Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us today, whether it's your first time or you are a faithful member of our family in Christ, we're glad you are here. If you're not certain about whether or not you want to embrace Jesus Christ, I pray there will be something in our message today that will point you toward Christ. It's one of the few decisions I've made in my life that I don't regret, so I can confidently assure you, you won't either.
I believe it was John Calvin who rightly said, "No man will steadily persevere in the discharge of his ministry unless the love of Christ shall reign in his heart." In a world where so many Christians dust lightly their Bibles, a metaphor for a lack of engagement with Scripture, essentially neglecting one's spiritual life they by superficially read the text with minimal application, if they read it at all. How then can we say, that we really love Christ in the fullest sense, reaching the highest conceivable level of human devotion? Attraction, affection, and desire do not necessarily constitute true love, in fact, they can actually prove to be distractions from it. True love requires us to go beyond superficial emotions and temporary feelings, demanding a deeper level of commitment and sacrifice, is deeply rooted in selfless, sacrificial biblical love, an example set by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That’s why the Lord warns us as believers to be careful how we treat one another, because it is directly equivalent to how we treat Christ Himself. Like Peter, I desperately desire for the Lord to recognize my love for Him, even though I am well aware it's not what it should be.
If you're a pastor, if you love Christ, you're going to naturally have affection and concern for those who belong to Christ, because Christ is in them and He has turned over the weakest, the most vulnerable and the strongest-willed over to you to love and care for and protect the flock from danger. There appears to be a very disturbing and dangerous trend occurring in the ministry today, a trend toward lowering the standards of pastoral responsibilities, misapplying them or creatively applying them selectively picking and choosing from among the list what you want to apply, or whom you want them to, has had a rippling effect on the church.
I've find nothing is more disturbing than the egregious immoral sins that so many pastors are committing today, while proclaiming a different Jesus, only to welcomed right back into ministry as soon as the publicity cools down. It’s painful to watch they way some pastors are conducting themselves. There’s always an attempt to suppress it, to bury it, but we seem to have forgotten that God is everywhere, all the time. I can't imagine why the people of God would settle for the kind of leadership that is out of alignment with the Truth. I believe it says a lot about the state of the spiritually complacent church. If you’re going to be faithful in giving your life to caring for the people of God, you have to love Christ more than your sin. We live what we believe, don't we? Our habits, our actions, our behaviors are fundamentally grounded in what we believe, there should never be a disconnect between the beliefs we profess and the ones we consistently live by. Just because a person is outwardly moral does not necessarily mean they possess saving faith, it really does nothing to validate they're moral on the inside. That was the issue with the religious leaders in Jesus' day wasn't it? Matthew 23:27-28, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. In this way, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Just because a person sits in a church their entire life doesn't mean they're not spiritually lost. The proof is on the inside, it's a matter of a changed heart that results in a transformed life. That's why Jesus used the parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25, virgins represent purity, chastity and virtue. The five foolish ones represent the self-deceived, who thought they were saved but they weren't right with God not matter how they appeared on the outside. Spiritual pride often slams shut the door to deeper faith.
We can only be made right with God, not according to works or by the Law, but by God's gracious own gift, which is received by faith, provided for all who will respond in faith, given freely and paid for by the sacrifice of Christ. There are number of people in the church today, many of them in the pulpit, who are lacking a authentic relationship with God. True salvation is by the divine power of God and not by human effort. My fear is that because we have dragged God down to our level, we created a god of our own imagination, a one-dimensional god, a god who will accommodate whatever our personal proclivity might be. But God of the Bible is not a God like the gods that men created in their imagination, God is supreme over all things, He is Holy, He is Righteous and Psalm 7:11 says, "He's angry with the wicked every day."
Just because men refuse to believe in a God who is angry with their sin, doesn't mean that God doesn't hate all workers of iniquity. In Genesis chapter 6, God drowned the entire world except for eight faithful people because of their sin. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah to the point where we can't even find their ruins because of sexual immorality and we somehow imagine that God is somehow fine with it today? God doesn't tolerate the sin of today anymore than He did the Old Testament. Why do you think Peter cried out in Luke chapter 5, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!" Have we forgotten that being ignorant of God's Holiness and Righteousness doesn't change the fact that Matthew 5:48, says, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
God demands a righteous we can never attain, that's why we need Christ Who gives to everyone that believes His own righteousness. When a sinner believes, a change takes place in his life so that his faith becomes evident by the kind of life that he lives. Its the transformative faith that changes lives.
