Luke 12.1-12

Last week we looked at a hard text. Jesus is speaking to a group of Pharisees and experts in the Law, and he accuses them of hypocrisy. It’s a hard text because all of us, at some point or another, are guilty of the same things. So if you left last week feeling a bit heavy, that’s good: that’s what that text is designed to do.

Last week we looked at a hard text. Jesus is speaking to a group of Pharisees and experts in the Law, and he accuses them of hypocrisy. These men give every impression of being very religious and very holy: they show extravagant generosity, they obey the Law of Moses to the letter, they interpret the Law for others. But inside, Jesus says in 11.39, you are full of greed and wickedness. They give the false impression that they love God and follow him faithfully, when in fact they pursue the details while they entirely miss the point.

v. 4-5: Dealing with threats

So he brutally levels this charge of hypocrisy against them, saying that they are pretending to be perfect, when they are far from it.

That’s why I’m happy to announce today that if last week’s discussion on hypocrisy was hard for you, we’re not done yet! Jesus is going to come back to the subject of hypocrisy, this time with his own disciples, and this time, he’s going to take it even further, by putting it in an entirely different context and applying it in a different way.

So rather than spend time on a long introduction, let’s jump right back in. Jesus has just finished criticizing the Pharisees and the scribes at their dinner party, and they stay behind, plotting on how to catch Jesus in the act of doing something that will turn the people against him.

In the meantime, when Jesus comes back to where he was before, the crowd of people is still there, and it’s getting bigger and bigger. But rather than standing up to preach to the crowd again, Jesus gathers his disciples around to do a kind of debriefing of his dinner with the Pharisees.

This passage, verses 1 to 12, is an encouragement to Jesus’s disciples to not be afraid to live the life he is calling them to live, no matter what it may cost. And he gives us five reasons why we shouldn’t be afraid.

We find the first reason in v. 1-3:

Let’s start reading at 12.1.

It Will Come Out Eventually (v. 1-3)

1 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Just a reminder of last week: these men, the Pharisees and the experts in the Law, give every impression of being very religious and very holy: they show extravagant generosity, they obey the Law of Moses to the letter, they interpret the Law for others. But inside, Jesus says in 11.39, you are full of greed and wickedness. They give the false impression that they love God and follow him faithfully, when in fact they pursue the details while they entirely miss the point.

So Jesus warns his disciples to watch out for “the leaven of the Pharisees.” This is a strange image, but if you know how leaven works, it makes sense. If you put just a little leaven in a lump of dough, it will spread to every part of that dough, making it rise. It doesn’t take a lot. In the same way, the Pharisees’ hypocrisy infiltrates every aspect of their life and practice: their hypocrisy in one area drives them to act hypocritical in other areas, for as we saw last week, the motivation for hypocrisy is always the same: What would people think if they knew what I was REALLY like?

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

So Jesus says (end of v. 1):

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

It’s a sobering reality that everything we do will one day be made known. Whatever we’re trying to hide will eventually come to light. We’ll slip up and accidentally reveal something about ourselves we didn’t want to reveal. Someone will catch us in the act of doing something we don’t want them to see. The Holy Spirit will convict us to the point where we won’t be able to sleep until we confess it. Or, last but certainly not least, God will reveal all of our works at the judgment (cf. ).

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Nothing remains hidden forever. Whatever we’re trying to get away with, we won’t.

So Jesus says, as he said to the Pharisees, don’t try to hide it. Be real. If there is sin in your life, confess that sin to others. Don’t pretend to be better than you are.

This is what we saw these last two weeks: the Christian life that the Bible commands us to live is one of repentance and growth in holiness. If we confess our sins, we have the assurance that God is faithful to forgive us (), because Jesus paid for those sins on the cross. If we understand and accept in his forgiveness, we will rejoice in it, and we will want to be like him. If we want to be like him, we will make every effort to grow into his likeness, through the Holy Spirit. We will be made holy.

The first step in that process is being open about the fact that we are sinners in need of a Savior.

Jesus is encouraging his disciples here to not be like the Pharisees and settle for superficial, merely external holiness; but to dig deep, to grow in real holiness. And growing in real holiness begins by admitting how unholy we actually are.

