You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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If you have your Bibles with you, please open them up to Luke chapter 11.
We'll be finishing up this chapter today, starting in verse 37, going through the end of the chapter.
If you don't have a Bible, it'll also be on the screen behind me.
And we have deacons who will be going around to see if you're playing on Facebook or if you're listening to the sermon.
There's going to be a lot of similarities between the sermon this week and the sermon last week for several reasons that I'll go into.
So I'm going to dive right in and just read the text.
The primary difference is Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and lawyers this week.
And while we might see that as him tailoring his message to the leadership of the church,
I think we're going to find out today that there's a lot of it that has to do with all of us.
So please read with me, beginning in Luke chapter 11, verse 37.
While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him.
So he went in and reclined at table.
Now the Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.
And the Lord said to him,
Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness.
You fools!
Did not he who made the outside of everything make the inside also?
But give his alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.
But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God.
These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
And woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.
And one of the lawyers said, Hold on a minute, teacher, in saying these things, you're insulting us also.
And Jesus said, Yeah, woe to you, lawyers, also.
For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
So you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.
Therefore, also, the wisdom of God said, or in God's wisdom, he said, I'll send them prophets and apostles,
some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world
may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,
who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.
You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.
And as he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard
and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him,
to catch him in between something he might say.
Pray with me, please.
Father, these are difficult words for us, and as we explore them more this morning,
we pray for your mercy and your grace.
Send your Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts and our minds
to know what we are to do with a text like this.
I pray that you would be with the words of my mouth
and the meditation of all of our hearts.
They would be pleasing unto you.
And most of all, that the name of your son, Jesus, would be made great
and that we would know more of your love for us today than we did yesterday.
For the sake of our Savior, King Jesus, amen.
So last week, Ron spoke on many things about this generation of people
who Jesus said, this is going to fall on you.
And one of the bigger deals was back at the beginning in 1114
when Jesus cast a demon out of a man
and the people accused Jesus potentially of doing this because of Beelzebul
and saying he was in cahoots with the devil.
Pretty unfair accusation, and Jesus logically stepped through it with them,
saying, well, if that's the case, how did your sons do it?
What is actually happening here is the kingdom of God has come present, is there.
If we read in the book of Matthew, it says the son of David is here,
the Messiah, the very promised one, is here.
And people are casting division in that.
They're not unifying around the long-promised Savior.
Instead, they're becoming divided by it, and Jesus sees it happening.
And he says to the crowd, look, if you're not with me, you're against me.
There's no other place to be.
And he calls them a wicked generation.
And this wicked generation is represented by these leaders
that Jesus spent several verses here discussing the realities
of who they are in light of what the gospel says.
And we're going to dive right in this morning.
The first point in your bulletin that you see there is called response versus rebuke.
And the reason that I say that is because the gospel enables response,
and ignoring the gospel demands rebuke.
And the gospel is not something that magically started when Jesus came to earth.
God's been on about this in the whole Bible to this point.
We see the covenant starting with the covenant with Adam,
and then the covenant with Noah, and then with Abraham,
and then with Moses, and then with David.
And we think that somehow these covenants get replaced by each other.
But in reality, God is building a layer cake of covenants
where he knows that we aren't fulfilling our end of it.
And ultimately, he makes that promise in Jeremiah of the new covenant
that will be in the blood of the Messiah.
And so, here he is.
And in each of these terms, God's only requirement of his people
is that they embrace his covenant from the heart.
That we will see him for who he is,
and know who we are,
and therefore act accordingly.
So, we see with the Pharisees that that's not necessarily what's going on.
And he jumps right into it with rebuke number one there in verse 38.
The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.
And this is not a matter of hygienic washing.
This wasn't a question of did Jesus wash his hands.
What was going on here is that the Pharisees required an extra-biblical set of rituals
for people to do before they ate.
And please don't doubt the zealousy of these men.
These Pharisees were trying to protect what they thought was piety
and what they thought was humility in front of God.
And yet the God-man is sitting there with them,
and he doesn't wash his hands as the beginning of a series of terrible things
that you don't want said about you by, certainly not by Jesus.
And he moves directly to rebuke number two, neglect.
In verse 42.
Rebuke number three, pride.
And rebuke number four, death.
So going back to the washing, Jesus says,
You fools, didn't he who make the outside make the inside also?
Give alms within, and what comes out of you will surely match that.
Don't make things right on the outside.
There's no good there.
If you were truly embracing the covenant from the heart,
which you as the leaders of the church
and the people who are teaching the people of God
how to live with him and live with each other,
you would know that if you were to do that within,
it would certainly spread to without.
