can tell, He is My Father so their mine as well.”

But back in vs.19 the rich man says, ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’  The rich man thought he had a pretty good investment strategy.  He had a lot of money in the bank, he had all his needs for the future under control, and he planned on living out his life to a ripe old age enjoying his life, enjoying all that his money could provide.  Jesus presents a picture here of  a life that is characterized by sensuality.  Ease, luxury, taking time off, eating, drinking, and having a good time.  That’s what he thought life was all about.  Money, possessions, vacations, dining out, partying, living the good life.

But Jesus refers to  him in vs. 20 as a fool.  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  That’s the $10000 question; what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  The answer is simple;  his life.  If you want to save your soul, you must give up your life.  That is what Jesus said in vs. 35, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” That is why He calls us to take up our cross and follow Him.  Dying to self, results in life.

The rich fool didn’t die to self.  His life was all about getting more, enjoying more, building more, buying more.  He may even have practiced an external religion, he may even have had all his doctrine and scriptures down pat, but his heart was unregenerate, and his actions revealed his heart’s condition.  You know, there are some so called Christians out there that are like that.  They claim the doctrines of Christianity, but their lives produce very little to convict them of it.  In fact their lives declare something different than they profess is in their hearts.  But what is in the heart eventually comes out.  That is why Jesus said in Matthew 7 that you shall know those that are truly His disciples by their fruits.

God said to the rich fool that this very night he was going to die and someone else would use all that he had acquired.  The Bible says that is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.  That means that all of us are going to die, some sooner and some later.  But we all are going to die.  There is going to be a day of reckoning for all of us. Isaiah 2:12 says, “For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased.”

That’s why Jesus finishes this parable by saying in vs. 21, ““So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  Just as there was a day of reckoning for the rich fool, there will come a day when all men’s works are judged. Romans 2:6 says that God will bring about the day of judgment, and He “WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, [they will receive] eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,[they will receive] wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good.”

Jesus said in Matthew 6:19, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Listen, the rich fool revealed the nature of his selfish heart by what he did with his treasure.  He laid up his treasure on earth, he put it in barns, and then even bigger barns so he could live a life of self indulgence and pleasure.  He thought of himself only and his needs, his desires.  There was no love for God in his heart.  There was no love for his neighbor in his heart.  And that selfishness of his heart became manifested by his actions.

The sin of hypocrisy is also manifested by our actions.  When we hold onto our rights, our time, our energies, our money and don’t use them for the kingdom of God then we reveal that our hearts are not right with God.  You’re either backslidden or you aren’t saved.  But that kind of selfish heart is not the result of righteousness.

Because righteousness results in right acting.  Righteousness results in storing up treasures in heaven by our deeds here on earth.  And those treasures God will keep and one day reward us for.  But don’t be deceived, where your treasure is, there is your heart.  You want to know the condition of your heart?  Then find out where your treasure is.  Examine what you spend all your time, money and energies on.  Examine your bank account and see where you spend all your money.  Examine your faithfulness and see where you spend all your time.  The proof is not in your profession of your lips, the proof as they say is in the pudding.  Is your heart producing right actions? True Christianity is not all hyper spiritual or theoretical, but it is lived out in the natural realm, it is lived out by producing the fruit of righteousness.  The fruit of grace is that it gives.  The fruit of love is that it loves.  The fruit of righteousness is that it is righteous.  The fruit of faith is that it is faithful.  But the fruit of hypocrisy is greediness. And greed is the fruit of an unrepentant heart.