1 00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:06,270 Good morning. It's good to be together. 2 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:10,940 This way. If you are a child, you can head 3 00:00:10,950 --> 00:00:14,460 off to Kids Ministry. I see them all heading back now. 4 00:00:14,510 --> 00:00:17,740 And if you are new and didn't get them registered before you 5 00:00:17,750 --> 00:00:20,300 came in, you can get them registered back there. 6 00:00:20,310 --> 00:00:25,510 So go ahead and do that now. And my name is Justin, and I'm 7 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:27,980 one of the pastors here at court, right? 8 00:00:27,990 --> 00:00:32,240 And if you're new here, we have been going through the book of 9 00:00:32,290 --> 00:00:36,590 Luke, which is if you are new to the Bible, that there's four 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:40,090 biographies of Jesus, Lucas, the third one, Matthew, Mark, Luke 11 00:00:40,100 --> 00:00:44,700 and John. So unlike last week, Grant was 12 00:00:44,710 --> 00:00:48,260 talking about this nice slow down pace of reading every 13 00:00:48,270 --> 00:00:49,640 verse, which we are going to do here. 14 00:00:49,690 --> 00:00:52,660 But you talk about this slow down approach of like, you know, 15 00:00:52,670 --> 00:00:56,080 where it's great to these little chunks bit by bit today is kind 16 00:00:56,090 --> 00:00:59,020 of the exact opposites. It's a little bit of like a a 17 00:00:59,030 --> 00:01:01,100 flyby. We're going to go through all 18 00:01:01,110 --> 00:01:03,880 all of this section here, but it's a big section and we're 19 00:01:03,890 --> 00:01:07,460 going to struggle to go through every little bit of it with 20 00:01:07,470 --> 00:01:12,140 like, you know, strong details. So one of those ones where if 21 00:01:12,150 --> 00:01:14,250 you have questions, if you have thoughts, if there are things 22 00:01:14,260 --> 00:01:16,920 that I'm not going to get to today, there will be some things 23 00:01:17,830 --> 00:01:19,230 sending such a quest. Send us a question. 24 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:21,680 We'll try to respond to it in the podcast when we record 25 00:01:21,690 --> 00:01:23,460 tomorrow morning. But we are recording tomorrow 26 00:01:23,470 --> 00:01:24,800 morning. So we need it. 27 00:01:24,870 --> 00:01:28,200 We need it like today or first thing tomorrow morning. 28 00:01:28,630 --> 00:01:36,310 So let me pray as we begin. God, would you guide us by your 29 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:41,600 word, by your holy Spirits, that in your light we may see lights, 30 00:01:41,610 --> 00:01:45,460 that in your truth, God, that we would find freedom, and that in 31 00:01:45,470 --> 00:01:49,100 Your will we would discover your peace through Jesus Christ our 32 00:01:49,110 --> 00:01:50,870 Lord. Amen. 33 00:01:51,790 --> 00:01:55,500 Amen. So before I read the passage, I 34 00:01:55,510 --> 00:02:00,780 want you to think about how you would describe yourself if 35 00:02:00,790 --> 00:02:02,940 someone asked you to describe yourself. 36 00:02:02,950 --> 00:02:06,130 You know, maybe you're making a dating profile or something like 37 00:02:06,140 --> 00:02:08,800 that. I don't know, You know, and, and 38 00:02:08,810 --> 00:02:13,160 so maybe you say things like I'm an extrovert, I'm an introvert. 39 00:02:13,170 --> 00:02:15,720 Maybe you'd say you're friendly, you're compassionate, you're 40 00:02:15,790 --> 00:02:19,210 agreeable, you're generous. And maybe if you were pressed 41 00:02:19,220 --> 00:02:21,720 into describing some less desirable qualities, you'd, you 42 00:02:21,730 --> 00:02:26,640 know, you'd say fairly like low stakes things like, yeah, I'm 43 00:02:26,650 --> 00:02:29,310 messy or I'm not very punctual all the time. 44 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,240 Or maybe I'm a little hot headed right. 45 00:02:32,590 --> 00:02:33,960 For me. I like to think of that. 46 00:02:33,970 --> 00:02:37,870 I'm a fairly agreeable person. You know, I, I like to think 47 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,140 that I'm compassionate toward others. 48 00:02:40,210 --> 00:02:42,760 Hopefully I'm not totally off base in that, but I'd like to 49 00:02:42,770 --> 00:02:44,780 think of myself at least like that. 50 00:02:45,690 --> 00:02:48,450 But one time. Can I share a story? 51 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,710 11 time I was on the phone with a telecommunications company 52 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,750 that shall not be named. Just pick the one that you like 53 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,820 the least. So I had recently broken up with 54 00:03:00,830 --> 00:03:05,020 that telecommunications company in favor of another equally 55 00:03:05,030 --> 00:03:08,200 culpable telecommunications conglomerates. 56 00:03:09,640 --> 00:03:14,080 But I kept getting bugged by the old company as apparently I owed 57 00:03:14,090 --> 00:03:16,100 them like $0.20 or something like that. 58 00:03:16,110 --> 00:03:18,900 Like like my, I tried to close my account and there was like a 59 00:03:18,910 --> 00:03:21,760 gap in between, you know, when, when I closed it and there was 60 00:03:21,770 --> 00:03:24,270 like some interest that was accrued or something like that. 61 00:03:24,340 --> 00:03:27,470 And so they were, they were hounding me for like less than a 62 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:29,070 dollar. They were, they were sending 63 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,670 mail, they were calling me. And I was like, the carbon 64 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,210 footprint on this thing is like out of control. 65 00:03:36,330 --> 00:03:41,410 No, I was in the car with my friend one day and they called 66 00:03:43,020 --> 00:03:47,120 and I might have lost it. I'm I I don't it doesn't happen 67 00:03:47,130 --> 00:03:48,330 often. It doesn't happen. 68 00:03:48,340 --> 00:03:51,410 It doesn't, but I I basically like highlighted what I just 69 00:03:51,420 --> 00:03:52,860 heard you like this is ridiculous. 70 00:03:52,870 --> 00:03:55,120 You're coming after me for like less than a dollar. 71 00:03:55,130 --> 00:03:58,120 You're wasting all this, like all all these people power. 72 00:03:58,190 --> 00:04:01,260 You're, you're sending all this mail like just the postage alone 73 00:04:01,330 --> 00:04:03,800 is insane. Like, and so finally I got done 74 00:04:03,810 --> 00:04:08,180 with them and I just said stop calling, close my account and 75 00:04:08,190 --> 00:04:10,860 leave me alone. And then I hung up and I never 76 00:04:10,870 --> 00:04:13,340 heard from them again. And there was a beautiful thing, 77 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:19,800 but I looked over at my friend and his mouth was a gate. 78 00:04:19,810 --> 00:04:24,570 He was like, because like he's always known me as like mild 79 00:04:24,580 --> 00:04:29,260 mannered Justin and, and he, he had never seen that side of me 80 00:04:29,270 --> 00:04:33,160 before. Maybe I didn't realize how 81 00:04:33,170 --> 00:04:37,040 intense my tone was. Maybe you have a story like that 82 00:04:37,130 --> 00:04:42,440 where you or someone, you know, someone in your world did 83 00:04:42,450 --> 00:04:45,960 something unexpected that you know doesn't seem in line with 84 00:04:45,970 --> 00:04:49,040 their character and maybe changes your perspective on that 85 00:04:49,050 --> 00:04:52,070 person. Today's passage has the 86 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:56,330 potential to do that for Jesus. If you're newer to faith or 87 00:04:56,340 --> 00:04:59,100 you're maybe you don't know a lot about the Scriptures or the 88 00:04:59,110 --> 00:05:02,630 Bible, we like to think of Jesus who is the centre of our faith. 