Why Do You Call Jesus Lord, Lord?

Introduction

Military personnel address their superiors as “Sir” or “Ma’am.” British subjects address the Queen of England first as “Your Majesty” and subsequently as “Ma’am.” The President of the United States is “Mr. President;” a woman president would likely be addressed as “Madam President.” Many church leaders are called “Reverend So-and-So,” “Pastor So-and-So,” or simply “Pastor.” Such formal terms of honor are expected and used, regardless of how much (or little) respect the speaker has for the person spoken to. The form of address says nothing about the speaker’s inner attitude. Jesus, however, had a radically different view of being addressed as “Lord.” For him, the formal title was empty if there was no matching heart attitude leading to outward action.

We see this expressed in this text today. There were many people who had outward expressions of pious and upright Godfearers. Yet, they were inwardly evil and against God. Their words will expose them and make them known as false teachers and possible false converts.

Luke 6:43–49 ESV

43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. 46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

From this we see many things. That the heart will reveal what we truly believe, that many erroneously call Jesus Lord, and that we need to build on the proper foundation.

Like I have told people many different times, when someone is under the influence they will usually speak what they feel inside. They are vulnerable and inhibitions are down so they speak their inner feelings.

Jesus is telling us this right here that our heart will expose us eventually regardless how good at hiding what we truly feel and believe. That is so because...

The Heart Reveals True Belief (43-45)

Here in these verses we see Jesus compare good trees and bad trees with good fruit and bad fruit.

He says that a good tree will only bear good fruit while a bad tree does not.

Good fruit only comes from the proper tree and the proper vine.

He further states that the good man will produce good from the treasure of his heart because he has laid up good in his heart.

The bad will only produce bad because they have not laid up good in their heart.

Our fruit will be exposed by what we say and teach. This is what the fruit is. It is not works or anything like that because a false teacher can have better works than a believer.

We see this with Mormons and Jehovah’s witnesses. They are polite and committed to good works, yet they are not believers. They teach false teachings of Christ.

We see this with the progressive Christians of the world. They are committed to service and doing good, while they spew false doctrine all over.

They have not buried up good treasure from good teaching but have buried up evil treasure from false teaching.

These people make all these bold claims about faith and Christ, all the while leading people astray.

It is like the parable before this in verses 39-42. Jesus told them to make sure they were correct before they tried to help a brother remove a speck from their eye.

He told them to first remove the plank from their eye then they could help their brother.

If one is not in the right then they will speak the wrong thing and be bearing bad fruit.

They will be the thorn bush rather than the fig tree. They will be the bramble rather than the grape vine.

They will look good and act good but when it comes time for truth, their fruit will be bad. It will reek of death and deceit.

“The metaphor of the good tree and the worthless tree leads to the point that the fruit a person bears grows out of his or her inner existence. From a vile heart comes villainy; from a good heart comes goodness. The assumption is that the mouth is a spigot from which flows what is hidden away in the heart (see Jas 3:1–18). Speech reveals the person.” (Garland, David E.; Clinton E. Arnold. Luke vol. 3 Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament, (pp. 479-480).

What Jesus is telling us is we had better seek to have true teaching and understanding if we want to have proper character.

If we are faking it all along, it will eventually come out. We will be exposed and made to look bad, or worse, we will do something evil because we are not who we say we are.

We will be like the wizard from the Wizard of Oz. We will say, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” Everyone who has seen The Wizard of Oz remembers that scene from near the end of the movie. The great, fire-breathing “wizard” was nothing more than a normal man, standing behind a curtain, working a machine. In spite of all his attempts to fool people, the truth came out. It’s the same with people’s words and actions. They can put up a good show for a while, but sooner or later, the real “person behind the curtain” shows through.” (Bruce B. Barton et al., Luke, Life Application Bible Commentary, 167.)

So, what does your heart produce? Does it produce the bad that will appear, or does it produce good because you have been committed to truth and following it faithfully? What does your language and your behavior reveal about the real you? If you find that your words and actions are disproportionately angry, depressed, and hopeless, then take them to the Lord and ask him to transform them—from the inside out. (Bruce B. Barton et al., Luke, Life Application Bible Commentary, 167.)

He will do this. He is our Lord and He loves us.

He wants us to be right and say right because we have believed His words. He wants us to call Him Lord from Love and not from false statements seeking to look a certain way.

The people I listed above all call Jesus Lord but they do it from a position of false beliefs.

Which is what we will look at next...

Calling Christ Lord Correctly and Incorrectly (46)

Here is where the punch comes in.

Jesus asks, “But why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do the things which I say?”

This but connects it back to the previous section of the bad and good fruit. His words connect it back.

He asks why they do not do what He says. His words are pure and perfect. They are correct teaching and full of life and truth.

Jesus is saying our fruit will be known by our words and my words are what you should be doing.

This means that when we obey Jesus and do what He has said, we are bearing truth and will properly call Him Lord.

Many others will call Him Lord, Lord but they will be cast away because He never knew them.

These are those who have good works, actions–prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name, but they were not His.

Their heart was never His and they acted pure and right and even called Jesus Lord, but they were not His.

They had the curtain pulled away and were exposed.

