Luke 12:1-12: Unashamed

Introduction

Baptisms in Sea of Japan - Unashamed - praying for more… Baptisms at Northwood - Identify with Jesus - Unashamed...

Reality: some things you are ashamed of and some things you are unashamed of. Ashamed of some past failures - don’t want to talk about them. Ashamed of some decisions your children have made… Ashamed of your favorite team… AND things that you are unashamed of - accomplishments, winning the big game… Things you are unashamed of you can’t stop talking about.

Jesus wants us to be unashamed of Him (Romans 1:16).

Students going back to school - I want you to be unashamed of who you are in Christ.

A church in a world that is increasingly opposed to Christ - I want us to be unashamed Jesus in such a way that our confidence in Him leads us to live on His mission.

Jesus wants you to unashamed of Him. Three ways to grow as an unashamed follower of Jesus Christ.

Make sure you keep your heart free from hypocrisy.

On the road to Jerusalem, the opposition builds, and we’ve seen Jesus give very pointed words to the Pharisees and religious leaders. Now, Jesus gives pointed words to His disciples.

Luke 11:37-54 - Calling out the Pharisees and scribes for their hypocrisy. (Luke 12:39, 46) Hypocrite = putting on an act. Hypocrisy is when what’s inside of you doesn’t match up with the outside. Or, you don’t practice what you preach.

There are two forms hypocrisy can take: that of professing belief in something and then acting in a manner contrary to that belief, and that of looking down on others when we ourselves are flawed.

Jesus disgusted by the Pharisees hypocrisy. Thousands gathered. Must have been exciting, but the crowds wouldn’t always be present. There would come a day when it wouldn’t be so easy for disciples to follow Jesus and they’d be tempted to go back to the way of the Pharisees.

Simple message: don’t let the Pharisees way of life be your way of life. Life as a follower of Jesus must be radically different than the life of Pharisees and scribes (Luke 9).

It’s tempting to go through life faking it.

Yeast = ingredient used to make bread rise. When yeast used as a metaphor in the Bible, it’s often used as a metaphor for sin spreading (e.g., 1 Corinthians 5:7-12). Yeast of pharisees - their hypocritical way of life slowly spreading.

No one says, “I want to be a hypocrite.” But, along the way it becomes easier to fake it than to actually live as a disciple of Jesus. If not careful, faking it can become your way of life.

BUT… as much as you fake it, you can’t hide the reality of who you are on the inside. “The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed” (Luke 12:2). That time had come for the Pharisees - Jesus exposed them for who they were.

You don’t hide your sin as well as you think you do. You think you’ve gotten good at faking it, but you’re not as good at it as you think you are. God knows every secret sin and every motivation of the heart.

There may be a sins that you have hidden from people you love: pride, bitterness, envy, anger, sexual sin, etc.

You may have hidden the specific sin from us, but people can see the affects of that secret sin in the way that you treat people, the way you lack the fruit of the Spirit, the way you don’t desire to grow in Christ, etc. AND you see the affects of your secret sin.

You’re trying to fake it while that secret sin eating you up inside. Constantly fearful that you won’t be able to keep the act up forever. Why not come clean? Why not confess to God and others and turn back to Jesus?

You don’t have any good excuses to keep you from confessing your sins. You think you do… “God can’t forgive me, people will judge me, reject me, etc...” No… There is grace for you if you confess and seek reconciliation with God and others. There is always freedom in confession.

Church is not a place for pretenders but a place for reconciliation - for people who know there’s a better way than pretending.

Unashamed? Some of us far more passionate about looking like we’ve got our act together than we are actually growing in Christ.

The ramen jackpot… I want to be seen as a winner… We are far more concerned about what people see about us than what God sees about us...

Make sure you fear God more than you fear people.

We tend to live as hypocrites because we fear people more than God. We don’t want anyone to think we might be broken. We want people to think we have our act together. For many of us, we’re people pleasers.

Jesus takes it to worst case scenario. People might KILL you if you live unashamed for Jesus, but people do not have the final word over your life. (The apostles with the exception of John and Judas WOULD be killed.)