And rebuke number two, the neglect.
Woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb,
and yet you neglect justice and the love of God.
These you ought to have done.
You should have done justice and the love of God
without neglecting the others.
Leviticus says, yeah, you've got to tithe that stuff.
But this is going to be the crux of our whole passage
because essentially what Jesus is saying is
the thing that he said to the gentleman earlier
in Luke 9, I believe.
All of the law and the prophets can be summarized
in the reality of loving your neighbor as yourself
and loving God with all of your heart
and your soul and mind.
And what Jesus is saying is
you're tithing mint and herbs and rue
and you're denying love for other people
and you're denying love for God.
We see this pictured in Micah 6.8
where it says that,
for he's shown you, O man, what is good
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
I'm going to look up my other verse too
because it seems that we don't have those on the slides.
Colossians 3.
We're in sword drills now.
Somebody can beat me there.
Start reading Colossians 3.
There we go.
Study Bibles are great.
They're just long.
Colossians 3 starting in verse 12.
Put on then as God's chosen ones
holy and beloved compassionate hearts,
kindness, humility, meekness, patience,
bearing with one another
and if one has a complaint against another,
forgiving each other as the Lord's forgiven you.
That's how you're supposed to forgive.
And above all these things,
put on love which binds everything together
in perfect harmony.
Justice in the time of Micah
who had great success
preaching and speaking
and was able to turn the king's heart
toward the Lord
was the idea of the people
who were in control
looking out for those who had been oppressed,
looking out for those who were being suppressed.
We call it in our core values
looking out for the lost
and the lonely
and the littlest
and the left out.
That's the role of these people
but they're not doing that.
The Pharisees aren't doing that.
Instead, we move to rebuke number three
starting in verse 43.
Woe to you Pharisees
for you love the best seat in the synagogues
and greetings in the marketplace.
That means that they like to go
and sit in the front of the synagogue
and be seen.
They like to see
and they like to have other people
to know where they were.
And the greetings in the marketplace
wasn't a simple,
hey, how you doing?
It's good to see you today, pastor.
It was a ritualistic,
extra-biblical thing
that they made people do.
They had to stop
and go through an entire rite with them
publicly
just so they could be seen.
Scratch that itch of pride.
And then he bookends it
with the worst woe, number four.
For you are like unmarked graves
and people walk over them
without knowing it.
In the beginning,
they had accused Jesus
because he didn't wash his hands
and Jesus is saying,
look, you're an unmarked grave.
And the significance of that
to this culture
is that touching anything dead
or being around anything dead
made you ceremonially unclean
for seven days.
And Jesus is saying,
not only are you doing that to people,
but they don't know
you're doing it to people.
In fact, they think
they're approaching
the leaders of the church,
the leaders of the people of God,
who are giving them good information.
But you're defiling them.
And while they're ceremonially unclean,
you're spewing more
of what you're spewing at them,
more of the venom that you have.
And you're leading them to death.
And that's a terrible thought
for people who are supposed to be
the ones leading people to life.
And all four of these rebukes
center on the title of this sermon.
The Pharisees are majoring on the minors.
They're not paying attention
to the heart of what the covenant is
and the heart of what the gospel is.
And instead, they're piling on to people.
And we'll see more of that in a minute
with the scribes.
I abhor abortion
with every fiber of my being.
Yet I was raised,
and I think many Gen Xers like me
were raised in a time
where I was not taught very well
how to think about abortion.
I was taught a lot of answers
that became more ideology
than they became interacting
with the gospel
on a terrible, heartbreaking issue.
It became politicized,
which is one of the problems, I think.
And I'm not condemning any people
in my past.
I'm saying the net effect
of that on me
was that I looked at abortion
as a set of things
that were an ideology
rather than the heartbreaking reality
of a life being lost.
and the heartbreaking reality
of someone
who could have been going
through the worst circumstances.
Instead, she's just kind of condemned
and lost and forgotten about.
And open and public displays
of condemning that
without the other side of that
being the compassionate
coming toward those people
in love,
men and women
who would have found themselves
in that situation.
And I can't help but think
that that's happening again
with a different issue now,
especially as I deal
and speak with the youth on it.
Emily and I,
and the boys,
well, three boys at the time,
moved to St. Louis
in the August of 2012.
And a few things happened
while we were living there,
none bigger than,
on August 9th,
Michael Brown was shot
by a police officer
and killed.
And I remember walking into work,
I worked full-time for the seminary,
and looking at a guy
that I worked with
and saying,
hey, this is going to end up
being a really big deal.
And he looked at me
and was like,
no, this happens all the time.
And I said,
yeah,
I think this is going to end up
being a really big deal
and I didn't know why.