But when we hear Jesus and do what He says, which is to believe in Him and receive everlasting life, then go and make disciples, we are being obedient and not merely just saying Lord to Jesus.

Many people will call Jesus Lord in this life and will actually be taking His name in vain.

As Ex. 20:7 tells us “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

When these people who are not of Christ because they have not heard His words and received Him but go forth and claim they are doing what they do in the name of Jesus Christ their Lord, they are blaspheming His name.

They are using His power and influence to gain access to people and deceive them, even if they think it is correct.

Christ has called us to believe in Him and then to be obedient to Him. Obedience does not save us from eternal damnation true enough but it can save us from other discipline.

Not to mention when we do not act as we should, we are not honoring our Lord and even can take His name in vain when we act out of step with His commands and all Him Lord.

With this “rhetorical question” Jesus “raises the issue of faithfulness. A good heart is faithful, while a hypocritical one is not. Obedience is not a matter of rule keeping but of faithfulness. How can one recognize Jesus’ authority and call him Lord and then not follow through on the commitment to walk with him?” (Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary, Lk 6:37–49.)

So calling Jesus Lord in the right manner is done out of the desire to grow more and more into what He wants.

Our proper and fruitful discipleship will do what Jesus has said and not just call him Lord.

Or as another commentator put it, “[T]he practices for which Jesus is looking are generated out of the good treasure of the heart of a good person (v 45); they are not the consequence of the posturing of those who want to appear pious but have refused to commit themselves wholeheartedly to following in the way of Jesus. Even the multitude of the disciples who have gathered to hear Jesus are confronted with this challenge, just as Luke’s own audience, outside the world of the narrative, stands in need of hearing and acting in ways faithful to what Jesus has spoken.” (Joel B. Green. The Gospel of Luke New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Eerdmans, 277)

“A fruitful disciple will do what Jesus says.” (Tony Evans, Tony Evans Bible Commentary,1236).

We do this because we know what He has said is true and correct. We do it because we love Him and want to honor Him. We do it because He has given us grace upon grace and we love Him so much for it.

And when we do this we will be...

Building on the Proper Foundation (47-49)

Everyone who hears and does what Jesus says is like the man who built on a solid foundation.

This foundation will withstand all storms and attacks. It will stand against all of the worlds insults and degradations.

It will handle any of the problems and difficulties that will come because it is built on the true and proper teachings of Christ.

When we hear and respond and build on this foundation of Christ, we may take hits from others. We may get ridiculed. We may receive comments that mock and show disdain for what we have done.

Yet, just as Noah kept preaching and building the Ark without any rain, we keep building on the foundation of Jesus with more and more of His word.

We can be like these two totally different foundations.

The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was given the challenge of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, one of the most earthquake-prone cities in the world. Wright's investigation showed that a solid foundation could be "floated" on a sixty-foot layer of soft mud underlying the hotel, which would provide a shock-absorbing but solid support for the immense building. Shortly after the hotel was completed it withstood the worst earthquake in fifty-two years, while lesser buildings fell in ruins around it. (Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 6.)

The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is going to fall. Scientists travel yearly to measure the building's slow descent. They report that the 179-foot tower moves about one-twentieth of an inch a year, and is now 17 feet out of plumb. They further estimate that by the year 2007 the 810-year old tower will have leaned too far and will collapse onto the nearby ristorante, where scientists now gather to discuss their findings. Quite significantly, the word "pisa" means "marshy land," which gives some clue as to why the tower began to lean even before it was completed. Also--its foundation is only 10 feet deep!

Building like Frank Lloyd Wright is what building on the teachings of Jesus is like. We are building on Him and His word and not some made up version of Jesus.

When we build on a made up version of Jesus or twist His words to be what we want them to be, that foundation will crumble.

It will not stand and it will not hold.

All who have built on an insecure and unstable foundation will come to ruin. We see this all over. Many old houses and barns are in ruins now because they did not have a sure foundation.

Hearing and reading God’s Word are absolutely essential. But if you stop there, disaster will result. The Bible wasn’t meant to be merely studied and memorized; it was meant to be believed and obeyed. (Evans, Tony, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, B&H Publishing Group, 1237)

So, today I ask, are you running around as a false acting person who acts like they are Jesus’ only to be caught in your falseness like the Wizard of Oz? Or are you the person who has diligently built on the foundation of Jesus and will be able to stand all things?

Conclusion

When we have built on the correct foundation, then our heart will speak truth and love for the Lord, we will call Christ Lord because we love Him and want to honor Him, and we will not have a worry when this world falls down around us because we are on the foundation of Christ. Much like this little writing from Henry Ward Beecher,

Some one has said that in war Providence is on the side of the strongest regiments. And I have noted that Providence is on the side of clear heads and honest hearts; and whenever a man walks faithfully in the ways that God has marked out for him, Providence, as the Christian says—luck, as the heathen says—will be on that man’s side. In the long run you will find that God’s Providence is in favor of those who keep His laws, and against those that break them.

When we are speaking from the good treasury of our heart because of the goodness of God found in it through life in Christ we will act purely and speak purely and stand against all worries and concerns because Christ is our sure foundation. People will see this and maybe just maybe we can call them over and they will feel the drawing of the Spirit and believe and be saved and they too will have the sure foundation under them.