Equal in Sin Equal in Calamity Part 2

The Instruction vv1-5

During His sermon Jesus is interrupted serval times and this is one of them.

Jesus used 2 current events of their day to hammer home the point that all people suffer and it has nothing to do with how good or how bad you are.

The Temple Calamity vv1-3a

The constant tension between Jews and Romans, coupled with Pilate’s brutality, no doubt resulted in many similar unrecorded incidents.

Whatever the particulars, Pilate sent his soldiers into the place of sacrifice and slaughtered the Galilean Jews.

The ethical question was whether those poor Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people in the temple who were not killed.

The theology of the people listening to Jesus that day, as stated earlier, forced them to this dilemma.

If suffering was always a judgment on sin, then these had to be the worst sinners.

But they were in the very act of repentance and obedience to God’s command to sacrifice.

The Lord’s point is that those who perish in such calamities are no worse sinners than those who survive.

Those who live do so because even though they deserve to die like we all do, God withholds what they deserve for a time in mercy.

He allows sinners to live because He is compassionate, gracious, merciful, and “patient toward them, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” 2 Peter 3:9.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

But God uses calamities to remind all people that death is often an imminent surprise for which they need to be prepared.

The exhortation of Jim Elliot, missionary and martyr, is fitting: “When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die” (cited in Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor [Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1981], 253)

Tower Calamity vv4-5a

That tragic calamity did not happen to them because those folks were the dregs of Jerusalem’s society, since Jesus specifically declared that they were not worse culprits (lit., “debtors”; i.e., to God for violating His law) than all the other men who lived in Jerusalem.

This second illustration reinforced the Lord’s point that natural calamity is not simply God’s way of singling out particularly evil people for judgment.

The True Calamity vv 3b, 5b

This phrase is repeated twice in this passage and talks about an inevitable calamity that everyone on the face of the earth will face.

The most severe judgement from which no one escapes is that unless we repent when we die we will perish.

This means that our souls will be lost to Hell forever, it is final and there is no coming back from it.

We know this is true because of Hebrews 9:27

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

The only thing that will save us at that judgement is the blood of Christ.

Nothing other than that matters.

To be saved from our sins we must repent

Repentance involves 2 elements

Sinners must change their mind about their sinfulness

Repentant sinners must first agree that God’s diagnosis of their wretched, sinful condition is just and accurate,

Also that they are powerless to deliver themselves from sin’s death grip on them.

Sinners must affirm that Jesus Christ is the only Savior

Repentance is not only turning away from sin but it also means to turn to God through Christ.

The Illustration vv6-9

At the end of this passage Jesus tells a parable that sums up what He is talking about here.

What is a parable?

It is an extended analogy or illustration intended to educate people about and revile aspects of the kingdom of God.

The parable illustrates the tragic reality that Israel would continue to fail to bear spiritual fruit even after the arrival of Jesus as Messiah.

It would finally be destroyed. Like the tree in the parable, Israel was living on borrowed time and demonstrated little reason to hope for anything different in the future.

There are 5 things that we can draw from this parable:

The fig tree has an individual application: It is Israel

Those who fail to produce the spiritual fruit that accompanies salvation will be cut down in judgement

Judgement is near.

At any moment the unsaved could perish and lose their last chance of salvation and face eternal punishment.

The delay in divine judgement is not due to any worthiness on the part of sinners, but the grace and mercy of God the Father.

God’s patience with those living on borrowed time is not permanent.

Benedictions 023 Benediction

023 BENEDICTION

May goodness and loving kindness follow you all the days of your life,

May His loving-kindness and truth continually preserve you,

So that you can say, the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.