Here’s the rub: if the disciples do this, it will cause trouble for them, because they will necessarily reject the so-called holiness of the Pharisees, and live lives that are wildly different from their fellow Jews…and in so doing, they will paint a target on their backs. Living this way will open them up to ridicule and persecution they can barely even fathom now—persecution which may well end in your violent and painful deaths. (Which actually happened for all but one of the disciples…and he was boiled alive, so he didn’t get off easy.)

What Jesus says here is actually deeper than we initially thought. It’s not just about sin. He said to the Pharisees, Don’t pretend to be perfect, when in fact, you’re not. That’s true for the disciples too. But to his disciples, he’s also saying, Don’t pretend you don’t follow me, when in fact, you do.

Typically we use these verses to talk about sin: no sin will remain hidden forever. That’s not untrue—Jesus will say something very similar, which goes in this direction, in the gospel of John. But that’s not what he’s saying here.

He’s taking the idea of hypocrisy and applying it to an entirely different area: that of the disciples’ own faith. If last week his message to the Pharisees was, Don’t pretend to be perfect, when in fact, you’re not, his message to his disciples here is, Don’t pretend you don’t follow me, when in fact, you do.

If your faith is real, it will come out eventually. If your faith is real, people are going to notice it.

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

Whatever you have said in the dark, in the privacy of your community group, shall be heard in the light.

What you have whispered in prayer meetings or worship services shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

You see what I’m getting at. It is so tempting for a Christian, particularly in our secular society, to want to live a “normal life.” It is tempting for us to want to act like everyone else and dress like everyone else and talk like everyone else and act like everyone else, because if we don’t, people will keep us at arm’s length.

They’ll send subtle jabs at us in team meetings at work.

They’ll be awkward and uncomfortable around us, because they won’t know how to speak to someone who has ideas as backward and old-fashioned as ours.

We’ll be rejected by friends we hold dear; we’ll even be rejected by our family members who want nothing to do with our faith.

So faced with this impending rejection, many of us prefer to try to blend in, to not say anything which will make people uncomfortable, to laugh at the jokes everyone else laughs at, to keep up with our friends when they’re seeing just how much they can drink tonight.

I’m sorry, but this is hypocrisy too, and while the temptation is natural, attempting to blend in and hide our faith is utterly pointless, because if our faith is real, it will show itself eventually.

f we try to hide our faith, it’s going to come out eventually anyway. Nothing is covered up that won’t be revealed.

We’ll slip up and accidentally let slip that we go to church on Sunday. Someone will catch us with a Bible in our bags, or reading it on our phone. The Holy Spirit will convict us to the point where we won’t be able to sleep until we finally tell our closest colleagues the most important thing about us.

This passage, verses 1 to 12, is an encouragement to Jesus’s disciples to not be afraid to live the life he is calling them to live, no matter what it may cost. And he gives us five reasons why we shouldn’t be afraid. The first reason, we’ve already seen: if we try to hide our faith, it’s going to come out eventually anyway. Nothing is covered up that won’t be revealed.

So Jesus encourages his disciples: Don’t be afraid. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Live the life I’m calling you to live, no matter the threat—you wouldn’t be able to hide it even if you tried.

The second reason we shouldn’t be afraid to live this life is because God is the one whom we should fear.

Here’s the second reason he encourages us to live this life without fear: because—

God Is the One We Should Fear (v. 4-5)

V. 4:

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Most Christians today live their lives with a very weak idea of who God is. They form God to be conformed to their desires, rather than forming themselves to be conformed to who God actually is.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The Bible tells us repeatedly that God is a God to be feared. When God’s angels appear before men, they tremble. When God shows his glory to men, they fall to their faces as if dead.

Jesus tells his disciples not to fear men who can kill the body—after all, as Eugene Peterson translated v. 4, “they can kill you, but then what can they do?” Rather, we should fear God—and Jesus tells us why.

So of course, what did everyone do? They had contests to see who could make the highest number of goats faint. They’d sneak up behind them, go, “Boo!” and watch them fall over.

Here was Chandler’s point: they would not be playing that game if, instead of goats in the pen, there was a lion. Because a lion can eat you. A lion can rip you to pieces. It may not—it may just sit and consider you silently—but it could. You don’t mess with a lion.

That’s the kind of fear the Bible’s talking about when it talks about fearing God. Jesus tells his disciples not to fear men who can kill the body—after all, as Eugene Peterson translated v. 4, “they can kill you, but then what can they do?” Rather, we should fear God—and Jesus tells us why.

