Luke: Which Kingdom?

Introduction

How many of us have ever been afraid to say something we know we should to someone?

This is different by the way then actually not saying it.

How many of us then have ever been afraid to say something we know we should to someone and then actually didn’t say it?

How many of us also have been afraid and therefore didn’t tell someone about Jesus?

Here’s the point:

Jesus here, in the midst of a giant crowd, turns to his disciples recognizing what the disciples with him would now face.

He just blasted the Pharisees and Lawyers and so they were “lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say”

Reminds me of

Genesis 4:7 ESV

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

&

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Enemies of the gospel and our faith, there are things/people/beings crouching, prowling or lying in wait to destroy our faith - enemies of the Kingdom

And as humans we can be either be the agent of Christ or of the enemies

So Jesus understands that as they head into Jerusalem the awaiting opposition is only going to intensify until they crucify Him.

So they would have to decide in the midst of fear

So Jesus to bolster and challenge them.

I. Fear of Man

John 12:42 ESV

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;

We are often tempted to the wrong or even sometimes the right things because we fear what others might think or say

People pleasing is our current term - from the conversations I’ve had many of us struggle with this

We fear man, why? rejection, austracization, attack

Jesus is going to say later in this chapter, that his being on earth would not bring peace but division even potentially between father and son, mother and daughter.

There is a lot of turmoil that can come with following Jesus.

Look at the persecuted church

And we all have to decide on one level or another whether we will be consumed by a fear of man

But we need to realize that a fear of man can keep us from people, Jesus never kept people away

Rather Peter writes

1 Peter 2:13–17 ESV

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

This is the opposite of responding out of fear by lashing out

Fear is not being free and in Christ we are free indeed

So John says,

1 John 4:16–19 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

So we are to walk as those who are loved

Good, healthy love brings security

Pure and perfect love (God) brings life and freedom

So Jesus says don’t fear the one who can kill the body but fear the one who can also cast into hell

Which on first glimpse this might seem antithetical to that we have just been talking about.

II. Fear of God

It seems to be that according to Scripture all humans will have some form of eternal life

For instance:

Matthew 25:45–46 ESV

Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

&

2 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

obviously these both point to the negative side of it, while Christ is about eternal life with Him

Now there are different views about the nature of this eternal life, especially in regard to those who reject Christ and that is fine because it is secondary

But this eternal reality I believe is what Jesus is getting at here

There is one (humans) who can only kill the body, which is fear inducing, but that is all they can do

But the one to truly fear is the one who can affect our eternal life

Now Luke nor any of the other gospel writers declare who this is but for those there they would have believed that it was God

And the outcome could be being cast into hell

Now hell conjurs up a whole thwack of pictures and ideas for us, many if not most have this kind of flavour

Pic

Hell particularly in Jesus’ teaching is the word Gehenna which is transliterated from the Hebrew for the valley of Hinnom

Briefly, 2 Kings, This is where the Judahites, particularly during King Ahaz’s reign(including him) would sacrifice their children to Baal which the Lord eventually through King Josiah turned it into a smoldering dump of rubbish as a reminder of their wickedness and His judgement

Jeremiah 7:30–34 ESV

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.

So this word was meant to remind the Israelites of this and God’s judgement on it

So in other words fear the one who can judge you on the other side to determine your eternal life

Then those who can only kill the body should not be feared as that’s all they can do.

In other words, the fear of God, then should lead us to seek life, eternal, in the one who can decided that.

Now also notice Jesus here is talking to His disciples and calls them ‘my friends’

Jesus explains this more in John 15

And so he seems to break into a rabbit trail of sparrows and hairs on their heads.

Why? As his friends and disciples they had more value than many sparrows

Their value was not in this life but in Jesus and He would care for them through what would come

And so who ends up where?

III. Faith Not Fear

Here’s the key to overcoming fear (of judgement or man) to be free, faith

Romans 10:5–10 ESV

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

This is what Jesus is getting at

There must be a reality to our faith of confession(acknowledgement) of Christ before others, in life and/or words

But Jesus is clear on the fact that this is challenging, even for those who believe in their heart

But vs 10 - There is forgiveness for the failure of this denying/rejecting Jesus

Whether believe or unbeliever - there is hope

ie. Peter - reinstated in John 21

How ever Jesus gives a warning of a state in which one can be that is unforgiveable

And our anxiousness is up

This passage has at times been understood in unhelpful and harmful ways so let me try to quickly unpack it

blasphemy of the Spirit - the unforgiveable sin

In Matt and Mark, this statement of Jesus is recorded within the story of the Pharisee declaring that Jesus’ casting out of a demon is actually by the power and authority of Beelzubub(L) - Luke 11:14-23

While M &M put it right in the middle, Luke does an extended version in which he shows Jesus dealing with the heart of the Pharisees.

And while many/most of the pharisees seem to reject Jesus, this particular group in Luke 11 go further.

This for them was not just a rejection of Jesus as Messiah but after seeing the power, life and teaching of Jesus through the Holy Spirit they so outright reject it all to the point of calling it evil

How do you come back from that?

The Gospel according to Matthew 6. Conflict with the Pharisees, 12:22–37

Jesus is talking about the set of the life, not any one isolated saying. When a person takes up a position like that of the Pharisees, when, not by way of misunderstanding but through hostility to what is good, that person calls good evil and, on the other hand, makes evil his good, then that person has put himself in a state that prevents forgiveness. It is not that God refuses to forgive; it is that the person who sees good as evil and evil as good is quite unable to repent and thus to come humbly to God for forgiveness. And there is no way to forgiveness other than by the path of repentance and faith

Hebrews 6:4–8 ESV

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

So it is the utmost rejection of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit so that one’s heart is no longer open to repentance and faith.

The ultimate hardened heart and they won’t come back from that.

But rather for those who there is hope for they will not get to that point

And for us who believe and love Jesus and are seeking to walk with the Spirit

We can be confident in Christ and the Holy Spirit leading us even to know what to say in front of those who would reject and oppose Him.

Application: Which Kingdom?

We can’t live indifferent, we must choose.

Because our heart will tend toward self and sin and away from Christ if we don’t

2. As claiming believers, this is a continually challenge to not “deny” Christ but to pursue and follow Him.

Conclusion