89 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,710 We like to think of Jesus as this loving, compassionate 90 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,820 healer and teacher. But here in this passage, I'm 91 00:05:09,830 --> 00:05:12,150 warning you right now, we're going to see Jesus and his 92 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:15,450 righteous anger. We're going to see indignation. 93 00:05:15,460 --> 00:05:18,710 And it's going to feel a little uncomfortable at times because 94 00:05:18,780 --> 00:05:22,560 the way that Jesus speaks to, in this case, the Pharisees and the 95 00:05:22,570 --> 00:05:25,800 scribes or the experts in the law, the way that he speaks to 96 00:05:25,810 --> 00:05:28,700 them, sometimes we're going to start to see ourselves and the 97 00:05:28,710 --> 00:05:30,600 things that he's saying, and it's going to make us feel 98 00:05:30,610 --> 00:05:32,800 uncomfortable. And so we just got to reckon 99 00:05:32,810 --> 00:05:34,040 with that. We got to grapple with that. 100 00:05:34,050 --> 00:05:38,240 And we're going to just set that standard now as we go into this 101 00:05:38,290 --> 00:05:42,440 passage. So this is Luke Chapter 11, 102 00:05:42,490 --> 00:05:47,080 starting at verse 37. There's the first 37. 103 00:05:47,090 --> 00:05:52,840 OK, So when Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him 104 00:05:52,850 --> 00:05:55,680 to eat with him. So he went in and reclined at 105 00:05:55,690 --> 00:05:58,410 the table. But the Pharisee was surprised 106 00:05:58,420 --> 00:06:02,560 when he noticed that Jesus did not wash before the meal. 107 00:06:05,130 --> 00:06:08,040 Then the Lord said, yeah, sorry. Then the Lord said to him, Now 108 00:06:08,050 --> 00:06:12,600 then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but 109 00:06:12,610 --> 00:06:16,560 inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 110 00:06:16,830 --> 00:06:19,740 You foolish people. Did not the one who made the 111 00:06:19,750 --> 00:06:23,400 outside make the inside also? But now As for what is inside of 112 00:06:23,410 --> 00:06:29,040 you, be generous to the poor and everything will be clean to you. 113 00:06:29,510 --> 00:06:32,580 Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your 114 00:06:32,590 --> 00:06:35,600 mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect 115 00:06:35,610 --> 00:06:38,680 justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the 116 00:06:38,690 --> 00:06:41,160 latter without leaving the former undone. 117 00:06:41,610 --> 00:06:44,060 Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important 118 00:06:44,070 --> 00:06:46,800 seats in the synagogues and respectable greetings in the 119 00:06:46,810 --> 00:06:49,780 marketplaces. Woe to you because you are like 120 00:06:49,790 --> 00:06:55,520 unmarked graves which people walk over without knowing it. 121 00:06:56,700 --> 00:06:57,860 We're going to pause there for a moment. 122 00:06:57,870 --> 00:07:00,500 We're not done yet, but we're going to pause there. 123 00:07:01,230 --> 00:07:06,400 So this is a good reminder. This is not some unprovoked 124 00:07:06,410 --> 00:07:09,510 moment or incident for Jesus. Jesus has been fielding 125 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:13,700 questions about and criticisms and worse for the entirety of 126 00:07:13,710 --> 00:07:17,220 his ministry, Some of them sincere, some of them not in 127 00:07:17,230 --> 00:07:20,040 good faith whatsoever. In our passage last week, you 128 00:07:20,050 --> 00:07:22,880 had some of these same types of people who were demanding a sign 129 00:07:22,890 --> 00:07:26,220 from Jesus right after they had already seen a sign from Jesus. 130 00:07:26,310 --> 00:07:30,370 Like some of these people are just not acting in good faith. 131 00:07:30,810 --> 00:07:34,880 So he's invited to the table with these Pharisees and these 132 00:07:34,890 --> 00:07:37,400 scribes, perhaps in good faith, perhaps not. 133 00:07:37,410 --> 00:07:40,420 I think that maybe you can be the judge of that as we go along 134 00:07:40,430 --> 00:07:44,740 here. And just as a brief reminder of 135 00:07:44,750 --> 00:07:48,520 who the Pharisees are, the Pharisees were a religious and 136 00:07:48,590 --> 00:07:51,280 political group. They were religious law 137 00:07:51,290 --> 00:07:55,310 observers who saw it as their duty to maintain the purity of 138 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,530 the Jewish law and ultimately the Jewish people, because for 139 00:07:58,540 --> 00:08:02,090 centuries they had been under Babylonian rule, Assyrian rule, 140 00:08:02,430 --> 00:08:07,180 Greek rule, and now Roman rule. And they saw this as ultimately 141 00:08:07,190 --> 00:08:11,600 God's punishment for Israel's lack of observance to the law. 142 00:08:11,610 --> 00:08:14,480 I mean, it's an extension of their fidelity to God. 143 00:08:14,550 --> 00:08:17,370 That was, that's how they would more rightly see it, but it 144 00:08:17,380 --> 00:08:21,210 turned into something that was more about fidelity to the law 145 00:08:21,220 --> 00:08:26,930 rather than to God himself. So the Pharisees, their goal is 146 00:08:26,940 --> 00:08:29,370 ultimately a noble 1. So I wanna like just make sure 147 00:08:29,380 --> 00:08:31,320 we have a little bit of understanding of who they are 148 00:08:31,330 --> 00:08:33,470 because otherwise we can kind of turn them into a bit of a 149 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:37,039 caricature. They want to see God's Kingdom 150 00:08:37,049 --> 00:08:40,400 come just like Jesus has come to do. 151 00:08:40,450 --> 00:08:43,880 But the problem is, is that they want to do it through law 152 00:08:43,890 --> 00:08:46,920 observance. And not just through all the 153 00:08:46,930 --> 00:08:49,510 laws that we know of, like the 10 commandments and other laws 154 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,620 you might find in the Torah, but many other oral traditions and 155 00:08:53,630 --> 00:08:57,800 other extra biblical laws that had now been codified as sort of 156 00:08:57,870 --> 00:08:59,240 these little laws we all got to follow. 157 00:08:59,250 --> 00:09:03,880 Not just Moses 600 plus laws. We have many hundreds more. 158 00:09:03,890 --> 00:09:10,250 And it just became so extreme and hand washing was one of 159 00:09:10,260 --> 00:09:13,840 these laws. So just we're clear, this is not 160 00:09:13,850 --> 00:09:15,960 hand washing. Like, you know, you're washing 161 00:09:15,970 --> 00:09:19,440 your hands with soap before dinner because you've been 162 00:09:19,450 --> 00:09:22,160 playing out in the dirt when you're a kid or you come from 163 00:09:22,170 --> 00:09:25,300 the washroom or whatever. Like germ theory was not known 164 00:09:25,310 --> 00:09:29,540 for another 1800 years. So we're a long way off from our 165 00:09:29,550 --> 00:09:33,100 understanding of that. This is about religious 166 00:09:33,210 --> 00:09:34,730 cleansing. So I have a little picture. 