Luke 11:45-52 (3)

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-If you would, please turn in your Bibles to Luke 11.

And we’re going to be picking back up...

…where we left off last week in Verse 45.

And, we’ll read over the verses from last week in a minute...

But for now, remember that, in them...

…Jesus had pronounced three “woes” against the Pharisees....

All of which, had (to one degree or another)...

…addressed the underlying problem...

…of their religious pride and hypocrisy.

And, we saw in those “woes,” that...

…that same underlying religious pride and hypocrisy...

…continues to be a very real danger for us today.

It wasn’t one of those...

Feel-Good Sermons...

Because it isn’t one of those...

Feel-Good texts!

Well, today’s text isn’t either.

It’s actually just more of the same thing.

The primary difference, being...

…that Jesus is changing the direct audience...

From the Pharisees

To the Jewish Lawyers

And, I’m not going to say any more than that...

…by way of introduction.

-Hopefully you’ve found it by now.

Let’s read our text...

…and ask for grace to...

Receive it accurately

Respond to it appropriately

Luke 11:45–54 (ESV)

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

46 And he said, “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.

47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.

48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.

49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’

50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,

51 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.

52 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.”

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Pray

-Let’s begin with a quick review...

…of the events leading up to what we just read.

Luke 11:37–39 (ESV)

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table.

And as far as I can tell...

…it was during this same dinner party...

…that Jesus turned and addressed...

…the other pharisees that were in the room.

He warned them (prophetically):

Luke 11:42–44 (ESV)

42 “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.

43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

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Meaning, that the pharisees were defiling EVERYONE ELSE!

It would probably have been difficult...

…to have been any more pointed or offensive...

…to a Pharisee.

That last “woe” was the insult of all insults.

It was the VERY OPPOSITE of...

…the reason for which the Pharisees...

…thought they existed.

-Now, we can be pretty sure they got the message...

Because of what we see in Verse 45.

So, following that...

...THIS happened:

Luke 11:45 (ESV)

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

Now, before we interact with...

...what this man said...

…it’s important that we to understand...

…what this man was.

The Nelson’s Bible Dictionary describes them as:

Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Scribes)

...members of a learned class in ancient Israel through New Testament times who studied the Scriptures and served as copyists, editors, and teachers.

Nothing inherently dangerous about that, right?

Well, here’s where it starts to get problematic (IMO):

Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Scribes)

At first the priests were responsible for the scientific study and professional communication of this legal code.

That’s how it should be

The Pastors of the people...

Ought to be the Scholars of the people.

They shouldn’t outsource that hard work...

…to those who never have to minister in the real world!

(Implications to the Seminary Model)

Here’s what almost always happens:

But this function eventually passed to the scribes. Their official interpretation of the meaning of the Law eventually became more important than the Law itself.

That is Sola Ecclessia

This is how it almost always starts.

This position of strength allowed these early scribes to enforce their rules and practices with a binding authority. To speak of the scribes as interpreters of Scripture means that they provided rules for human conduct out of their study.

Setting aside the Commandments of God

To make way for the traditions of men.

This is how that decline happens!

And, then this happens:

By the time of Jesus, the scribes were a new upper class among the Jewish people.

-Now, let’s read Verse 45 again...

…with all of that in mind:

Luke 11:45 (ESV)

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

Remember, that the Pharisees had no formal authority.

They ruled and regulated by influence...

(like a celebrity today, or a social media influencer)

The Scribes (lawyers) had a more tangible authority...

…in that they were the de facto legislators...

…of the Jewish Nation.

So, it’s possible that the man is saying this...

…as a warning to Jesus...

…to not get too carried away...

…and to be careful before he steps on toes...

…that he doesn’t want to step on.

I’m not sure… it’s possible, though.

Either way, two things are certain from what he said:

1. The first three woes had hit the mark with him too (Previous Verses)

2. Jesus wasn’t a coward!

His response to the man begins in Verse 46.

Luke 11:46 (ESV)

46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! . . .

That’s not arrogance or insubordination

That’s the fear of the Lord

That’s zeal for the Lord’s House (His people)

He goes on to issue this first indictment...

…in two parts.

Luke 11:46 (ESV)

46 … For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Sproul says this about the first:

The legal experts added to the law many regulations meant to ensure that the law itself would not be broken, envisioned as “a fence around the law.”

But these additional requirements imposed a heavy burden, compounding the weight of the law’s demands, which were already beyond the capacity of fallen humanity to keep. — Sproul

Let me show you an example of what he means

As far as I can gather...

…this is another excerpt from the Jewish Mishna:

One who carries out an object into the public domain on Shabbat, whether he carried it out in his right hand or in his left hand, whether he carried it in his lap or on his shoulders, he is liable...

But one who carries an object out in an unusual, backhanded manner, or with his foot, or with his mouth, or with his elbow, with his ear, or with his hair, or with his belt . . .

