Sermon Tone Analysis
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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.
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.
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