“The Lord’s Heart Searching Address”
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Good morning, as you turn with me to Luke chapter 6 today we will take a look at what is called the Sermon on the Plain. This is Luke’s parallel of what we see in the Gospel of Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount.
As the Lord continued to teach, His message was the same message. Turn from your sin and submit your life to God. In fact, the teaching of Christ truly went against everything that we see these religious leaders stand for. Their system of salvation was more about what someone could do to earn their salvation then trusting God through faith. So often, we see that the teaching of Jesus is opposed to what the world thinks is right. The Lord’s Word goes against the message of our world. Why? Because it challenges the world in their motives and in their thinking. The teaching of Christ does not try to be politically correct or even culturally relevant. What we see here in the Lord’s teaching and the Beatitudes is that from a worldly perspective it seems crazy to say that those who are poor or even rejected would be blessed.
What Jesus does here is that He helps us to see that there are blessings for those who live righteously and there are also warnings or woes for those who live opposed to God and live however they desire.
Even though the Lord was preaching this sermon to several different groups of people we know that as He begins to preach that His eyes or attention is focused on his disciples. So, even though the woes would have been addressed to the crowd in general, the disciples were at different levels of commitment and knowledge, but they did follow Christ and consider Him their teacher.
At the heart of the matter this message was really a message about salvation since we know that Jesus came to seek and to save those who were lost. Jesus has two different groups in mind here as we will shortly see. Those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous. Those whom He would consider blessed and those who he would consider cursed. At the end of the day everyone falls into one of these two categories. The question we must consider today is where are we? Where is your heart today? The Lord’s aim here is that He shows us four blessings that we see in those who are righteous and 4 woes for those who are wicked. Each blessing has a promised benefit that goes with it, while each woe has a corresponding threat. Let us now take a look at the Lord’s Heart Searching Address.
17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Luke tells us here that Jesus came down after selecting His apostles to a crowd of His disciples or followers. In other words, there was a very large group of people from several other areas that came to see Jesus. Why did they come to see Christ? They came to hear Him speak and be healed of their diseases. Of course the Lord did heal people as power came out from Him so that they could be healed. However, Luke wants the reader to see that the miracle of healing was not the important lesson here, but the miracle of the Lord’s teaching. Nothing was more important that what Jesus had to say. What the Lord spoke was truthful, wise, and powerful. In fact, the reason why the crowds were so large as we see here in verse 17, was because they were astonished by what they heard. Jesus taught that we as mankind were created by God, that God is the sovereign ruler of heaven and earth, Jesus presented himself as the only way to God, and Jesus was claiming to be God. That is why many sought to kill him. Luke spends the rest of this chapter pointing us to what Christ has said and reminding us of His heart-searching address.
As we come to verse 20 and the start to the Lord’s message keep in mind here the two views that the Lord is specifically addressing. The first group the Lord is speaking of are to those who are blessed. The word blessed here in the Greek is (Makarios) This word means most beneficial, favored position, or those who experience the true well being that comes from a right relationship with God. As we think about this word, is that you today? Do you find that you are living in a way that reflects a blessed life?
The opposite side of this is when Christ pronounces His woes. A woe refers to those in the worst, unfavorable condition who experience calamity, disaster, and damnation which has been reserved for those who are wicked and unrepentant of their sin. Let’s take a look at this first group that Luke mentions.
1. God’s Blessing to the Righteous.
1. God’s Blessing to the Righteous.
A. Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt.
A. Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt.
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
The first detail that Luke gives us about those who are blessed is that they are poor. This word means that those who are poor are utterly destitute and that they depend upon others for help. These are the folks that go out and beg for help.
Jesus here is not speaking about those who have money and those who don’t. The issue at stake here is that the Lord is speaking about those who are poor in spirit.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
But what exactly does that mean? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? This means that you are blessed when you come to understand your true spiritual condition. No matter how wealthy or how poor you are we are all spiritually bankrupt.
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
There are none who are righteous. None of us are really good people. We desperately need God’s favor, and there is nothing we can do through our own works to merit or even earn salvation. This reminds us of the repentant tax collector in Luke chapter 10 who would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Has there come a time in your life where you’ve realized just how much you need God’s mercy to save you of your sin? You see Jesus describes such people as poor, blind, oppressed, and captive. These religious leaders during the time of Christ would have never admitted there spiritual bankrupt condition because they were too proud. They saw themselves as the righteous and spiritual elite. They thought because they were children of Abraham and had done so many good works that they were ok. This reminds us of the Laodicean church in Revelation.
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Notice here that the promise for those who realized that they were spiritually bankrupt is that theirs is the kingdom of God. Believers can even now enjoy the benefits of God’s blessings. These blessings are righteousness, joy, and peace that comes through Christ. We also have a security and comfort to know that when this life is over we will come to be with Christ in His kingdom for all eternity.
B. Blessed are the spiritually malnourished.
B. Blessed are the spiritually malnourished.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
This hunger here that Luke describes to us is not from a lack of food, but from a lack of being righteous. There is none righteous no not one. There was a time where we as believers came to recognize our lost state. We came to understand how filthy we were in our sin and how much we desperately needed God to save us. There came a time where we hungered and thirsted for Christ. In Psalm 42 the psalmist gives us a great illustration of this.