… or between his belt and his cloak, or with the hem of his cloak, or with his shoe, or with his sandal, he is exempt... — Mishna Shabbat 10:3

This brings to mind Jesus’ words in:

Matthew 23:2–4 (ESV)

2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,

3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

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They were hypocrites as well

They gave great technical instruction...

…on how the people were required to keep the law...

But...

They relied on technicalities to excuse themselves

Did nothing to help the people...

...bear the heavy burdens they imposed upon them.

Instead, they used their expertise...

To suppress the people

To control them

This sheds a lot of contextual light...

…on what Jesus said, in:

Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

-Think about what Peter said at the Jerusalem Council:

Responding to the Pharisaic element in the Church...

…who were insisting that Gentiles be forced to keep the Law of Moses...

...Peter said:

Acts 15:10–11 (ESV)

10 ...why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

11 ...we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

May it never be, that a minister of this grace...

…would so encumber...

…those for whom Christ died...

…in order that he might remove that very burden!

May it never be.

-Alright, Second Woe: Verse 47.

He really elaborates on this one.

Luke 11:47 (ESV)

47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.

Luke 11:48 (ESV)

48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.

A parallel indictment in Matthew 23...

…helps us to understand this one more clearly:

Matthew 23:29–32 (ESV)

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

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In other words, you talk a pious talk...

…but the fact that you despised:

John the Baptist

Me

Will go on to despise my Apostles...

…the fact that you’ll be the primary human designers of my death...

Proves that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

-No room for commentators on this one.

There are way too many cross-references:

1. There’s the parable of the Wicked Tenants...

…where the Master:

Planted a vineyard with great care

Leased it out to tenants

Went away to another country

And when the season for fruit came...

He sent servant, after servant, after servant...

To appeal to His tenants...

To give to Him His fruit.

But they beat them, and stoned them, and killed them.

(Those servants were the O.T. prophets)

And then we read this:

Luke 20:13–16 (ESV)

13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’

14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’

15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

This is the “Woe” being proclaimed in our text.

Stephen, as he was later suffering at their hands...

Said this powerfully and succinctly:

Acts 7:51–53 (ESV)

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

And, you know what?

Jesus predicted this very thing back in our text.

Look at the way the second indictment continues:

Luke 11:49 (ESV)

49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’

Here’s why I say that.

In a similar event, Jesus said:

Matthew 23:34 (ESV)

34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,

You see, He’s telling them how they’re going to respond...

…to the servants of the Master...

…when they come looking for the Master’s fruit.

How can He be so sure?

Because He’s God

Because their behavior is predictable.

There’s nothing new under the sun

Like father, like son.

-Now, watch how “woeful” this “woe” becomes:

Luke 11:49–51 (ESV)

49 . . . ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’

50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,

51 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.

Abel was the first martyr of the faith

Zechariah, the last in the Hebrew ordering of the Old Testament

(Who cried out to God for vengeance at his death)

Every drop of martyrs blood in between...

Was going to be recompensed upon THAT generation...

Why?

Because they killed the Son!

Remember this?

Luke 20:16–18 (ESV)

16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Remember what they told Pilate?

Matthew 27:25 (ESV)

25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

-Alright, final “woe” . . . Verse 52:

Luke 11:52 (ESV)

52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge...

They were supposed to have been...

The possessors of the key

The ones who opened the gate of truth for the people

But, just like Jesus had done...

…in the concluding “woe” to the Pharisees...

He tells them, that...

…they were doing the very opposite...

…of what they said they were doing.

By becoming the authoritative interpreters of the Law...

They had, in essence...

…obscured its light to the people under their charge.

And this was the result:

Luke 11:52 (ESV)

52 ...you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

Once again, a similar indictment is helpful:

Matthew 23:13 (ESV)

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

How can this be so absolute?

It’s the same metric...

…that was the cause of the second “woe” :

This Commentary states it well:

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Ten: Learning Life’s Lessons (Luke 11))

Jesus is the key to the Scriptures (Luke 24:44–48). When you take away that key, you cannot understand what God has written

All of their...

Heritage

Education

Sophistry

Erudition

All of it… None of it...

…will do anything but DAMN and CONDEMN...

...If they “stumble over the Stone of Offense”

-Without...

Jesus

His Earthly Life and Ministry

His Death on the Cross

His Bodily Resurrection

His Glorious Ascension and Session...

NOTHING… and I mean Absolutely NOTHING in the Old Testament...

…Will get you into the Kingdom of God!

It will only leave you justly condemned...

…alongside these Lawyers.

You and I must turn away from their legalism...

…and turn to Jesus Christ:

Remember what He said:

Matthew 11:28–29 (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Why and How?

Because He has borne the burden of the Law...

FOR YOU

That’s Why, and That’s How

Let’s Pray