That's why the Apostle Paul says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, and all things become new." In other words, you don't do all of the same things you've done because a new heart that loves Christ wants to keep His commandments. In John 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." When your sin has been forgiven and washed away, and you receive a "new heart, a heart for Christ" you don't want to sin anymore, you long to obey Him from the heart, its not external obedience, it's internal. O' Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Work mightily in their hearts as only You can.
Do you love Christ? Do you love Him more than your sin? Talk is cheap. Examine your life honestly, look closely at your behavior, your thoughts, your speech and you'll find the true answer.
Let's pray
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this tremendous opportunity to have our lives and intents of our hearts examined by Your Word. Lord, we want nothing more than to be able to say that we love You more than anything or anyone else. Lord, examine our hearts closely, You know our hearts, You know everything, know that we do love You and want to serve You, even if it means sacrifice our lives for You should that become necessary. Help us to be faithful to repent, turn from sin that separates us from You and fully embrace a new way of living for Christ. Father, prepare our hearts by Your Spirit for the rest of what You want to teach us out of this great passage. We ask and pray these things in the Name of Your precious Son, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
Today's Message: Jesus Takes The Scholar To School
There is an old song "Dust on the Bible," popularized by Hank Williams, that laments the sight of a Bible covered in dust, symbolizing an indifference to God's Word, a lack of engagement with its teachings, emphasizing our need as Christians to prioritize our faith and be intentional time we spend with God. I dare say therein lies the problem with the church today, we have lost our focus, congregants are distracted by every shiny object, while church leaders are obsessed with new programs, the latest technologies, or current trends that are hyped to produce a greater impact on our relationship with Christ, and one another, but often fail to deliver. If anything, it seems to draw us further away from our core mission, glorifying God and exalting Christ. Scripture emphasizing the importance of keeping one's focus fixed on Jesus rather than the world. I am convinced that a heart that follows the world loses its gaze for Christ.
I am convinced that Scripture teaches that as one grows in their relationship with God, their sin decreases, and their righteousness increases because they are putting to death their old sinful nature and allowing Christ to guide and transform them into His likeness. Growing in righteousness goes beyond the milk to the meat. If you're a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, understand that it will be long, narrow road, that becomes narrower and narrower the further you go, designed to "squeeze" out the sin in our lives, a reality that has been too often neglected in the church today.
Let's take out our Bibles and open them to the Gospel of Luke chapter 11. I encourage you to follow along with me as I read to you the passage before us, Luke 11:45-52. For those of you who have been keeping track, and I'm confident that some of you have been, wondering if we're ever going to move on, after a mere year and a half, we finally find ourselves nearing the halfway point in the Gospel of Luke. I do trust, however, it has been as enlightening and rewarding for you as it has been for me. Since Luke's Gospel account is both historical and theological, every passage is so rich, so profound, offering unique insights into the life and ministry of Jesus, we could literally spend a decade or more just discussing the profundity of the glorious Gospel, it transcends my ability to fully convey all the immense Truths and the treasure trove of meaningful lessons that are written within. However, by the grace of God, Who has granted us today this unique opportunity and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I will certainly do my best as we look at this great passage of escalating tension, to see how divine Truth pricks at man's conscience and provoking him to pushback, often leading to death. Yet, we all know what would have happened if Jesus hadn't died; we would all have had to pay for our sin ourselves.
"Now one of the scholars of the Law answered and said to Him, "Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too." But He said, "Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering."