And that was the beginning
of me walking
for the rest of the time
we lived there
with African-American brothers
and sisters,
many of whom were in the PCA,
through a situation
that I kind of thought
I knew about.
Most of my friends growing up
were African-American.
I'd seen a few things
being in that situation.
But what I was experiencing there
was something different
because there was
some kind of a heart change
that was going on
inside of me
toward the issue.
And for the first time
in my life,
I truly began
to understand
my neglect
and my pride
toward the issue
of racial reconciliation
and of systematic injustice
and things like that.
And really what Jesus
is talking about here
is that,
is the response to that,
not the conclusions
we draw from that.
And I saw that my response
was really steeped
in an ideology
that I'd either developed
or been taught,
culturally, personally,
I don't know.
And yet here I was
face to face
with believers
who I knew
and who I trusted
who were telling me things
that were wholly other
than what I had ever experienced
or known.
and my heart
began to break
because of how much sin
I saw inside of myself
in that situation.
As God's people,
we are to be rushing
to those situations
and leading the way,
not in solving
all of the problems
because that's not
what we can do
and that's not
what God calls us to do
but he calls us
to rush to the situations
with compassion
and with mercy
and with patience
and with understanding
and with love.
All of those things
I read that Paul spoke
of in Colossians.
Not to mention
the historical reality
of who God's people
are in the earth.
We're meant to be
a taste of the kingdom
for everybody
that comes in contact
with us.
And a lot of the time
we're judged
on that first thing
that happens,
that response.
How do we respond?
And that's where
I felt condemned
because my first response
is always a knee-jerk thing
that's not very indicative
of what I should be rushing to.
I rush to my ideology
and I don't rush
to the gospel.
I don't rush
to consider
how might God
be working
in this situation.
What is broken?
What is not broken?
How do I engage
with that
trusting
that my role
is not to be the fixer
or to hold on
too tightly
to things
that I don't want
to change
but it's actually
just to be present
and to act
like a Christian
the way that God
has called me
to be.
And don't hear
what I'm not saying.
I'm not discussing
conclusions.
I'm discussing
initial response.
And we can see
the hearts
of the Pharisees
in this situation
not responding
but instead
deserving rebuke.
And the gospel
of Jesus Christ
lets me know
where I stand
as a humble sinner
completely in need
of saving.
And I can't stand here
and bind anyone's conscience
based upon conclusions
or outcomes.
Can't do that.
But I can absolutely
point to a scripture
that demands
for you
and me
to humbly
and patiently
and compassionately
and lovingly
seek out
and to listen
to our brothers
and sisters
and to listen
to people
of all sorts
of races
because we are
the ones
who are the dominant
culture
not differently
than what Micah
was speaking to.
And it's important
that we understand
as the church
our responsibility
to be out
in front of that.
Our posture
is what is at stake
well before the outcome
of any of these situations.
And defensiveness
and self-preservationist motives
are exactly
what Jesus
is condemning here.
And this isn't lost
on the audience
as we see
when we move on
to the lawyers
who said,
hey man
wait a second
you're talking about them
we're the ones
who supply them
with a lot
of our information
so what you're saying
you're talking about us too
slow down buddy
we invited you to dinner.
Actually
the verb
or the noun there
would suggest
it was earlier
in the day meal
but anyway
we invited you
to eat with us.
And Jesus starts
levying some woes
on them
and your second point
there in the outline
is repentance
versus reaction.
what does being faced
with the reality
of the gospel
cause you to rush to?
Does it prick your heart
in a way
that would
cause you
to desire
to repent
and even seek out
what those things are
to repent of?
Or do we just
viscerally react?
Let's see what
the lawyers did
lawyers, scribes
they studied the law
they advised the Pharisees
ultimately they're the ones
who killed Jesus.
Woe number one
was unnecessary burdens
we see in verse 46.
What are you lawyers also
for you load people
with burdens
hard to bear
and you yourselves
don't touch the burdens
with one of your fingers.
It was interesting
to read different commentators
discuss this
because they're discussing
a couple of different things.
