Luke 14: 1, 7-14

Luke 14: 1, 7-14

 

NIV  ¹One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched 

 ⁷When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸"When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." ¹²Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

The first thing I notice here is that despite the fact that Jesus had experienced multiple confrontations with the Pharisees and knew they were out to kill him, he still accepts an invite to dinner. This says to me that, I don’t write people off even when I’ve been hurt or don’t necessarily agree with them.

I also notice right off the bat Jesus was being carefully watched. We all are being watched by someone, now, I’m really not paranoid. J I just know that it’s human nature to watch others, especially if they proclaim something about themselves. If someone tells me, they play guitar, I anticipate their being able to play a song and it be recognizable. If they tell me they can cook, I expect it to taste good. If they tell me they are a Christian then I watch to see if they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I sure meet a lot of people who claim to be Christian who do not practice what Jesus taught, sometimes they haven’t even read his teachings (the Bible). I have to tell you this makes me sick! Let me tell you how I really feel…whoops, maybe I better not use that language here. You see the word Christian means (little Christ) it means we follow, believe and practice what Jesus taught. As humans, we make mistakes, we sin, we fail but if we claim to be Christian we confess, repent and make restitution then don’t keep hurting people (because that’s what sin is). Remember repent means “turn and go the opposite direction.”

Then Jesus tells a story, the story of a person who was invited to a banquet and takes the best seat in the house. Now this would be like being invited to a large banquet where Queen Elizabeth and parliament were the special guests. Getting there early then sitting on the platform beside her chair and waiting on everyone to arrive. Of course, when the Secret Service (or what ever those British guy’s in black are called) get there, my guess would be… you will be moved to a different table or out the door in rapid secession. This would embarrass and humiliate anyone, thrown out after you rented that Tux. Jesus is saying don’t be arrogant, don’t consider yourself above others, in His Kingdom we really are on level ground. Put others first, there’s no scratching to get to the top. When we take this mind set, when we really consider others as loved by God and loved by us, it’s easy to put them first. Oh yes, there’s risk involved, Jesus life shows us that!!!! I mean he ended up murdered. Yet, “God exalted Him and gave Him the Name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess the Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Being humble brings inner rewards from God… things like I don’t have to be stressed out about climbing the ladder, I can be content in encouraging others, I can have inner peace by not worrying about what others think, freedom from the bondage to be social acceptable. Personally, I love those rewards, simplifies life…

The passage ends with a call to be hospitable to those who can’t repay. I must look into myself and say, “How often do I do good things because there’s something in it for me?” It could be as little as doing something and feeling good about myself or as broad as doing good because it brings me economic rewards. Jesus is saying do it because you love God, because He is the only one you wish to please, and there in His Kingdom everyone matters. He invites the “misfits” and because we are Christian , so do we. No prejudices, no arrogance, no conceit, no egotism, no pride, no overconfidence, no self-importance – we are simply followers after God and lovers of mankind.

 

 

Sermon on John 12: 37-43

Sermon by Dr. Steve Estep – “The Naz” Harrisonville Campus 8/12/07 used with permission

Text: John 12:37-43

Title: “Fear Factor”

 

Pastor began the sermon with short video of clips from the TV show fear factor then moved to clips from “The Naz-Fear Factor” the first was of someone in the pew watching as the offering plates comes closer, closer, closer…then moves to a woman who is being asking to help in the nursery then running screaming away…then to someone in the music portion of worship with an apathetic, flat facial expression who unsuccessfully keeps attempting to raise one hand…and finally moving to looking at houses through a fence in deathly fear of “sharing” Jesus with someone…

 

Does anyone know what these words mean?

Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street.

Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.

Sesquipedalophobia- Fear of long words

Homilophobia- Fear of sermons – hope none of you have that!

 

Today we’re going to look at a Scripture where people were afraid. Read text.

John tells us that even though they had seen Jesus in person doing miracles, many of the people still refused to believe in Him. I guess seeing isn’t always believing.  Others, however did believe, but they had another problem.  They were afraid to let anyone know about it because they thought it might get them kicked out of the club (the Temple), and what other people thought of them meant more to them than what God thought. They were afraid to speak up.

 

The fact that others didn’t yet believe in Jesus and were lost, separated from God, and had not experienced His forgiveness was not a big enough motivation to compel them to face their fears.  Even though it really was a matter of life and death that had eternal consequences, their fear factor was too big.  Their silence was a sign. It was a sign that they found nothing greater to live for than self, which had to be preserved. Their own reputations were more important than other people’s eternal destiny and they refused to say anything when given the opportunity to speak up about their belief in Jesus.  Not even money would have motivated them to overcome their fear of being labeled, disliked, and disallowed from entry into the temple.  The truth that some of their own friends, neighbors, and even family members did not believe in Jesus and consequently were not experiencing the kind of life we only find in Him didn’t matter to them. 

  But it matters to us! It does matter to us that we have neighbors who we talk to when we’re out working in the yard, whose kids we watch on occasion who are missing out on a relationship with Jesus.  It matters to us that we have family members who are not walking with or living for God.  It matters to us that across the street, across the office, and sometimes under our own roofs there are people we know, love, and care about who need someone to speak up about Jesus.  That does matter to us.  

   That doesn’t mean the fear factor is totally gone for us. It’s not an easy thing to speak out about Jesus when you’re not sure how your words are going to be received. Even the boldest of witnesses have had to face and overcome the tendency we all have to want other people to approve of us. No one likes to be ostracized or the brunt of jokes, even if it is because of our faith. While the reality that others may in and of itself not completely banish our fears, it’s a big enough motivation to cause us to face them.

   We know that there is a motivation for actively  proclaiming Christ that is far more significant than the protection of our reputation.  We wouldn’t do it for money either, but there is a motivation that’s greater than money -  it’s the motivation of our mission which is rooted in a love for God and for others who need God. It may not have mattered to the silent believers in our scripture for today that lost people around them needed to hear about their belief in Jesus, but it matters to us.

 

It’s really kind of crazy the things people will do on TV to get money.  They’ll confront all kinds of fears.  Money is a motivation that drives them. But the only thing driving the people we’re reading about today is fear, which is never the best motivation.

   The fact that their silence effected not only the lost, but other believers didn’t matter to them either.  It didn’t matter that other people who believed in Jesus but were also a little timid about saying anything would have been strengthened, empowered, encouraged to get vocal themselves if some other believer would have been willing to speak up.  It didn’t matter that they could have built up each other’s faith. At least it didn’t matter enough to make any difference. The self-serving motivation to stay silent was stronger than any value they put on how their speaking or their silence might effect others who believed.  Their silence was a sign. A sign that they found nothing greater to live for than self, which had to be protected. The impact their silence was making on other believers wasn’t nearly as important as what people thought of them. Not even money would have motivated them to open their mouths and overcome their fear factor. They were controlled by the fear of being labeled, disliked, and disallowed into the temple.  The way their actions effected other believers - it didn’t matter to them.

 

But it matters to us because we understand that everything we do impacts not just us, but all the people who are around us. It matters to us that all of our behavior, whether has to do with speaking out about Jesus or not, will help or hinder, build up or tear down, represent well or misrepresent Christ.  It matters to us that our integrity, our consistency, or the lack of that impacts the people around us. It matters to us because we care about each other like a family, like the Body of Christ is supposed to care about each other.  It matters to us because this is not the kind of place where we can say with our words or our actions, “I don’t care about how my actions affect you.” In fact, we know that the Word says we are to prefer each other, putting each other’s needs above our own, and being so concerned with how our actions might impact our brothers and sisters that it impacts everything we do. We know there is something a lot more significant than self worth living for. We understand that everything we do or won’t do effects other believers. That means something to us that it didn’t mean to the people in this text.

    Knowing that our silence can have an adverse effect on our brothers and sisters in the faith doesn’t mean the fear factor is totally gone for us. It’s not an easy thing to speak out about Jesus when you’re in the school cafeteria, the opportunity is there to say something God-centered and you’re not sure if anyone else feels the same way you do. It’s not easy when a group of people is poking fun at “goody-goody” Christians to identify yourself as one of them. But when we know that there may be another believer around who will either be inspired and helped by our speech, or disappointed and defeated by our silence, we put our fear aside.

   Not even money would have motivated the people in our text to speak up, but we know that there is a motivation for proclaiming Christ that is far more significant.  We wouldn’t do it for money either, but there is a motivation that surpasses that, and it’s the motivation of our mission which is rooted in a love for other believers, and love for God.

 

Love can motivate people to do all kinds of things.  Sacrifices are made for love that wouldn’t made for anything else in the world.  Mothers who are scared of spiders would stare down a lion because of love for their kids.  Men would be fearless in the face of an armed felon in order to protect the woman they love. Women who would watch entire football games, and men would spend a whole day enduring hours of torture and trial otherwise known as a shopping spree for love.  Love causes us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. The poor people in our Scripture today couldn’t be motivated by concern for the lost, care about other believers, and they couldn’t even find motivation in love for Jesus. Their silence was a sign. A sign that they found nothing greater to live for than self.  The love shown to them by a holy God didn’t matter, not nearly as much as what other people were going to think of them. It didn’t matter to them that love compelled Christ to cross the cosmos and make earth His home. It didn’t matter to them that Jesus loved them so much He was willing to give His life for them.  Neither love nor money would have motivated them to open their mouths and overcome their fear factor, the fear of being labeled, disliked, and disallowed from entry into the temple.  The fact that God loved them – when confronted with their self-motivated fear, it just didn’t matter to them.

 

But it matters to us. We know that the only way we even know what love is, is because we saw it first in Jesus, and that matters to us. We know that greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for His friends - and that matters to us. We know that Jesus loved us with a love enough to die, and that matters to us.  It may not have mattered enough for the people in this Scripture to stand up, speak out, and face their fears, but it does for us. We know that there is a motivation for proclaiming Christ that is far more significant than the protection of self.  We wouldn’t do it for money either, but there is a motivation that surpasses what money can entice, and it’s the motivation of our mission which is rooted in love – love  for God and love for others. There’s a reason for that.

 

There’s something else that love does. I John 4:18 – perfect love casts out fear. The love that God has for us, and that we have for God can be so great that it motivates, empowers and compels us to do what fear would otherwise prevent. It’s love - love for the lost, for each other, and for God that empowers us to speak up when we could be silent.  It’s love that overcomes fear. 

 

Communion: His love is announced at this Table. His love is given and received at this Table. His love is proclaimed at this Table. Paul said I Cor. 11:23-26: “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”  Our celebration of the sacrament is one of the ways we actively proclaim Christ.  But here today, as we celebrate His love for us, and foster our love for Him, may we also be given the grace to receive the kind of love that casts out fear, and forces our silence to flee.

 

Benediction: Our mission is to glorify God by actively proclaiming Christ. Our motivation is Love. Let’s get to it.

 

John 12: 36-43

John 12: 37-43

NIV ³⁷Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. ³⁸This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" ³⁹For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: ⁴⁰"He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them." ⁴¹Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. ⁴²Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³for they loved praise from men more than praise from God

The Message   ^{36 -40}Jesus said all this, and then went into hiding. All these God-signs he had given them and they still didn't get it, still wouldn't trust him. This proved that the prophet Isaiah was right: God, who believed what we preached? Who recognized God's arm, outstretched and ready to act? First they wouldn't believe, then they couldn't—again, just as Isaiah said: Their eyes are blinded, their hearts are hardened, So that they wouldn't see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts, And turn to me, God, so I could heal them. ⁴¹Isaiah said these things after he got a glimpse of God's cascading brightness that would pour through the Messiah. ^{42 -43}On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn't come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God's glory.

     I think a couple of things need to happen right off the bat here… first in verse 37 we see the word they. Soooooooooooo, who are “they.” We can find this info earlier in the passage, vs 20 – some Greeks; 22 – Andrew & Philip; 29 – the crowd that was standing there, this could have contained some or all of the disciples, Pharisees, healed people, sick people, etc. I am always amazed at how close to home scripture from 2000 years ago hits! The crowd’s disbelief may seem irrational, but then often that is the case because unbelief is irrational. They had seen the signs and wonders Jesus had performed and still they didn’t believe he was the Messiah. How many of us have seen God’s hand move and still have trouble trusting? I guess we could also ask how many times has God done something around us that we didn’t see at all?