167 00:09:34,740 --> 00:09:37,740 You can kind of see it. So before you would sit down for 168 00:09:37,750 --> 00:09:40,300 a meal, you would take some water and you kind of pour it 169 00:09:40,310 --> 00:09:43,400 over your hand a couple times, pour it over your hand, both 170 00:09:43,410 --> 00:09:46,460 your hands with with kind of a jug, water jug like that. 171 00:09:46,790 --> 00:09:52,610 And it symbolizes that you were shedding yourself of the ritual 172 00:09:52,660 --> 00:09:56,210 uncleanliness around you. One commentator says it this 173 00:09:56,220 --> 00:09:58,890 way. And this is like just a a harsh 174 00:09:58,980 --> 00:10:02,710 understanding of this. It's to remove the defilement 175 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,600 contracted by their contacts with a sinful world. 176 00:10:07,430 --> 00:10:10,470 So if you came into contact, you're out doing your, you know, 177 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:13,170 doing your work in the marketplace and you come back 178 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:17,850 and you came into contact with a, a gentile, a non Jew. 179 00:10:18,020 --> 00:10:21,470 You came into contact with someone who had recently come in 180 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:24,470 contact with a pig or something that is not kosher. 181 00:10:24,540 --> 00:10:27,740 Like all of these things are like we, we just need to have a 182 00:10:27,750 --> 00:10:29,410 coverall. So when I get back into my 183 00:10:29,420 --> 00:10:33,160 house, I'm going to make sure that I rid myself of anything 184 00:10:33,170 --> 00:10:37,040 that could theoretically, hypothetically make me unclean. 185 00:10:37,710 --> 00:10:41,010 So again, this practice has not shown anywhere in the Hebrew 186 00:10:41,020 --> 00:10:44,140 Scriptures, but it became codified overtime, first by 187 00:10:44,150 --> 00:10:46,590 priests and then it became just like general practice. 188 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,620 Y'all gotta do this. It's just the way it is. 189 00:10:49,950 --> 00:10:53,830 And the ritual in of itself might not even be a bad thing if 190 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,100 you frame it in the right way. It could be this sort of 191 00:10:57,110 --> 00:11:00,740 beautiful practice if you, you know, see it as, you know, you, 192 00:11:00,750 --> 00:11:03,320 you walk in your home or you walk into a meal place and you 193 00:11:03,330 --> 00:11:08,140 want to sit down and just like, I want to let go of the things 194 00:11:08,150 --> 00:11:11,770 that were, that were, you know, that I was facing at when I was 195 00:11:11,780 --> 00:11:13,250 out there. Maybe you got home from a hard 196 00:11:13,260 --> 00:11:15,350 day of work and you're like, I'm going to I'm going to 197 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,970 symbolically cleanse myself of all of the junk I just dealt 198 00:11:18,980 --> 00:11:21,290 with at work and I'm going to focus on being here and present. 199 00:11:21,300 --> 00:11:22,670 Like, that could be beautiful, right? 200 00:11:23,460 --> 00:11:25,290 Not what this really turned into, though. 201 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,870 It turned into something that was more about a religious show 202 00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:34,750 in many, many ways. So again, they're looking for 203 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:39,090 strict law observance as to be the way for Israel to get back 204 00:11:39,100 --> 00:11:42,180 to being their own autonomous nation again, for God's Kingdom 205 00:11:42,190 --> 00:11:44,460 to come. And they are willing to go to 206 00:11:44,470 --> 00:11:47,570 extreme lengths to see that happen so that when they see 207 00:11:47,580 --> 00:11:50,990 Jesus, this teacher, this prophet, this, this person that 208 00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:54,560 they're, they are shocked that Jesus does not do this. 209 00:11:55,610 --> 00:11:58,180 But it kind of makes me ask the question, why couldn't Jesus 210 00:11:58,190 --> 00:11:59,690 have done it? Why didn't he do it? 211 00:12:00,530 --> 00:12:02,940 Why didn't he just play along? Why didn't he play the game? 212 00:12:02,950 --> 00:12:06,320 It would have been nice. You know, we all have cultural, 213 00:12:07,220 --> 00:12:09,740 unwritten cultural laws and codes that we all kind of 214 00:12:09,750 --> 00:12:11,640 follow, even if we don't. You know, it's like when you 215 00:12:11,650 --> 00:12:13,950 walk by someone, you say, hey, how you doing? 216 00:12:14,020 --> 00:12:17,070 Most of the time, you're not actually asking how they're 217 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:21,080 doing, right, unless you clarify, No, no, really, how are 218 00:12:21,090 --> 00:12:23,780 you doing right? And so we all have these little 219 00:12:23,790 --> 00:12:27,650 social things that we do. Jesus could have just done it. 220 00:12:28,310 --> 00:12:31,620 Why didn't he? My best guess is that he wanted 221 00:12:31,630 --> 00:12:36,380 to gauge their reaction for not doing an outward religious act 222 00:12:36,390 --> 00:12:38,380 so that he could have a better sense of what was really going 223 00:12:38,390 --> 00:12:41,880 on internally for them. And pretty quickly, very 224 00:12:41,890 --> 00:12:45,660 quickly, he's able to surmise that these men do not 225 00:12:45,670 --> 00:12:48,370 particularly have good intentions. 226 00:12:49,410 --> 00:12:53,320 So that's when he starts his critique, which is the that they 227 00:12:53,330 --> 00:12:56,800 are only concerned with what we could describe as outward 228 00:12:56,850 --> 00:13:02,280 religion or outward religiosity, the appearance of religion and 229 00:13:02,290 --> 00:13:04,330 spirituality. Here's what I mean. 230 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:10,090 At some point we can become so fixated on doing the right 231 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,580 thing, quote UN quote right thing, and we forget why we're 232 00:13:13,590 --> 00:13:16,350 doing that right thing. And then it becomes only about 233 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:18,940 going through the motions of doing that right thing to the 234 00:13:18,950 --> 00:13:21,920 point where you forgotten all about what the right thing is 235 00:13:21,930 --> 00:13:24,430 actually supposed to be for. So for instance, you've got the 236 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:26,980 cup and you the dish and you've cleaned the outside of it 237 00:13:26,990 --> 00:13:29,710 because that makes it look good. It makes it look clean, but 238 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:33,470 meanwhile you've got like days old, like Stew remnants inside 239 00:13:33,530 --> 00:13:36,430 and it's disgusting but it looks good. 240 00:13:36,510 --> 00:13:40,120 That's all that matters. Jesus is saying take care of 241 00:13:40,130 --> 00:13:47,400 what is on the inside as well. This also might be a legitimate 242 00:13:47,410 --> 00:13:50,420 critique lobbied at someone like myself who is very good at doing 243 00:13:50,430 --> 00:13:54,080 like an external clean of my house on weekends. 