But the person who takes your life doesn’t have final word over your life.

God has the FINAL word over your life. He knows your heart. He knows if you belong to Him or not. You could fake it so well before others while not actually belonging to God at all, and He has the authority to throw you in hell.

How do I know if I fear people more than I fear God? Constantly thinking about what people think about you instead of thinking about what God thinks about you. Constantly striving to live up to people’s standards and not God’s standards.

Why do we fear people so much?

We don’t want people to know who we really are.

We don’t want people to think negatively about us.

We don’t want people to talk negatively about us.

We don’t want people to bring us to ruin.

While you should care about what people think or say about you, remember the ultimate goal in life is not to please people but to please God. Live to please people you’ll end up living a hypocritical life.

We care far too much about what sinful, broken people think about us and what sinful, broken people can do to us. We often care far to little about what a holy God who made us in His image and loves us thinks about us.

It’s likely that the people you are trying the most to impress don’t value you near as much as you value their opinion of you. And even the people who love you are in the same shape that you are - broken and longing to be valued BUT… there is a God who has placed infinite worth on you - you are worth more than any sparrows (Luke 12:7). God values you as His glorious inheritance (Ephesians 1:18).

Therefore, fear God - constant awareness that the entirety of your life is laid bare before Him (Hebrews 4:12-13). He knows who you really are, and He loves you in spite of who you really are.

How do I grow in the fear of God?

I need to take God’s holiness as serious as God does.

I need to take my holiness as serious as God does.

Make sure you confess Christ with bold reliance on His Spirit.

Jesus’ pointed words: what you confess about Jesus will determine what Jesus confesses about you (Romans 10:9).

Jesus establishing a contrast. Pharisees did not acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. Jesus will not acknowledge the Pharisees and others like the Pharisees who persistently reject Jesus as Messiah.

Those who harden their hearts toward Jesus in continued rejection commit blasphemy of the Spirit.

Jesus knows we’re human. He knows there may be times we shrink back in our faith (Luke 12:10). Peter is an example of someone who spoke against the Son of Man when he denied Jesus three times but was forgiven. The Pharisees are examples of people who blasphemed the Spirit - the One who was full of the Spirit was before them (Isaiah 61:1-3) yet they rejected Him. They blasphemed the Spirit. They accused Jesus of being of Satan. They deliberately hardened their hearts towards God. They would not be forgiven because they would never repent.

The disciples, as they lived unashamed, standing firm in their confession of Jesus as Messiah, would experience the power of the Spirit.

And they did! Acts 4:8-21 (Especially vs. 8). In Luke 12, Jesus preparing disciples for what’s to come: hostility. It’s going to be hard to live unashamed, but if you do, you can know that in those moments that people are hostile toward you because of your faith, the Spirit of God will empower you and teach you what to say.

The heat is coming. Moments are coming that you will have to defend your faith and convictions. (E.g., Why do you believe the Bible? Why are you concerned for the unborn? Why do you stand for traditional marriage/family? Or, why are you so close minded? Why can’t you loosen up?) In the moments the heat comes, will you be led by the Spirit to speak truth, or will you cower in the fear of people? Walk by the Spirit and there will be those moments when you experience the Spirit speaking truth through you. When you walk like Jesus you will talk like Jesus.

You need to get ready for the heat because hypocrisy and fear is not the way. Acts 2:42-47 - The early disciples devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, prayer, etc. - and the Spirit of God changed the world through the apostles. What does the Spirit of God want to do through us as we live unashamed for the One who went to the cross bearing our shame - dying the death we deserve and then rising from the dead? Have you experienced salvation in Jesus? Trust Him today.

Take advantage of NOW. Prepare by walking by faith NOW, growing in faith NOW so that when the heat comes you will be able to experience the Spirit’s work through you.

Passage is a reminder that Jesus is calling us to a life of spiritual battle. We will be opposed for following Jesus, and we will be tempted to fear people and live hypocritically.

Confess your fear of people. Confess your hypocrisy. Ask God to help you live unashamedly for Him.