V. 5:

fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

God has the power and authority to kill. He can take one look at us, and we’ll fall dead on the spot. All he has to do is think it, and he can stop our hearts in their tracks.

And not only does he have the authority to kill, but after he has killed, he has the authority and the right to cast us into hell. It’s a reality we don’t like to consider: hell is what we all deserve. We have all rejected God’s reign and power—even this week, we have preferred our own desires over our King’s desire for us. So we all deserve to be rejected by him. Should he decide to cast us into hell, he would be absolutely right to do so.

This is not the way many of us approach God.

We try to remake God to be conformed to our desires, rather than forming ourselves to be conformed to who God actually is. We come to God like we’d come to a benevolent and harmless grandfather, who will give us a piece of candy if we’ll come and talk to him.

This is not the God of the Bible, and we should not approach him as such.

Matt Chandler tells maybe the best story I’ve ever heard which illustrates this point. They were on a church retreat in the woods, and at their campgrounds they had a petting zoo with “fainting goats.” (It’s a real thing: the goats will actually fall over if they get spooked.) There was a sign at the entrance of the petting zoo which said, “Please don’t frighten the goats.”

So of course, what did everyone do? They had contests to see who could make the highest number of goats faint. They’d sneak up behind them, go, “Boo!” and watch them fall over.

Here was Chandler’s point: they would not be playing that game if, instead of goats in the pen, there was a lion. Because a lion can eat you. A lion can rip you to pieces. It may not—it may just sit and consider you silently—but it could. You don’t mess with a lion.

That’s the kind of fear the Bible’s talking about when it talks about fearing God. God has the power and authority to kill us, and after killing us, to cast us into hell.

We should not be afraid to live the life Jesus has calling us to live, because we have something much bigger to fear. That’s the second reason.

Here’s the third: Despite the fact that God is to be feared, he will take care of us.

God Will Take Care of Us (v. 6-7)

6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

v. 6:

Jesus gives us three separate affirmations here that are both staggering. Each one builds on the last, and together they make for one extraordinary assurance.

First of all: not one sparrow is forgotten by God. Sparrows are a dime a dozen. They’re those tiny birds that you see everywhere but probably couldn’t name. Or—to contextualize this a little better for those of us who live in the city—think of pigeons. Pigeons are everywhere. And unless you are a voracious bird-lover, neither sparrows nor pigeons are particularly memorable.

And yet—God knows each and every one of them, in great detail. God decided where this spot would go on this sparrow, and where this sparrow would live, and for how long, and what it would eat this morning.

We often think about God as being a big-picture sort of guy, who looks down the scope of history and turns the waters of time in the direction he desires to bring glory to his name. That’s true.

But we have a hard time reconciling that picture of God with a God who is not only aware of, but interested in and focused on the minutest details of the world he created.

He doesn’t forget the sparrows. He thinks about them, although they are everywhere and do very little. All the sparrows could disappear and most of us would never even notice.

God would notice—not only that all the sparrows would disappear, but which sparrows were there before.

Secondly: even the hairs of your head are all numbered. This is already amazing enough—the time and effort it would take to number the hairs on your own head are staggering. But the average human being loses between 50 and 100 strands of hair every day—so that number is constantly changing.

And yet: at any given moment of any given day, God knows exactly how many hairs are on your head. And it’s not a generality: Jesus is speaking to specific men at a specific time, and he says the hairs on your head are all numbered.

Have you ever taken a moment to consider that fact? That God knows exactly how many hairs are on your head? YOUR head? Not someone else’s, but yours?

Again—God is focused on the most insignificant details of the world he created. He numbers the hairs on our head. He knows precisely what is happening in our body at any given time.

Thirdly (and here’s where he brings it home): you are of more value than many sparrows. That doesn’t sound impressive taken out of context; but if we consider the insane attention God gives to the smallest details, it’s incredible.

If God pays that kind of attention to the sparrows, if God pays that much attention to the number of hairs on every person’s head, how much more attention does he give to the men and women, boys and girls, he created in his own image? The people whom he imbued with aspects of his own character and nature, which differentiates them from the animals? Infinitely more. Incalculably more.

Now, what is the point of all this? I hope you notice the oddity of this whole section.

How much more attention will I pay to my baby girl? How much more attention will I pay to my little boy? Inestimably more.

I hope you notice the oddity of this whole section.

V. 5:

Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

V. 7:

Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

We have this fearsome God, who has the authority to kill, who has all authority over hell itself. Every human being should tremble and quake at the mere idea of his regard landing on us for even a moment.

But to this infinitely powerful, infinitely holy, infinitely fearsome God, his children are of more value than many sparrows. He knows us; he created us in his image; he gave us his Spirit to give us new hearts which desire to follow him; he saved us through the sacrifice of his Son.

What should it do to us, to know that such a massive, all-powerful, infinitely worthy being is in our corner? That he is FOR us? That he values us?

When we know that, what else is left to fear? He has the authority to kill, he has authority over hell itself; and he puts all of his power behind his children, to bring them exactly where he wants them to be.

So we needn’t worry that living the life Jesus has calling us to live will cause us trouble, will bring us persecution, will even bring us death. What could possibly come against us that doesn’t first pass through his hands?

Our God is a fearsome God…and he is FOR us.

So we can obey him without fear—with joy—knowing that the God of the universe has not only decided not to kill us, but that he is in our corner, fighting for us. And that whatever may come as a result of our faithfulness will only be what is for his ultimate glory, and our ultimate joy in him.

Next, v. 8: Jesus encourages his disciples to live the life he is calling them to live, because God himself will validate their faith.

Christ Validates Our Faith (v. 8-10)

8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

Verse 10 is tricky, so we need to spend a minute here before getting back to the point.

Jesus says that someone who speaks disrespectful words against the Son of Man—Jesus—will be forgiven; but whoever “blasphemes against the Holy Spirit” will not be forgiven. There has been an incredible amount of debate around what exactly blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is.

We know from God’s character that while he doesn’t take any sin lightly, neither is he unjust: he makes no rash or unfair judgments. So it’d be hard to imagine God would hold out forgiveness for all eternity for something someone said when they were angry. We also know from Scripture that the Spirit and the Son are equal in value: the Spirit is not more important than the Spirit, or vise versa. So there is no preferential treatment between them.

That is why throughout most of orthodoxy, the fathers of the church have taken this phrase “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” to mean “the persistent and unrepentant resistance against the work of the Holy Spirit and his message concerning Jesus” (Crossway Bibles, 2008. The ESV Study Bible, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles).

the persistent and unrepentant resistance against the work of the Holy Spirit and his message concerning Jesus” (Crossway Bibles, 2008. The ESV Study Bible, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles).

The Holy Spirit’s job is to take the gospel that is proclaimed and apply it to our hearts. But if we persist in rejecting that gospel, in resisting the work of the Spirit, and we resist until the end, there is no possible forgiveness. We see Stephen decrying this resistance in :

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

Crossway Bibles, 2008. The ESV Study Bible, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Christians often worry that they’ve committed this sin, but that concern in and of itself is evidence that they are open to what the Spirit’s doing in them (otherwise, they wouldn’t care).

Now that we know what he means by that, let’s consider why he says it at all.

He says it to encourage his disciples to faithfully follow him, because ultimately, God is the only one who can give or refuse a stamp of approval on anyone’s faith.

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

If we persist in rejecting Christ and denying him before others, then we needn’t worry about being rejected by men; Jesus is the one who will reject us. Again,

fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

At the same time, if we faithfully acknowledge Christ before men; if we live our lives unhypocritically, open before others about the God that we serve and the faith we have in him, then Jesus will acknowledge us. Jesus will validate our faith. Jesus will advocate on our behalf, before the angels in heaven, before the Father himself (cf. Matt. 10.32-33).

Think of that. Jesus gathers the angels around—a multitude of angels in heaven—along with his Father, brings you to stand next to him, puts his arm around your shoulder, and says to the millions of beings present, “________ was faithful. He acknowledged me before men.”

Who could possibly level a criticism against you after that? Who could do or say anything to you that would hurt you, if you knew that the Son of Man is the one who has the final word concerning you and your faith?

No one. So don’t be afraid to live the life he has called you to live. Christ will validate your faith.

Lastly: he encourages us to follow him because the Holy Spirit will guide us.

The Spirit Will Guide Us (v. 11-12)

11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.