244 00:13:54,340 --> 00:13:57,970 But also if you look into my drawers or my wardrobe or my 245 00:13:57,980 --> 00:14:00,300 closets, you might be very offended. 246 00:14:01,070 --> 00:14:07,470 My wife sure is. Now I want to note Jesus's 247 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,790 antidote to this outward cleanliness. 248 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:15,260 He says be generous to the poor. Let's go back and just see that 249 00:14:15,270 --> 00:14:22,630 real quick. So now do what is inside you, be 250 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,170 generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for 251 00:14:26,180 --> 00:14:27,540 you. It's a bit of a curious 252 00:14:27,550 --> 00:14:31,630 statement because in actuality, you could be generous. 253 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:36,720 You could give millions, billions of dollars away and 254 00:14:36,730 --> 00:14:40,960 still it come from a place of grandstanding and coming from a 255 00:14:40,970 --> 00:14:44,960 place of showing your wealth, showing your goodness for all to 256 00:14:44,970 --> 00:14:47,250 see rather than the intent of your heart. 257 00:14:47,260 --> 00:14:50,240 However, Jesus is saying something a little bit 258 00:14:50,250 --> 00:14:52,180 different. So this is from Joel Green, 259 00:14:52,190 --> 00:14:55,320 who's a commentator and he says this almsgiving then does not 260 00:14:55,330 --> 00:14:58,740 correspond well with modern day notions of charity, which we 261 00:14:58,750 --> 00:15:01,120 would have where you know, you give money either privately or 262 00:15:01,130 --> 00:15:05,440 publicly or whatever. Almost giving was an expression 263 00:15:05,450 --> 00:15:10,910 of genuine social solidarity, of embracing those in need as if 264 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,190 they were members of their own kin group. 265 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,670 So this is a lot different. This is very different from just 266 00:15:16,740 --> 00:15:19,830 giving some money, kind of devoid of relationship. 267 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,830 He saying if you give this money, if you if you give your 268 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:28,430 these alms to these people, you are suggesting that you are one 269 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:34,660 with them because we are. His next example kind of follows 270 00:15:34,670 --> 00:15:36,320 this logic. He says because they have 271 00:15:36,330 --> 00:15:39,420 grandstanding, this generosity, they've given their tithes of 272 00:15:39,430 --> 00:15:42,530 their all their herbs and stuff which they are supposed to do. 273 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,870 However, within all that, they've neglected the more 274 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:50,310 important matters of justice and the love of God. 275 00:15:50,420 --> 00:15:54,730 In other words, their focus is on the outward acts rather than 276 00:15:54,740 --> 00:15:57,670 the more important inner work that is supposed to take place 277 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:04,970 when we give God's justice and God's mercy and God's love. 1st 278 00:16:04,980 --> 00:16:08,750 for them to experience it out here and then to extend it out 279 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:13,500 to the people around them. Then Jesus kind of highlights 280 00:16:13,510 --> 00:16:17,050 their self aggrandizing nature and their self importance when 281 00:16:17,060 --> 00:16:19,780 it comes to like the temple and the marketplace that they do all 282 00:16:19,790 --> 00:16:24,220 of these things for the best seat in the house for respectful 283 00:16:24,230 --> 00:16:25,970 conversations. And that's all they really are. 284 00:16:25,980 --> 00:16:28,760 They're just kind of empty. And Jesus is saying this is not 285 00:16:28,770 --> 00:16:30,180 good the way that you are acting. 286 00:16:30,190 --> 00:16:32,820 And then in the final woe he gives to the Pharisees. 287 00:16:32,950 --> 00:16:39,670 It's like really intense. This is it's shocking and it's 288 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,400 subversive. And what he is saying would have 289 00:16:42,410 --> 00:16:46,550 been deeply offensive to them. He calls them unmarked graves. 290 00:16:46,590 --> 00:16:51,440 So that would be automatically impure, unclean, all the things. 291 00:16:51,550 --> 00:16:54,080 And you know, he says people are walking over these unmarked 292 00:16:54,090 --> 00:16:55,430 graves. So you imagine there's an 293 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:57,220 unmarked grave here. You don't know what's an 294 00:16:57,310 --> 00:17:00,120 unmarked grave. You by walking over the unmarked 295 00:17:00,130 --> 00:17:04,310 grave, it becomes unclean. You become unclean. 296 00:17:05,329 --> 00:17:08,710 And so he says you are the unmarked graves, you are unclean 297 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:11,849 yourself, and you are causing anyone who comes in contact with 298 00:17:11,859 --> 00:17:15,140 you to be unclean, which is the exact opposite of what they were 299 00:17:15,150 --> 00:17:17,060 trying to do. They're trying to make everyone 300 00:17:17,069 --> 00:17:19,300 pure, everyone clean and buy their way. 301 00:17:19,310 --> 00:17:22,150 That they're going about it by their strict law observance in 302 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,619 the way that they're doing it, the legalism, he says. 303 00:17:24,690 --> 00:17:27,780 You are doing the exact opposites. 304 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:33,920 He's pointing out the irony in their entire way of being. 305 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:39,350 And so now Jesus turns to the experts in the law who are also 306 00:17:39,360 --> 00:17:40,660 present. There's not just Pharisees, 307 00:17:40,670 --> 00:17:43,850 there's scribes or other translations will say lawyer or 308 00:17:43,860 --> 00:17:48,030 experts in the law who had a similar concern for law 309 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:50,100 observance. So we're going to read a little 310 00:17:50,110 --> 00:17:52,500 bit about what he says to them now. 311 00:17:52,510 --> 00:17:54,500 And this is probably my favorite verse. 312 00:17:54,540 --> 00:17:56,890 So he says one of the experts in the law answered him. 313 00:17:56,900 --> 00:18:00,640 Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also. 314 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:03,790 I don't know why, I just think that's kind of funny. 315 00:18:06,290 --> 00:18:10,310 It's like, yeah, that's right, Jesus replies. 316 00:18:10,650 --> 00:18:15,140 And you, experts of the law, woe to you because you load people 317 00:18:15,150 --> 00:18:18,260 down with burdens they could hardly carry, and you yourselves 318 00:18:18,270 --> 00:18:20,280 will not lift one finger to help them. 319 00:18:21,070 --> 00:18:23,890 Woe to you because you build tombs for the prophets, and it 320 00:18:23,900 --> 00:18:25,530 was your ancestors who killed them. 321 00:18:25,540 --> 00:18:28,780 So you testified that you approve of what your ancestors 322 00:18:28,790 --> 00:18:30,740 did. They killed the prophets, and 323 00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:34,120 you build their tombs. Because of this, God in his 324 00:18:34,130 --> 00:18:37,000 wisdom said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of 325 00:18:37,010 --> 00:18:40,620 whom they will kill and others they will persecute. 