     John then takes us back to Isaiah. The writers of the New Testament often do this simply because the Old Testament was as common and well know to them as ice cream at Dairy Queen or hamburgers at McDonald’s is to us. The crowd would have been familiar with this passage of scripture, even the Greeks, by the time of Christ the Old Testament had been translated into Greek for some time. At first glance this may look like Isaiah is saying, “God made the people not believe, to have closed eyes and hard hearts.” But if we read it that way we miss what was happening in during Isaiah’s time. John doesn’t give a lesson on Isaiah here because Jesus’ listeners wouldn’t have needed it. But we are not first century Jews, most of us do not have the back ground they would have had. Therefore, we must look at Isaiah’s heart. Isaiah had preached, preached then preached again to the people of his day getting no response. He had put everything he had into delivering the word God had given to him. The people refused to listen and Isaiah’s heart was broken then he makes this statement which John quotes. Isaiah might as well have said, “For all the good I’ve done I might as well have never said a word. Instead of making people better my message seems to have made them worse, you’d think God had meant them not to believe.” The words of Isaiah are the words of a person who is bewildered by the fact people aren’t turning to God! They were NOT meant to be taken literal. We can understand this phrase of scripture NOT to mean that God planned for certain people to not believe but that the opportunity to have faith, if ignored, neglected, or refused, becomes unbelief, pure and simple.

    In verse 41 it says Isaiah beheld Jesus glory. John is referring to Isaiah’s experience in the temple where it is important to see some of the original language. This is a quote from John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible. “The Jewish targum renders it “I saw the glory of Jehovah” and in Isaiah 6:5 it is “mine eyes have seen the King” Jehovah Zebaot, the Lord of hosts; which the Chaldee paraphrase renders “mine eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah, the King of the world, the Lord of hosts.” There is no way I can say it better!! Jesus is the shekinah, Isaiah say it then, we can see it now!

     Now John moves back to very practical things. In the Message we see ^{42 -43}On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn't come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God's glory. I don’t know how much more commentary I can do here, I’m not sure I can say it any plainer! Yet we must not begin to apply this passage to quickly to our own situation. First, we must say, “what did the original readers see here?” John’s gospel was written late in the first century. He was an old man, everybody else he had hung out with was dead. He saw the people who came out of the woodwork after the crucifixion then he saw those who believed at Pentecost. He had been through the first persecution of the Christians by the Jews then the Romans. It was currently a time of relative peace in the Christian community. Those original readers would have looked at this and said, “I need to remember those who looked for man’s approval, they are now dead and gone. What really matters? Coming out of the closet and proclaiming Christ is what will last… is what has lasted. Man’s approval is worth nothing, there’s not even a temple left!” These first century readers would have totally understood how fleeting people pleasing really is. Now, we begin to look at ourselves and how this passage speaks to us. In this day and age where everything is to be separate can we still proclaim the gospel? Of course we can! We can love like Christ, when we are asked why we have hope it’s perfectly acceptable to say “because I have a relationship with God” and explain that.  I’ve never had success “preaching at” anyone outside of the church. Loving the needy, the hurting, being there for those around us is always what has attracted others to Christ then enabled me to proclaim His great love to and for them. A great man of faith in the 12^th century by the name of Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel and if you must use words.” My dear friends come out in the open with your belief in Christ by a life of love, actions of service and when you speak those beautiful words of truth, your proclamation of Christ will have power. We don’t have to be afraid ever, even if they kill the body, throw us out of the building, feed us to the lions, whatever, proclaiming Christ, in word and deed, now and forever will be worth it. No fear!

Resources: An Exposition of the Four Gospels by Herschel Hobbs;  Beacon Bible Commentary – John by Joseph H. Mayfield; The Gospel of John by William Barclay; and Matthew Henry’s Commentary.