One
they're talking
about several things
that they add on
to the requirements
of the law
and the gospel
I mean I'm sorry
the law
and
two things
are probably happening
one
the people can't
meet the requirements
that they're adding
they're burdening the people
and the people
have no ability
to rise to it
and so
and it's hopeless
because if you can't
rise to it
there's no other way
these are the people
who are telling you
the way to God
and so if you can't
rise to that
and the other part
of that is
they weren't even
doing it themselves
and they didn't care
it was hypocritical
of them
and Jesus
is pointing that out
saying this is
this is not right
this is not good
so going back
to what he said
to the Pharisees
in place of justice
and mercy
you're actually
levying
undue burden
and hypocrisy
on these people
stay with me
for these next couple
because they're
they're a little bit
it was difficult to read
I'm sure it was difficult
to hear
and I'll try
to explain it
a little bit
because it's
it's very important
what Jesus was saying
the second woe
was the woe
of the tombs
verses 47
and 48
woe to you
for you build
the tombs
of the prophets
whom your fathers
killed
so your witnesses
and you consent
to the deeds
of your fathers
for they killed them
and you built
their tombs
these people
obviously didn't
kill the prophets
what he's speaking
of there
is their complicit
response
to what
their fathers
had done
their motivations
show their collusion
and much like
he does
in Matthew 5
when we see
Jesus talking
about
if you even
think
sexually
about a woman
you have
committed adultery
and even
if you
think
hateful thoughts
about your brother
you've committed
murder
this is another
floor and ceiling
type of a thing
they would say
well
they killed him
back several hundred
years ago
this didn't have
anything to do
with us
and Jesus is saying
no you're not
you're missing the point
you are complicit
in this
willingly complicit
in this
so
verses 49
and 51
this will be more
of an explanatory
aside
but therefore
also
the wisdom
of God
said
the NIV
I really like
there
it said
God in his
wisdom
said
that
I lost
myself
there
I will send
the prophets
and apostles
some of whom
they will kill
and persecute
so this is part
of God's plan
that this is
going to happen
so that the
blood of all
the prophets
shed from the
foundation of the
world may be
charged against
you guys
this generation
from the blood
of Abel
who we don't
usually think
about as a
prophet
but he was
someone who
embraced love
for God
we could say
embraced the
covenant
from the
heart
to Zechariah
and Zechariah
is a little bit
hard to pin down
but most likely
if you have a
study Bible
in front of you
you'll look at
the note there
most likely
it was Zechariah
in 2 Chronicles
which in the
Hebrew Bible
means that
Jesus was laying
out for them
Abel
in the beginning
of the Hebrew
Bible
all the way
to Zechariah
at the end
of the Hebrew
Bible
you're responsible
for all of this
this blood
is on you
and woe number
three
which is
going again
back to
similar
to the
final rebuke
against the
Pharisees
with the
unmarked graves
verse 52
woe to you
lawyers
for you've
taken away
the key
of knowledge
you did
not enter
yourselves
and you
hindered
those who
were
entering
key of
knowledge
that idea
that they
had the
key
as the
teachers
of the
law
and the
ones who
review
and translate
and advise
on the
law
that they
never even
knew it
themselves
and not only
that but
because of
what he said
at the
beginning
that they
were burdening
unnecessarily
the people
of Israel
God's chosen
people with
all of these
other things
was hindering
them from
getting inside
as well
they didn't
have the
key
you don't
have the
key
and you're
keeping other
people who
want to go
in from
going in
pretty harsh
stuff
and then we
see in
53 and
54
what reaction
looks like
because in
repentance
you hear
that and
tear your
clothes
right
lay in
sackcloth
and ashes
like the
Ninevites
and as
Jesus alluded
to in the
sign of
Jonah
you realize
who you
are
how you've
acted
before a
holy God
how much
more so
for the
people who
were supposed
to be the
leaders
but they
don't
repent
they react
and this
language
is so
strong in
the original
language that
it's hard to
catch in
English but I
think in
English it's
pretty strong
also
as he went
away from
there the
scribes and
Pharisees began
to press him
hard and to
provoke him to
speak about many
things lying in
wait for him to
catch him in
something that he
might say and
as I was reading
this the visual
image I had was
someone trying to
leave and like a
pack of dogs
circling him and
foaming at the
mouth and
seething and
angrily going
at Jesus
trying to get
him to show
that he's not
who he's claiming
to be
because if he's
who he's claiming
to be
who are they
there are many
difficult things
facing us as the
church of Jesus
Christ today
and we
we can't help
but look and
see that we
stand in the
midst of some
kind of a
transition in our
country and it's
scary to think
that the things
that were might
not be the
things that are
or the things
that will be
and we clutch
and we grasp
and that's that's
my I shouldn't
lay that on you
that can be my