326 00:18:40,870 --> 00:18:44,200 Therefore, this generation will be held responsible, held 327 00:18:44,210 --> 00:18:47,740 responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed 328 00:18:47,750 --> 00:18:50,100 since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to 329 00:18:50,110 --> 00:18:53,250 the blood of Zachariah, who was killed between the altar and the 330 00:18:53,260 --> 00:18:56,390 sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation 331 00:18:56,460 --> 00:18:59,320 will be held responsible for it all. 332 00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:03,450 Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the 333 00:19:03,460 --> 00:19:06,050 key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered 334 00:19:06,140 --> 00:19:08,820 and have hindered those who were entering. 335 00:19:09,860 --> 00:19:12,920 So when Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of 336 00:19:12,930 --> 00:19:16,610 the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with 337 00:19:16,620 --> 00:19:21,290 questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. 338 00:19:23,270 --> 00:19:27,270 That's Part 2 of 3. So for me, this is kind of, like 339 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:29,830 I said, one of those funny, not funny moments where you could 340 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:32,440 imagine this expert in the law trying to be civil. 341 00:19:32,450 --> 00:19:35,130 He's like, teacher, these words are insulting to us. 342 00:19:35,230 --> 00:19:37,460 And he's like, I haven't even started. 343 00:19:37,540 --> 00:19:41,720 Now it's your turn. But I think we could summarize 344 00:19:41,730 --> 00:19:47,660 Jesus's complaints toward the scribes as this He says life 345 00:19:47,730 --> 00:19:55,390 with God is meant to bring life and freedom, and yet all you 346 00:19:55,470 --> 00:20:00,750 scribes do is bring death and constraint. 347 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:07,540 So God life in God life, abundance, freedom, life under 348 00:20:07,590 --> 00:20:15,150 this rule of their law is deaf and its constraints similar to 349 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,460 the Pharisees in their desire to be as pure as possible, they 350 00:20:18,470 --> 00:20:21,220 have been heaping law upon law upon law. 351 00:20:21,270 --> 00:20:23,620 They are creating burdens for the people and they're not even 352 00:20:23,630 --> 00:20:27,600 willing to help those people, the people with those burdens. 353 00:20:27,770 --> 00:20:30,980 They create barriers to connection with God and even to 354 00:20:30,990 --> 00:20:35,180 the point where they themselves are excluded, Yet they are still 355 00:20:35,190 --> 00:20:39,380 gatekeeping the very thing that they are themselves themselves 356 00:20:39,390 --> 00:20:43,930 barred from. And then Jesus lobs another 357 00:20:43,940 --> 00:20:48,100 critique of them. He says they're paying lip 358 00:20:48,110 --> 00:20:52,940 service to the prophets and apostles, both of history and 359 00:20:53,120 --> 00:20:58,490 contemporary, but their ancestors, their ancestors are 360 00:20:58,500 --> 00:21:00,680 the ones ultimately responsible for their deaths. 361 00:21:00,690 --> 00:21:03,340 This is their heritage and this is now the way that they are 362 00:21:03,350 --> 00:21:05,980 living and acting. They're doing the same thing. 363 00:21:05,990 --> 00:21:07,900 They're doing it. They did it to John the Baptist. 364 00:21:07,970 --> 00:21:11,620 They're doing it now to Jesus. That is their heritage and that 365 00:21:11,630 --> 00:21:13,040 is the way that they are living now. 366 00:21:13,970 --> 00:21:16,920 This would be like paying homage to someone like Dedrick 367 00:21:16,930 --> 00:21:22,240 Bonhoffer, who was executed for his dissents against Adolf 368 00:21:22,250 --> 00:21:26,000 Hitler and the Nazis, all the while supporting white supremacy 369 00:21:26,090 --> 00:21:29,540 and fascism. It's an incongruous and 370 00:21:29,610 --> 00:21:32,190 inconsistent ideology and theology. 371 00:21:32,390 --> 00:21:37,310 It doesn't work. So in A twist of irony, then 372 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:42,530 Jesus leaves the meal. And then they do the very thing 373 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,460 that Jesus critiqued them for doing. 374 00:21:44,470 --> 00:21:48,530 They start planning and plotting and lobbying against Jesus in 375 00:21:48,540 --> 00:21:51,460 the same way that he was just describing. 376 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,310 So now in our final movements, we see Jesus in some ways 377 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,010 responds to the Pharisees and the scribes. 378 00:22:01,060 --> 00:22:02,590 He responds to their interactions. 379 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:05,610 And we should see Jesus's statements as being on the heels 380 00:22:05,620 --> 00:22:07,690 of what has just happened. And so now this is at the 381 00:22:07,700 --> 00:22:11,370 beginning of chapter 12. I think this is the first time 382 00:22:11,380 --> 00:22:15,550 this whole series turning over a chapter in the middle of a 383 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,570 sermon. So here we are 12/1 where it 384 00:22:19,580 --> 00:22:24,690 gets really fun. Meanwhile, when a crowd of many 385 00:22:24,700 --> 00:22:27,360 thousands had gathered so that they were trampling on one 386 00:22:27,370 --> 00:22:31,510 another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying, 387 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:36,650 Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is 388 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,750 hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that 389 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,330 will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known, 390 00:22:45,860 --> 00:22:48,650 when what you have said in the dark will be heard in the 391 00:22:48,660 --> 00:22:51,590 daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the 392 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:55,460 inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. 393 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,480 I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the 394 00:23:00,490 --> 00:23:02,380 body and after that can do no more. 395 00:23:02,390 --> 00:23:04,990 But I will show you whom you should fear. 396 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,390 Fear him. Who after the body has been 397 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,150 killed as authority to throw you into hell? 398 00:23:10,420 --> 00:23:16,710 Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not 5 sparrows sold for 2 399 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:21,260 pennies, yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 400 00:23:21,330 --> 00:23:24,400 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are numbered. 401 00:23:24,450 --> 00:23:29,410 Don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. 402 00:23:31,570 --> 00:23:35,130 I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, 403 00:23:35,140 --> 00:23:37,700 the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of 404 00:23:37,710 --> 00:23:40,620 God. But whoever disowns me before 405 00:23:40,630 --> 00:23:43,080 others will be disowned before the angels of God. 406 00:23:43,150 --> 00:23:45,900 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be 407 00:23:45,910 --> 00:23:48,640 forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy 408 00:23:48,650 --> 00:23:53,740 Spirit will not be forgiven. I don't know what happened 409 00:23:53,750 --> 00:23:54,620 there. There we go. 410 00:23:55,390 --> 00:23:57,460 When you are brought before the synagogues, rulers and 411 00:23:57,470 --> 00:23:59,950 authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves 412 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:03,080 or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at 413 00:24:03,090 --> 00:24:06,000 the time, at that time, what you should say. 414 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,720 Go back. So I want to get something 415 00:24:10,730 --> 00:24:13,460 really important out of the way because if you grew up in church 416 00:24:13,470 --> 00:24:17,590 for a length of time, there's one verse that's probably like 417 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,840 glaring at you when you when you read that final section. 418 00:24:20,850 --> 00:24:23,660 And it's probably the part where talks about blasphemy in the 419 00:24:23,670 --> 00:24:27,340 Holy Spirits. So I'm just gonna like start 420 00:24:27,350 --> 00:24:30,140 with that one, get that one out of the way so that we can like 421 00:24:30,150 --> 00:24:36,010 focus on the the broader strokes of what Jesus is trying to say. 422 00:24:36,870 --> 00:24:41,560 The blaspheming of the spirits is the complete its eternal 423 00:24:41,610 --> 00:24:47,060 rejection of the Holy Spirit. That's all we've been confronted 424 00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:51,770 by the spirits of who Jesus is and what we're called to do and 425 00:24:51,780 --> 00:24:55,090 we reject that spirit continually, eternally into 426 00:24:55,100 --> 00:24:57,270 eternity. This is not a one time thing. 427 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,230 In fact, Jesus even makes concession. 428 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,750 He says like, hey, I don't really care what you say about 429 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:04,600 me. He's like he gives like some 430 00:25:04,610 --> 00:25:06,890 grace and some freedom. There's a message of hope for 431 00:25:06,900 --> 00:25:10,210 the Pharisees and the scribes that they one day, two, could 432 00:25:10,220 --> 00:25:15,630 change their minds, he says. You're not condemning yourself 433 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,460 to eternal fate if you have ever said something against Jesus, 434 00:25:20,790 --> 00:25:23,590 though this is a grave warning. I don't want to undermine it, 435 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,900 because it is. I don't believe it's something 436 00:25:26,910 --> 00:25:31,130 that we need to be fearful of. And T right says it this way. 437 00:25:31,830 --> 00:25:36,340 He says the one sure thing about saying that if someone, but 438 00:25:36,450 --> 00:25:39,220 sorry about this saying is that if someone is anxious about 439 00:25:39,230 --> 00:25:42,200 having committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, the anxiety is 440 00:25:42,210 --> 00:25:46,160 a clear sign that they have not. So I've had actually people from 441 00:25:46,170 --> 00:25:48,780 this church come to me and say like, I, I'm worried about this. 442 00:25:48,790 --> 00:25:51,770 I'm worried about things that I've said and done that may have 443 00:25:51,780 --> 00:25:53,320 done. This is like the fact that 444 00:25:53,330 --> 00:25:56,510 you're worried shows me that your heart is not has not done 445 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:00,160 that. So just be assured we can move 446 00:26:00,170 --> 00:26:02,260 on from that. You're all in church this 447 00:26:02,270 --> 00:26:03,860 morning. Chances are you're not 448 00:26:03,870 --> 00:26:06,260 blaspheming the holy Spirits. You're good. 449 00:26:07,570 --> 00:26:09,520 So going back to sort of the beginning there a little bit, 450 00:26:09,530 --> 00:26:12,050 Jesus is interaction. It shifts from the Pharisees and 451 00:26:12,060 --> 00:26:14,320 the scribes now to his disciples. 452 00:26:14,410 --> 00:26:16,850 And there's so many of them that have come out of the woodwork 453 00:26:16,860 --> 00:26:19,020 that apparently they're kind of like trampling on each other. 454 00:26:19,030 --> 00:26:21,160 And sometimes Luke includes these details. 455 00:26:21,170 --> 00:26:24,900 I'm not quite sure why. I think in this case, there's a 456 00:26:24,910 --> 00:26:27,660 lot of people, number one, and perhaps it's to show kind of the 457 00:26:27,670 --> 00:26:30,360 drama of the moment is increasing. 458 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,320 And he specifically mentions this previous interaction with 459 00:26:34,330 --> 00:26:38,000 the Ferris Annie Pharisees. And he tells them to beware the 460 00:26:38,010 --> 00:26:42,910 yeast of the Pharisees. If you know anything about 461 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:47,400 yeast, I don't know a lot, but I know a little bit I, I've, I was 462 00:26:47,410 --> 00:26:49,790 one of those people who made sourdough during COVID. 463 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,290 I wish I could return to that, but just my time doesn't allow 464 00:26:53,300 --> 00:26:55,940 for it. And, you know, it starts with 465 00:26:55,950 --> 00:26:59,010 just like flour and water and then you put, you know, you 466 00:26:59,020 --> 00:27:00,520 stick it on top of your fridge or whatever. 467 00:27:00,530 --> 00:27:02,910 And all of a sudden it catches this wild yeast and it just 468 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:04,690 grows and it bubbles up and it's crazy. 469 00:27:04,700 --> 00:27:06,470 Like this yeast just comes from nowhere. 470 00:27:07,140 --> 00:27:10,250 And I think what Jesus is saying is you think, beware, this thing 471 00:27:10,260 --> 00:27:14,130 spreads the way that the way of life that these guys know about 472 00:27:14,180 --> 00:27:20,490 it will spread this this outward religiosity, it is going to 473 00:27:20,500 --> 00:27:22,850 spread and it's not going to be good. 474 00:27:25,660 --> 00:27:27,990 Jesus is using the negative example of these religious 475 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,030 leaders to show that our inner selves will always spill out. 476 00:27:32,100 --> 00:27:36,380 If you go back to the kind of the first part of this verse, he 477 00:27:36,390 --> 00:27:40,690 says there is nothing. There is nothing concealed that 478 00:27:40,700 --> 00:27:43,700 will not be disclosed. Nothing that is hidden will not 479 00:27:43,710 --> 00:27:45,180 be made known. You kind of uses a couple of 480 00:27:45,190 --> 00:27:47,680 metaphors to expound on that idea. 481 00:27:47,690 --> 00:27:51,070 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed. 482 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:55,060 So even if no one ever finds out the particular thing that I've 483 00:27:55,070 --> 00:27:58,270 done wrong or the thing that the specific sin that you've done 484 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:00,830 wrong or struggled with for many, many years, you've buried 485 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:02,810 it real deep. I've buried it real deep. 486 00:28:02,860 --> 00:28:06,250 If no one ever finds out about that thing, it still has this 487 00:28:06,260 --> 00:28:09,260 way of spilling out into our inward attitudes. 