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
Has there come a time in your life where you have see your lost condition? Have you realized how desperate you are without the Lord? Has there been a time where you realized that you were malnourished and lost because you didn’t have God? Turn to God and then notice the promise here. Those who truly desire God and are spiritually hungry will be satisfied. So many people today are unsatisfied because they don’t have Christ. Those who truly hunger for righteousness will be satisfied.
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
If the Lord is director, ruler, and shepherd of your life you shall not want anything else because you have everything you need in Christ. Ask yourself this morning, are you satisfied with God and His goodness?
C. Blessed are the sorrowful.
C. Blessed are the sorrowful.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
The third picture that Luke gives us from the Lords message is those who are weeping. Those who are broken and mourning or sorrowful have realized that they are spiritually bankrupt and impoverished. These mourners see themselves and poor, blind, naked and sinful. They have a sorrow of repenting and turning from their sin. They have come to realize just how awful their sin is and they have wept over it. David realized this when he himself sinned.
136 My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
It is this sorrowful condition which brings us to a true and genuine repentance that leads to salvation.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
God’s Word tells us that those who mourn will not only be comforted, but eventually their mourning will turn to joy and they shall even laugh. This is truly a change that only God can bring about. God can turn our sorrow into laughter. This reminds us of another wonderful promise.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
D. Blessed are the persecuted.
D. Blessed are the persecuted.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!
The Lord here uses four different verbs to drive home His point. Hate you, exclude you, revile you, and spurn your name as evil. What we see here is that there is a lot of anger and hostility toward the Lord’s disciples by an unbelieving world. But why is this? The root issue that we come to see here is that the main reason for persecution is because of the name that believers are associated with. We are Christians, or the name Christ. All of the hostility and persecution directed at believers is because they name the name of Christ, which the world hates.
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Jesus faced persecution, his disciples faced persecution and we too as believers will come against persecution, but instead of being fearful or dealing with worry we can be glad for that day when it comes and have joy. Why can we have joy when dealing with persecution? Here is the promise. We can rejoice because we as believers know that our rewards are not here on earth but are great in heaven. We will have heavenly rewards.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
As believers we can have a joy and peace that the world will not experience because our trust is in the Lord and we know what we have to look forward to. This is why Paul could say what he did toward the end of his life.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
When we have Christ and take His name as Christians we realize that we have gained much and this is reason for great joy.
2. God’s Woes to the Unrighteous.
2. God’s Woes to the Unrighteous.
As the Lord now turns to these woes we see that they are directed at those who have rejected Christ and are living in contrast to those who blessings have been given out to the righteous. These woes are directed to the unrighteous.
A. Woe to the self-proclaimed righteous.
A. Woe to the self-proclaimed righteous.
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
The first woe that the Lord teaches on is not given to those who are materially rich. We know that there were many righteous men throughout Scripture who were wealthy. Men like Abraham, Job, Nicodemus and even Joseph of Arimathea who helped burry the Lord. My point here is that being wealthy is not a sin. The people that the Lord has in mind here are those who see themselves as being rich in the spiritual realm. In other words, many people can view themselves as being good people because of all the wonderful things that they do, as if they could save themselves. They think that their rich and righteous deeds can earn them salvation. The curse here that the Lord pronounces on them is that they will receive their consolation here in this life. Sadly, what awaits people like this is an eternity in hell.
25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
B. Woe to the self-satisfied hypocrites.
B. Woe to the self-satisfied hypocrites.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
The second curse is for those who are self-satisfied. These people are self-righteous and think that they have everything that they need and that they don’t lack anything. Sadly, they have missed Christ and their desperate need for Him. The curse pronounced on them is that they shall be eternally hungry. They will continually experience unhappiness and never-ending hunger in the lake of fire separated from Christ.
C. Woe to the happy hypocrites.
C. Woe to the happy hypocrites.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
There are many people today who go around and live in arrogance. They laugh about their sin and make a mockery of God and His Word. They are content with their so-called morality and their achievements here on this earth. They laugh and jest and live life to its fullest, not realizing what awaits them.
11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In contrast to the blessings and joy that the true disciples have to look forward to, for those who laugh now, there will come a day of weeping.
D. Woe to the popular false-disciples.
D. Woe to the popular false-disciples.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
The final woe is pronounced to those of popularity. Notice here that the Lord says to those who speak well of you. Cleary we know that there were false disciples just like there were false prophets. These people are often times very popular because they live for the approval of others tickling their ears and speaking lies instead of the truth of God’s Word. Rather than acknowledging their spiritual poverty and arrogance, they continue to live for themselves and to please others.
Church, the Lord gives us a message today for those who are blessed and those who are cursed. There are only two groups of people. There are those who are the Lord’s true disciples who have recognized they are spiritually bankrupt, poor, hungry and sorrowful. They have been rejected by the world because they live for Christ. In contrast, there are also those who are not the Lord’s true disciples. They see themselves as spiritually rich, full, happy, and accepted by many. Sadly these people are empty, broken and cursed. Where are you today? Where is your heart?
Pray:
Lead into Communion: