Luke 12:54-59 (3)

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-Well, we’ve finally made our way...

…to the end of Luke Chapter 12.

And as always, I would encourage you...

…to turn there and to follow along...

We’re going to be jumping back in at Verse 54...

…and (Lord Willing) working our way down...

…to the end of the chapter...

…before we partake of the Lord’s Table.

-Now, most of these verses...

…need very little explanation.

They’re pretty straightforward and simple.

(That doesn’t mean that they’re easy or light)

(They are quite forceful)

But, I do think Jesus’ message in them...

…is pretty hard to miss.

And that’s all I’ll say...

…by way of introduction, for the moment.

-Alright, let’s read them together...

…and ask for His grace:

Luke 12:54–59 (ESV)

54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens.

55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.

56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

58 As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.

59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

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-Back up in Verse 22, Jesus had...

…gone from exhorting the crowds...

…to addressing His disciples in particular.

We had read the final portion...

...of that treatise last week...

…where Jesus, after having warned of...

The Certainty of His Coming

The inescapable righteousness of His Judgment...

…had told His disciples:

Luke 12:49–50 (ESV)

49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!

50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!

And my thesis to you was...

…that these statements were referring to...

His triumphant sufferings of the Cross

The unavoidable crisis...

…that they would initiate...

…for all of humanity!

He had illustrated that...

…in what He had said in Verse 51:

Luke 12:51 (ESV)

51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

Meaning, not that Jesus wouldn’t accomplish...

…any peace at all...

...But, that many would...

…refuse the way of peace...

…that He had provided.

We read this from J.C. Ryle:

“Let us never be moved by those who charge the Gospel with being the cause of strife and divisions upon earth.… It is not the Gospel which is to blame, but the corrupt heart of man.…

So long as some men and women will not repent and believe, and some will, there must needs be division. — Ryle

-Now, down in Verse 54...

…the audience has shifted:

Luke 12:54 (ESV)

54 He also said to the crowds...

So, remember that, at the beginning of this...

…broader period of time...

…Luke had told us, that...

Luke 12:1 (ESV)

1 ...when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first...

But, He had gone back and forth...

…MOSTLY between the crowds and his disciples...

…throughout the entirety of the chapter.

Well now, He’s addressing the Jewish multitudes...

…and He’s does so with...

…three simple parabolic statements...

…that (I think) were meant to...

Indict them...

Call them to repentance.

-Let’s look at the first (end of Verse 54):

Luke 12:54 (ESV)

54 . . . “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens.

Let’s not over-complicate this...

…by turning it into an allegory.

What was to the west of Israel?

The Mediterranean Sea!

So, it didn’t take...

...an overly educated or observant person...

…to deduce that when clouds started forming over the Sea...

…that they would soon...

…bring that evaporated moisture...

…over to the land, right?

This was a very common...

...and easily predictable weather pattern.

Every sentient man, woman, and child in the middle east...

…could interpret this “sign!”

And it was responded to with...

Immediate Confidence.

-The next one was equally so:

Luke 12:55 (ESV)

55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.

Again, no need for Allegory.

What was to the South of Israel?

Desert!

And lots and lots of it!

Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, etc.

So, when they would wake up...

…and notice a breeze blowing...

....consistently from the South...

…What did they know was going to happen?

It was going to get HOT!

It wasn’t hard to be...

…a good weather prophet in the land of Israel.

It wasn’t hard to look at the data...

…and make an accurate forecast...

…and adjust your life accordingly.

That’s the point that Jesus is setting up...

…for the Jewish Crowds, here.

He’s telling them that they...

…make fine weather prophets...

And, the fact that they do...

…increases their guilt and condemnation!

-Now, how so?

Well, look at the next Verse:

Luke 12:56 (ESV)

56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

“time” = Not Chronological time, but an appointed time or season: an epoch.

I. Howard Marshall explains:

The accusation of hypocrisy made at the beginning of the verse is fitting, for it indicates the contradiction between the ability to discern weather signs and the lack of ability to discern the signs of God’s action;

the implication is that people with intelligence enough to recognise the former should also be able to recognise the latter; if they fail to do so, it may be unwillingness rather than inability which is the cause — I. Howard Marshall

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In other words...