488 00:28:09,270 --> 00:28:11,990 Our inward attitudes will eventually come out in other 489 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,970 ways. If we have greed in our hearts, 490 00:28:15,060 --> 00:28:18,270 that greed will start to spill out in other ways. 491 00:28:18,340 --> 00:28:21,330 That might not be as insidious as what's in here, but it will 492 00:28:21,340 --> 00:28:26,860 come out. Our motivations will have 493 00:28:26,870 --> 00:28:33,240 inevitably reveal themselves. So Jesus tells us to contend for 494 00:28:33,250 --> 00:28:37,210 our souls. Be concerned with the state of 495 00:28:37,220 --> 00:28:39,390 our inner selves. He says don't be worried about 496 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,530 people or forces that can only destroy your body because that's 497 00:28:42,540 --> 00:28:46,210 all that they can do. He says be more focused on the 498 00:28:46,220 --> 00:28:49,490 one who can destroy both body and soul. 499 00:28:49,940 --> 00:28:53,510 Jesus says be fearful of the one who can destroy both body and 500 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,150 soul and throw you into hell. Now that word hell is Gahanna. 501 00:28:57,270 --> 00:28:59,830 That's a burning garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where 502 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,600 centuries ago they sacrificed children to the God, the 503 00:29:03,610 --> 00:29:06,160 Canaanite God, Molek. You don't need to know that, but 504 00:29:06,170 --> 00:29:14,880 it's kind of interesting Gahanna came to symbolize ultimate 505 00:29:14,890 --> 00:29:20,440 judgments. So a question here might be, 506 00:29:21,420 --> 00:29:25,430 when we read that, when we read this section here, do we fear? 507 00:29:25,490 --> 00:29:30,170 Who are we to fear? We fear God or do we fear the 508 00:29:30,180 --> 00:29:34,050 adversary, the evil one, Satan? Now this is interesting because 509 00:29:34,060 --> 00:29:37,750 I, I came across this, I was reading and I was like, whoa, I 510 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,090 don't know where I know where to go with this. 511 00:29:39,100 --> 00:29:40,980 Like just real time. I don't know where to go with 512 00:29:40,990 --> 00:29:42,080 this. And so I started doing a little 513 00:29:42,090 --> 00:29:46,480 bit of research, as one does. So a lot of modern commentaries, 514 00:29:46,490 --> 00:29:48,980 they will all say that the person being referred to here, 515 00:29:49,060 --> 00:29:53,500 the person that we should fear, is God, with a minority saying 516 00:29:53,510 --> 00:29:55,560 it's Satan. Now, it's worth noting it never 517 00:29:55,610 --> 00:29:58,540 specifically says it's always him, him, him, he. 518 00:29:58,790 --> 00:30:02,580 It doesn't say God. When you go back to the early 519 00:30:02,590 --> 00:30:04,980 church history. So people that were around 520 00:30:05,630 --> 00:30:08,480 several 100 years after the life and death and resurrection of 521 00:30:08,490 --> 00:30:12,380 Jesus, often they will say it's gonna be inverse. 522 00:30:12,450 --> 00:30:15,940 The majority will say that it is referring to Satan and that the 523 00:30:16,010 --> 00:30:21,420 minority believe it is God. So I think the the flow of 524 00:30:21,430 --> 00:30:24,240 Jesus's logic should actually inform how we understand this 525 00:30:24,250 --> 00:30:26,500 cause this this matters. OK, this is important. 526 00:30:26,850 --> 00:30:30,630 So he says don't be afraid. Where is it? 527 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,570 Where am I here? Don't be afraid of the person 528 00:30:33,580 --> 00:30:36,930 who can kill the body and after that can do no more. 529 00:30:36,940 --> 00:30:38,080 So don't be afraid of that person. 530 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,740 He says be afraid of the person who after your body has been 531 00:30:40,750 --> 00:30:43,890 killed has authority to throw you into hell. 532 00:30:43,980 --> 00:30:47,150 OK, so that's like be afraid of that person. 533 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,290 And then he goes into this other example, which is a lot more 534 00:30:50,300 --> 00:30:51,850 positive, a lot more lighthearted. 535 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:55,800 He says, are not 5 sparrows sold for 2 pennies, yet not one of 536 00:30:55,810 --> 00:30:59,070 them is forgotten by God. First time God is mentioned 537 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,250 there. Indeed, the very hairs of your 538 00:31:02,260 --> 00:31:05,850 head are all numbered. Don't be afraid, don't be 539 00:31:05,860 --> 00:31:08,850 afraid. You are worth more than many 540 00:31:08,860 --> 00:31:13,680 sparrows. So I'm not just saying this 541 00:31:13,690 --> 00:31:16,020 because it's the nicer interpretation that makes us 542 00:31:16,030 --> 00:31:17,980 feel better. I'm saying it because it fits 543 00:31:17,990 --> 00:31:19,740 the flow of Jesus's argument here. 544 00:31:19,750 --> 00:31:23,720 Don't fear man, fear the evil. 1 And remember that God is with 545 00:31:23,730 --> 00:31:26,500 you through all of this and everything you face, even into 546 00:31:26,510 --> 00:31:29,260 persecution. He knows the numbers of hair on 547 00:31:29,270 --> 00:31:30,760 your head. He is with you. 548 00:31:30,810 --> 00:31:36,880 Don't be afraid, he says. I think what makes it more 549 00:31:36,890 --> 00:31:39,890 confusing is that we have this language in Christianity of 550 00:31:39,900 --> 00:31:43,630 fearing God, right? The word fear in both the Hebrew 551 00:31:43,700 --> 00:31:46,250 and the Greek. It has this dual meaning where 552 00:31:46,260 --> 00:31:50,480 on one end it means be terrified of, be afraid of, and on the 553 00:31:50,490 --> 00:31:54,990 other side it means be in awe of or reverence towards. 554 00:31:55,740 --> 00:31:59,630 The problem is, is that it's only dictated by context. 555 00:31:59,700 --> 00:32:03,180 So we have to know based on this, be afraid of this, be 556 00:32:03,190 --> 00:32:04,900 afraid of this, don't be afraid of that. 557 00:32:04,910 --> 00:32:08,740 You know, so it's this very challenging thing to grapple 558 00:32:08,750 --> 00:32:11,590 with. It's one of the reasons why 559 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:15,790 studying the Scriptures matters, why it's so good to do this 560 00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,450 together, both in church here, but also I hope that you're 561 00:32:18,460 --> 00:32:22,010 having conversations with your friends and family and fellow 562 00:32:22,100 --> 00:32:29,330 church members afterward. Jesus is drawing our attention 563 00:32:29,340 --> 00:32:33,770 with pretty sharp imagery to get our minds off of the external, 564 00:32:33,860 --> 00:32:37,330 our bodies, our outward selves, and to focus on where the 565 00:32:37,340 --> 00:32:42,830 internal is our soul aligned, or is it aligning with God? 566 00:32:43,460 --> 00:32:47,330 Jesus was calling Israel, and today Jesus is calling us to 567 00:32:47,340 --> 00:32:52,170 shed our outward religion in favor of inward renewal. 