reaction
to what's
happening
and what's
going on
we think of
the immigrants
from Syria
and from Haiti
from the
Dominican Republic
from Cuba
from Central
and South
America
from other
places
we have been
in war
at war
for a long
time in one
place and now
we're scared
of a war
starting in
another place
potentially
and then
we even
think about
in our
recreation
which is going
to be interesting
to see today
how many players
if not whole
teams in the NFL
are going to
respond to the
call from many
for them to be
silenced
and the question
that faces us
is what about
us
what about you
and what about
me
the church
the people
of God
we're called
to lead
in these
things
we're not
called to sit
back and wait
for others
to respond
and then
see how it
goes
we're to
lead
so that
others
can have
a taste
of the
kingdom
do we
begin
to think
about
situations
with
compassion
and with
mercy
with a
desire
and a
passion
for justice
and patience
and kindness
and loving
do we
pray
do we
care
to
and if
we do
do we
pray
with
passion
and
heartbreak
for those
who stand
to suffer
greatly
or do we
begin
with
ideology
do we
rush out
with bleeding
hearts
to seek
a quick
fix
until the
next thing
flashes across
the news
screen
that we
need to
go
and be
championing
that next
cause
do we
react
with
condemnation
and premise
coldness
and a
lack of
willingness
to engage
or do we
understand
who we
are
at the
foot of
the cross
Jesus
calls
I think
this is
in your
bulletin
I'm not
sure
Jesus
calls his
followers
to examine
their heart
motivations
at every
turn
and the
question for
us is
when we
lead
do we
follow
my wife
looked at me
cross-eyed
when I told
her that was
going to be
in the
bulletin
and here's
what I
meant by
that
all of
our
situations
are
impossible
whether we
levy our
ideology on
others
as was done
by the
Pharisees
and the
scribes
or we
have
ideology
of others
levied
upon us
both of
those
situations
they create
impossible
outcomes
and completely
hopeless
outcomes
which is
probably the
real tragedy
that we
read in
this passage
that the
people could
not meet
these
standards
and there
was no
hope for
them
and Jesus
also presents
us with an
impossible
outcome
if we're
left to
ourselves
but the
difference is
that he
covers the
impossibilities
we are
unable to
respond in
and of
ourselves
because it's
not natural
to be inclined
to the
things of
God
and we're
not able
to repent
not because
just because
we lack
the
inclination
but we
also don't
have the
ability
and that's
the beauty
of where
we are
as the
people of
God
when found
in Christ
because through
Jesus
who's our
perfect
covenant
representative
our
Savior
our God
the one
through whom
all things
have been
made
when he
condescends
to sinners
like me
and sinners
like you
we have
the ability
to do
these things
not because
suddenly we
want to
but because
he brings
that about
in us
and in
our hearts
he sends
down
closely to
us
and he
says
follow me
and when
you follow
me
I'm going
to give
you the
ability
to follow
me
how can
this not
humble us
as the
people of
God
how can
this not
drive us
to lead
how can
this not
spur
conversations
of the
gospel
and the
goodness
of the
grace
of Jesus
Christ
with everyone
around us
how can
our hearts
not be
pricked
at signs
of injustice
at signs
of people
running to
ideology
for comfort
passionately
screaming
about politics
or anything
other than
the love
of Jesus
Christ
and so
when we're
out there
leading with
those
conversations
that are
put on
our hearts
because of
the Holy
Spirit
that's coming
from both
the Father
who loves
us
and his
Son
who is
our King
and Savior
the Holy
Spirit is
driving us
into those
situations
and we
don't have
to be
afraid
you don't
look dumb
when you
walk into
a situation
because it's
not politically
right where
we live
you're part
of the
kingdom of
God
as God's
people
we lead
in those
situations
and when
we lead
in those
situations
by following
Jesus
that's when
reconciliation
happens
not because
we bring it
about
but because
we're willing
to be
there
and be
patient
to respond
and to
repent
we're known
into the
deepest parts
of our
being
by a
God
who still
loved us
and pursued
us while
we were yet
sinners
Christ died
for us
we don't
have to be
afraid of
that
so I
want to
encourage us
as we
leave today
after our
15 minute or
so
congregational
meeting
I want to
encourage us
to consider
how do we
respond
and how do
we repent
because we
have a
father who
loves us
very very
much
and his
son stands
there on
our behalf
interceding
for us
and we're
his church
we're the
taste of
his kingdom
here on
earth
and we're
called to
do that
pray with
me please
father we're
grateful for
your love
and your
care for
us
we're
grateful for
the
responsibilities
you put
on us
as your
people
not because
we can rise
to the
challenge
and not
because we're
worthy of
them
but because
you're not
going to
leave us
or forsake
us
it's a joy
to respond
to your
Holy Spirit
it's a joy
to repent
because we
know how
much you
love us
help us
to look
to your
son
help us
to lead
as your
church
in the
world
in his
great name
we pray
amen
for more
information
visit us
online
at
southwood.org
and
on
and
up