Let's look at verse 45, "Now one of the scholars of the Law answered and said to Him, "Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too." One of the scholars, which is the Greek word "nomikós," an expert in the Mosaic Law, specializing in interpreting the Old Testament and applying the teachings of established rabbis,
often sided with Pharisees in enforcing traditions, interjects, he's feeling the profound sting of Jesus' words. Every person who violates God's commandments is a violator of the divine Law, regardless of their religious title or affiliations. God, being a God of justice, must require punishment for such violations. Since the magnitude of man’s crimes against God are so severe, so enormous, there will never ever come to a time when the enormity of that debt can said to be paid, so he must suffer in hell for all of eternity to pay what little he can pay. However, that is not the desire of God’s heart, wanting none to perish, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to save sinners, by paying the debt for those who would receive His sacrifice, repent of their sin and believe on His name, meaning believing everything He has said in the Gospel, which in the way it challenges and inspires us to live a life of service and love, glorifying God. Because forgiveness of sin is man's greatest need, that's why the Gospel is such Good News! I am beyond grateful that my sins are already paid for in full by the blood of Jesus.
Notice this scholars response, though it is polite on the surface, calling Jesus "Teacher", it is defensive intertwined with resentment, even though Jesus has not directly addressed the legal scholars practices yet, echoing the prophets' rejection in Jeremiah 18:18, which says "Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to perish from the priest, nor counsel to the wise man, nor the divine word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words." Many Christians often think that if our presentation of the Gospel isn't well received by everyone, sinner and saint, then we must be doing something wrong. However, we must keep in mind that in Luke 6:26, Jesus said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers were doing the same things to the false prophets." And, in John 15:18-19,, He said "If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." I am convinced that when the church becomes preoccupied with new trends, technologies, or personal goals, it loses sight of its primary mission: to worship God, exalt Christ and serve others. As Christians, its important to remember that we're called to be faithful to God, not popular among men. They demanded to be treated in the manner to which they had become accustomed, with great respect and reverence. Man, the air must have so thick, that you could cut it with a knife.
Beginning in verse 46, Jesus unleashes a series of woes signaling divine judgment on hypocrisy and spiritual abuse. "But He said, "Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers." For those of us who have walked with Christ for years, especially those who occupy positions of leadership in ministry, where there is a tendency to inadvertently accumulate "traditions" over time, that ordinary people struggled to follow. At it's heart, this verse serves as a crucial reminder to avoid slipping into subtle forms of legalism. However, the religious leaders themselves evaded these through casuistry—clever loopholes or exemptions—without lifting a finger to alleviate the heavy load they place on others to adhere to certain teachings to cultivate humility and unity; church attendance, tithing, and volunteering time, talents and resources to "love our neighbor," all while taking frequent sabbaticals themselves without facing the same scrutiny. Bending his own "rules" for personal convenience, delegating his own pastoral and administrative burdens to other members of leadership.
Legalism, often characterized by an excessive adherence to the law, can insidiously infiltrate religious practices, transforming spiritual devotion into a checklist of obligations, which often leads to corrupt interpretations of the Scripture, where the spirit of the law is overshadowed by the letter, and compassion is replaced by judgment. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus contrasts His teachings by offering a "light" yoke of grace and rest, emphasizing God’s compassion for those on the fringes of society, and condemns how religious leaders have turned faith into a mechanism of control. Jesus' rebuke is harsh and direct, if this sounds different from the Jesus you're hearing about in church today, then you now know just how far we've removed from what Jesus actually teaches according to Scripture. And, He's just getting warmed up. By the way, if you study world religions and ethnology, the analytical study of cultures and societies in their religion, you will find that with all of their religious rites and rituals and applying the all the accumulated ceremonial complexities throughout the centuries, whether you're talking about Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam or Roman Catholicism, it can be overwhelming to the average person.
Verse 47, "Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them." In an attempt to atone or obscure their guilt, they inadvertently perpetuate the very legacy of hypocrisy and spiritual blindness to Truth that led their ancestors to murder the prophets for delivering God's uncomfortable Truths. Now, they're decorating the tombs of the prophets, while they're literally planning to kill Jesus for delivering the same uncomfortable Truths, calling Israel to repentance. He's attacking their false religion and false piety they're are just like their hypocritical fathers, which is the same reason why they don't have spiritual life, because they have no Truth. Religious traditions often conceal a rebellious heart. We see this in all false religion today, whether its Roman Catholicism, Islam or the progressive contemporary church, where where leaders advocate for social justice yet mirror the same defiant spirit of those who opposed them, revealing their own untransformed heart, while claiming to adhere to biblical teaching without allowing the Words of Scripture to truly transform their lives. For those who've walked with Christ for years, Jesus is challenging the complacency of upholding long-held man-made traditions over obeying God's Word, like wanting to kill someone who confronts their superficiality with uncomfortable Truths. As long-time followers of Christ, we can easily fall into the trap of quoting Scripture condemning others without confronting how their own sinful actions with Scriptures uncomfortable Truths. Which is why Jesus asks in Matthew 7,, "And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" This is why I am constantly calling on the body of Christ to honestly and thoroughly examine themselves to ensure they haven't become resistant to God's correction, while imposing unnecessary burdens on others.