568 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,890 Outward religion versus inward renewal. 569 00:32:56,140 --> 00:32:58,950 Another way that we could describe this is that Jesus is 570 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:04,250 calling us to live integrated lives rather than disintegrated 571 00:33:04,260 --> 00:33:09,920 lives. What's the image that comes to 572 00:33:09,930 --> 00:33:13,410 mind for you when you think of the word disintegrated? 573 00:33:14,270 --> 00:33:16,940 For me, I think about something that kind of falls apart and 574 00:33:16,950 --> 00:33:19,780 decays in my hands. You know, I, I, I had this image 575 00:33:19,830 --> 00:33:24,400 of a tree log in the forest and it looks pretty sturdy. 576 00:33:24,470 --> 00:33:27,280 And you step on it and it just crumbles, right? 577 00:33:27,290 --> 00:33:28,960 Because it's been eaten by termites. 578 00:33:31,210 --> 00:33:34,140 Or maybe it's like a towel that's been washed one too many 579 00:33:34,150 --> 00:33:36,360 times or left out in the sun for too long. 580 00:33:36,370 --> 00:33:38,600 And what happens? You go to like dry your body and 581 00:33:38,610 --> 00:33:45,140 it just like falls apart, right? Things that disintegrate can 582 00:33:45,150 --> 00:33:49,630 appear to look normal, but when you take a closer look, you'll 583 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:57,140 realize that it's falling apart. Does your life ever feel like 584 00:33:57,150 --> 00:34:02,580 that? Is your life fractured in such a 585 00:34:02,590 --> 00:34:07,780 precarious way that if someone pressed in a little bit that you 586 00:34:07,790 --> 00:34:10,139 might realize that it's falling apart? 587 00:34:13,510 --> 00:34:19,330 Do you recognize yourself? Do we recognize ourself in this 588 00:34:19,340 --> 00:34:24,210 story? I think we ought to, and I don't 589 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,630 think it should be with the one who is saying the woes to the 590 00:34:27,639 --> 00:34:30,739 people, which is often the posture that some Christians 591 00:34:30,750 --> 00:34:34,620 take right, to be the one condemning and woes, when really 592 00:34:34,630 --> 00:34:37,380 she we should be looking in the seat of the Pharisees because 593 00:34:37,389 --> 00:34:43,610 they act like a mirror for us. All of us know what it's like to 594 00:34:43,620 --> 00:34:47,110 have a version of ourselves on the outside and the exterior 595 00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:50,370 that doesn't match what's happening on inside our hearts. 596 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,409 All of us know what it's like to try to maintain an image while 597 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,990 something inside us is dying and decaying. 598 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:05,720 All of us know something about disintegration, but Jesus's 599 00:35:05,730 --> 00:35:09,340 words, as sharp as they are, are not meant to crush us. 600 00:35:09,350 --> 00:35:12,460 And so that's why we had to go to this section here, to get to 601 00:35:12,470 --> 00:35:15,640 the part where it isn't going to feel just like all condemnation. 602 00:35:15,650 --> 00:35:18,300 Because there is hope. There is good news. 603 00:35:18,350 --> 00:35:22,510 God has come. These words are not meant to 604 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:26,260 crush us. They are meant to call us home. 605 00:35:28,090 --> 00:35:32,320 They are meant to call us into this inward renewal. 606 00:35:32,930 --> 00:35:35,680 Because the integrated life that Jesus calls us to is not 607 00:35:35,690 --> 00:35:39,200 something that we can achieve by just tightening up our behavior 608 00:35:39,270 --> 00:35:42,850 or cleaning the outside of the cup here just a little bit more 609 00:35:42,860 --> 00:35:44,720 carefully. That's not going to do it. 610 00:35:44,790 --> 00:35:49,300 The integrated life is something that Jesus gives. 611 00:35:51,290 --> 00:35:53,840 Think about who is speaking these words. 612 00:35:54,110 --> 00:35:59,860 This is the same Jesus who is going to walk toward the cross, 613 00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:03,860 completely consistent, completely whole. 614 00:36:04,570 --> 00:36:09,320 His inner life of love is matching his outward action all 615 00:36:09,330 --> 00:36:12,550 the way to the ends, to the cross. 616 00:36:13,870 --> 00:36:18,180 And at the cross, Jesus takes on our disintegrated self, our 617 00:36:18,190 --> 00:36:21,740 contradictions, our hidden motives, our fractured hearts, 618 00:36:21,750 --> 00:36:25,440 all the parts of ourselves that we are scared, petrified to deal 619 00:36:25,450 --> 00:36:28,780 with, to even acknowledge, to even whisper abouts. 620 00:36:28,870 --> 00:36:38,420 And He exchanges all of its for his own life, whole, healed, 621 00:36:39,140 --> 00:36:43,390 integrated and filled with the Spirit of God. 622 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:48,410 So the invitation this morning when we hear all of these things 623 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:54,990 is not try harder. That's just heaping more laws 624 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,490 upon more laws and weightiness upon weightiness. 625 00:36:58,540 --> 00:37:02,310 It's not try harder, it's come closer. 626 00:37:03,100 --> 00:37:07,320 It's lean in. Bring the parts of your life 627 00:37:07,330 --> 00:37:10,130 that feel like that crumbling log in the forest. 628 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,890 Bring the things you hold together, you know, with duct 629 00:37:12,900 --> 00:37:16,620 tape and a prayer. Bring the fractured pieces, the 630 00:37:16,630 --> 00:37:19,780 buried sins, the things that you hope no one else sees. 631 00:37:19,790 --> 00:37:23,340 Why? Because Jesus sees them and he 632 00:37:23,350 --> 00:37:28,380 says fear nots, you are known, you are cherished, you are 633 00:37:28,430 --> 00:37:34,140 loved, and I can make you whole. Where you are disintegrated, I 634 00:37:34,150 --> 00:37:42,910 can integrate. So let's bring before God all 635 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:44,290 the parts of us that feel broken. 636 00:37:44,300 --> 00:37:45,930 I think that we're scared to do that sometimes. 637 00:37:45,940 --> 00:37:50,190 I I certainly AM. Let's bring those parts before 638 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:54,440 God. Let's surrender the outward 639 00:37:54,450 --> 00:37:58,080 religion, the religiosity that exhausts us. 640 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,480 Keeping up appearance. It's exhausting. 641 00:38:03,830 --> 00:38:08,170 And maybe receive the inward renewal that will restore us. 642 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:13,650 Remember, God calls us and brings us life and freedom, not 643 00:38:13,660 --> 00:38:17,470 death and constraint. And may the God who knows the 644 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:21,950 number of hairs on your head completes you in His love inside 645 00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:25,120 and outs. Amen.