…as we often see...

It’s not so much a malady of the mind...

…as it is a malady of the heart!

And, in Matthew 16 Jesus uses a similar parable...

…to make a similar point.

But, there he stated this root problem, clearly.

Remember:

Matthew 16:1 (ESV)

1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

(Pharisees and Sadducees were also often denounced as hypocrites)

(Similar heart motivation may be implied in our text)

-Had God given sufficient testimony...

…to the person and work of Jesus?

Without reservation, yes!

To begin with, there was the testimony...

…of previous revelation:

John 5:39 (ESV)

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

In addition to that...

…were manifold signs and wonders.

Remember what Luke told us...

…about when John the Baptist...

…sent his disciples to Jesus:

Luke 7:20–22 (ESV)

20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ ”

21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.

22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up...

And John tells us:

John 20:30 (ESV)

30 ...Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

And:

John 12:37 (ESV)

37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

And that’s the backdrop to our text...

…as well as for Matthew 16 with the Pharisees and Sadducees.

And Jesus (similarly) tells them:

Matthew 16:2–3 (ESV)

2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

This one is even more obvious and universal.

We have a saying for it, right?

Red sky in the morning: sailor’s warning

Red sky at night: sailor’s delight

The signs in the heavens are so obvious...

…anyone should be able to predict them!

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So, why can’t they?

Why can’t they correctly interpret...

…these obvious signs...

…which are attesting to Christ?

Was God giving them signs...

…that were difficult to figure out?

No!

Think about the comparison...

…that he’s making in our text:

Cloud forming over the Sea = Rain

Wind from the Desert = Heat

These were simple to deduce.

They’re common sense.

So, what’s the problem?

Matthew 16:4 (ESV)

4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign...

John Peter Lange makes this wise assessment:

What lies nearest to the heart of man his understanding judges best;

but since the advent of a spiritual kingdom of God was to them essentially indifferent, they do not account it even worth the trouble of giving heed to these signs in the moral world, which so convincingly afforded proof that the fulness of the time had arrived.

The Saviour, on the other hand, will have His contemporaries become meteorologists in the spiritual sphere, and therefore He afterwards also rebukes them that they did not know the time of their visitation, Luke 19:44. — Lange

We’re going to read...

…the passage that he is referring to...

But, keep this in mind before we do:

This time… Their “time of visitation” . . .

…was the defining moment...

...of all of human history.

Remember how Paul referred to it:

Galatians 4:4–5 (ESV)

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

5 to redeem those who were under the law...

And Jesus had been preaching...

…THAT EXACT SAME THING...

…since the beginning of His earthly ministry:

Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Is it any wonder, then...

…that at the end of His earthly ministry...

…we read this?:

Luke 19:41–44 (ESV)

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,

42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side

44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

-Now, look at the second question Jesus asks...

…There in Verse 57.

And, don’t overlook...

...the continuity between the verses.

In Verse 56, he had asked them:

Luke 12:56 (ESV)

56 ...why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

In Verse 57, he asks:

Luke 12:57 (ESV)

57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

The NASB is helpful here:

Luke 12:57 (NASB95)

57 “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?

No one had to sit them down...

…and explain to them...

…the weather patterns...

…that they observed in their everyday lives.

They instinctively and intuitively...

Observed them

And made accurate judgments about them.

Why are they not doing that, with...

Something INFINITELY more important than the weather

Something EXPONENTIALLY more attested to.

(Observable supernatural attestation...

…is greater than mere natural occurences)

You see, both...

Their guilt before God...

The way for them to be absolved of that guilt...

…had been declared openly to them, by Jesus.

But, rather than responding to those truths...

…as they did to the warnings...

…given to them by clouds and wind...

Rather than taking the initiative...

…to use the information God had provided them with...

…to turn from their sin...

…and turn to Christ in repentance and faith...

…they instead, suppressed that revelation...

…and judged themselves unworthy of eternal life.

And, as we saw last week...

…the greater the light that’s rejected...

…the greater the darkness...

…that overtakes you...