Verse 48, "So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs." Jesus is revealing the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who strived to maintain an outward appearance of holiness and purity before men while inwardly rejecting God's messengers. I believe this is a strong warning for all of us to guard ourselves against superficial Christianity, encouraging us as believers to develop our "spiritual muscles," by embracing present-day messengers who are sharpening our discernment, moving us toward a more authentic faith, inward transformation and the call to live it out daily before a watching world rather than merely playing church, ignoring God’s correction and guidance just because its uncomfortable or disrupt our long-standing norms. It's also an invitation to repent and return from where you have fallen. In a world full of constant noise and distraction, serious followers of Christ who are seeking greater depth in their walk with Him should routinely set aside extended periods of time to meditate on passages, reflect on God's Word more deeply, and allow the Holy Spirit to completely reshape their thinking and change their attitudes and their behaviors to transform their lives to become more pleasing to God. We were not called to be silent because it makes someone uncomfortable, but to boldly proclaim the Truth in love with compassion, offering the same grace and mercy we ourselves have received. I am in awe of the fact that He has chosen to bring me out of the darkness, and into the glorious Light of the Truth. Therefore, I will never allow myself to fall back into the darkness which I have fought so hard to escape.
Verses 49-51, "For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’" By honoring the prophets their father killed while ignoring Jesus' messages, show they would willing do the same.
Jesus delivers a stark warning to the religious leaders; those who willfully persist in rejecting God’s appointed servants will ultimately bear responsibility the legacy of defiance and judgment, just as they are rejecting Him, the Son of God. I believe this serves as both an invitation and a word of caution for those of us who are spiritually mature, to carefully examine ourselves, and to ensure that we are open and willing to listen to the voices that God sends our way to correct us, especially when they challenge our well-established practices, rather than arrogantly rejecting anything that draws us out of our comfort zones. Folks, this is a sobering reminder: that honoring God is much more than showing up at church on Sunday and giving lip service, it demands the courage to grow and obey in response to His voice spoken through Scripture and those He unexpectedly sends in the community to confront us.
That brings us to verse 52, where Jesus delivers another powerful blow to the religious experts of His day, "Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." The scholars were entrusted with interpreting God’s Word and teaching the Old Testament Law, however, they added layers of man-made traditions and oral laws that obscured the Scriptures' true intent. But rather than opening the door to the Truth, Jesus accuses them of not only shutting the door, but effectively locking it, preventing those who were entering from coming in. The "key" is the revelation found in Scripture, that leads to transformation, not merely just information. In other words, their fixation on rules and traditions caused them to obscure God’s grace. As a result, they were unable to recognize the Messiah, Who was literally standing before them.
The Gospel isn't just good news; it's the greatest news the world has ever known Yet, when misinterpreted, it becomes a source of confusion rather than the revelation that leads to true transformation. Far worse, its damning! Repent and believe the Gospel is not just a biblical phrase to be repeated, its turning away from the sins you now love without moaning, groaning and complaining, its beginning to hate the sin you now celebrate, turning toward God you've been ignoring, surrendering it all to the One Who loved you enough to die in your place so that in Him, you too can have NEW LIFE for eternity.
The biggest tragedy is not being ignorant, it's believing in the wrong gospel! Being "Born-Again" isn't adding Jesus to your existing lifestyle, its a radical transformation, it’s a supernatural spiritual rebirth that marks the beginning of a new identity in Christ. Submission—yielding to God and the authority of Scripture—keeps us humble and teachable, protecting us against pride and self-sufficiency.
May it be so...
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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