…and the greater becomes...

…your guilt and condemnation!

-Alright, look at the...

final appeal...

final warning...

…that Jesus gives them...

…in those last two verses:

Luke 12:58 (ESV)

58 As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way...

What’s seems to be assumed in that?

The guilt of the man who’s being taken to court!

He doesn’t want to stand...

…before a duly appointed magistrate!

Why?

Because he knows he’s guilty...

The magistrate is oath bound to administer impartial justice!

So, Jesus says that a wise man, will...

Luke 12:58 (ESV)

58 ...make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.

What man in his right mind...

Who KNOWS that he’s guilty

But is offered a plea deal...

…wherein he escapes the punishment...

Would refuse and say...

“No sir!!! I want my day in court!!!!”

Only a fool would do that, right?

A wise criminal...

…will always settle out of court.

R.C. Sproul says this:

Jesus’ message to his contemporaries, is this: ‘Look, I am here. We are discussing my identity, your allegiance. Let’s settle this issue now.

We are opponents, and we are headed for the court. But my Father is the Judge and if you don’t settle with me outside of the court, then the Judge is going to throw the book at you. He will turn you over to the constable, and the constable will throw you into prison.’

Jesus pleads with them to make their peace with him before it is too late, before that last judgment comes, and the sentence is brought down. — R.C. Sproul

And, here’s why that’s so important:

Luke 12:59 (ESV)

59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

This is why Hell is eternal, brethren.

Actual justice… biblical justice...

…demands exact restitution to be made.

Our society somehow thinks...

…that if I take your life...

…or steal your property...

…that locking me up in a cage...

…for a certain amount of time...

…will somehow make a just restitution...

…for what I’ve taken from you!

Does that make any sense at all?

To pay you back for stolen property...

…I have to be forced to replace the property...

…WITH interest...

…to compensate for time lost, etc.”

But, if I murder you...

…how can I make restitution?

I can’t!

I could never work that out!

So, I must forfeit my own life!

Now, what if I’ve done something...

…far worse than that?

What if I’m guilty of a crime against God?

What if I’m indebted to Him who is...

Eternal

Self-existent

Owns all things

Needs nothing

Dependent on no one

Whose worth in infinite?

How can I make restitution?

How can I satisfy justice?

I Can’t!

Neither Can you!

Sproul, again says this:

Some have taken comfort from these words.

At least, they say, those who are thrown into prison, presumably the prison of hell, don’t have to stay there for ever, because after they have paid for all of their crimes, they will be released.

I take little comfort from the idea of a second chance, because we are debtors who can never pay our debts.

In offending a holy, infinite and eternal God, our sin itself is infinite and eternal.

That is why we require a sacrifice that is of infinite worth, that is why the cross is our only hope, because on the cross Christ paid that debt.

The only possible means of redemption for us is by grace.

And he goes on to say this...

And I think it summarizes...

…the warning of our text wonderfully:

Christ has paid that debt, and if you despise his payment, then all you have left is to pay it yourself. — Sproul

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-Brothers, could you please come up...

…and go ahead and distribute the elements?

While they pass those out...

…I want you to think...

…about what they represent:

Implied in both symbols, is...

Pain and Suffering

Judgment and Punishment.

“His body broken for you”

“His blood poured out for you”

What do both of those statements imply?

A Substitution has taken place

A substitutionary atonement!

A PENAL substitutionary atonement!

They remind us, that...

…what we owed to God...

...by way of spiritual and eternal debt...

…JESUS has rendered.

That in His perfect Humanity...

…and through His vicarious suffering...

…He made complete and full satisfaction...

…to divine justice.

And that, if we settle with him “on the way” . . .

…by repenting of our sins...

…and putting our trust in Him...

…then when we can escape...

Luke 12:58 (ESV)

58… (being dragged) to the judge, and the judge (handing) you over to the officer, and the officer (putting) you in prison.

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Is that a glorious reminder?

Let’s think about that...

…as we wait to partake.

Luke tells us:

Luke 22:19 (ESV)

19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

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Matthew tells us:

Matthew 26:27–28 (ESV)

27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,

28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

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