The Woes of Jesus' Sermon

Bible Text: Luke 6:20-26

Luke 6:20–26

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Introduction:

We have come to this sermon on the plain which Jesus gave. Again, it could well be the same as the sermon on the mount. Either way the message is the same, highlighting different aspects and details from one account to the other. Jesus likely preached many of His messages in many different places.

And again, I would like to point out that this part of the message was not a message on ethics. It was not a how to live and how not to live. But these were statements of fact, a mirror if you will, that one could look at these blessings and woes and be able to tell if they were those that were among the blessed or if they were of those that had the judgments of woe pronounced upon them.

Are you among the saved? Or are you among the damned?

Well this message left little way of doubt on either question.

To quickly reiterate, those among the saved would have the qualities about them:

They would be the poor of the world. Not so much a material poor, although we will see how even the material poor have an advantage over the material wealthy in some aspects, as they have nothing in this life to cling to to distract them from relying fully on God. But this is talking about the poor in spirit. The ones that know that they are spiritually, and righteousness impoverished.

They would be the hungry. Again not so much the physical hunger, but those that knowing they are poor righteously speaking, they do hunger for that righteousness that can bring them into fellowship with the Father.

They would be those that mourn. They mourn over their own sin. They mourn over the fact that they have nothing in themselves that they can show to God that they are somehow deserving of His favor and acceptance.

They are those that are the persecuted because of the message that they hold. That message that says, unless you become poor, unless you humble yourself before God, unless you become hungry, and understand that you are starving spiritually, unless you mourn over your own sin, repent of that sin, you will be among the damned. And they are persecuted for that message.

Friend, that is essentially the gospel.

But let’s look at the other group Jesus was talking about.

I. Woe To The Rich

A. Woe

As opposed to the blessed that are the highly favored of God. They have a favorable outcome, the woe is an exclamation of judgment upon God’s enemies. It is a state of sadness over one’s failure to recognize the true misery of their condition.

They think they are rich when they are in fact truly poor.

They think they are full and yet they are starving to death for the true food of the Word of God

They think they have joy and therefore they laugh when in fact they are in the saddest condition a person could be in.

They think they are in a favorable position with others because their message is one of happiness, wealth, and health, and all things good in this life, but they are like the false prophets of old, they had favor with man, but not with God.

The word woe could be rendered “how dreadful.”

It is the same word used of the angel before the last three angels sounded the trumpet judgments which will come in the tribulation. Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Friend, it is a state of great calamity, and yet these that Jesus is speaking of, they can’t even see their dire condition.

B. Woe Unto You That Are Rich

You have received your consolation, Jesus says.

First, let’s look at the material side of this. Now, again, we must realize Jesus is more so speaking spiritually. As this is not a hard fast rule that everyone that is material rich is of the damned, it is not all the material rich which have their consolation now.

There are some rich that do not put their trust in money. In fact they use what they do have to benefit others and for the glory of God.

But Jesus, after that the rich young ruler went away from Him sorrowful because he was not willing to part with his riches to follow Christ, said, How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Friend, can a camel go through the eye of a needle?

No!

So, how hard it is for those that have riches, to let go of those riches and trust in something other than that.

And it’s not just those that have money that can covet money and place their trust in a false hope. Many poor, even though they have little or no money, they place their faith and trust in money and they greedily try to pursue that rather than to pursue righteousness.

But those that have money tend to feel they have what they need, they feel they are self-sufficient and therefore they tend to think little of their great spiritual need and they are become poorer than poor.

But more so than anything Jesus is talking about those that are rich in spirit in their own mind. They are the haughty, the self-minded, the self-righteous.

“Surely God will accept me. I am a good man.”

“God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, this tax collector. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”

Friend, was he lying?

He may not have been that extortioner, he may have been just in dealing with other people, he may not have been an adulterer, but friend, he was righteous in his own eyes. He was rich spiritually in his own self. He could not see his great need for true righteousness.

Just because I obey this commandment of God or that commandment of God does not make me righteous, because unless I keep them all in complete unadulterated holiness, if I offend in one little point of the law. I am guilty of them all.

Spiritually speaking, eternally speaking, I am no better than a Hitler. People say that “No, Hitler will suffer a greater degree of punishment in hell.” And while that may be true, the true fire of hell is separation from God, and that will be the same for Hitler, and for the one that kept most of the law but was righteous within himself. He will be eternally separated from God.

C. For You Have Received Your Consolation

Jesus said.

And how foolish a bargain that is.

That certain rich man whose fields brought forth plentiful. He was already rich and getting richer. And rather than having a heart for God and the things of God and sharing some of what he had with the needy and poor, not that sharing with the poor offers you a ticket to heaven, but it was what was in his heart, rather than doing those things he said within himself, my barns are already full, so I will tear down those barns and build bigger. And then I will take ease, I will vacation and travel, I will buy what I want when I want it, I will do all that my heart desires.

And friend, even if the Lord did not come to him and say “This night...” even if he would have lived on in ease for another 20, 30, 50 years, it would have still been a bad bargain and he would still have been a fool. Because at some point, the Lord still would have come to him and said, Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee:

Now listen to this part, He’s not done. Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided.

Oh, but Joe, at least he left money to his heirs, his sons, his daughters, his wife, they don’t have to struggle anymore.

And so just like the Pharisees that Jesus criticized, he would make them twice the child of hell as he was.

Where is there trust going to be?

Where is there faith going to be?

It will be in those temporal riches, and yet again, another bad bargain, your best life now, in exchange for what is eternal.

You have received your consolation, Jesus said.

II. Woe To The full

A. Woe Unto You That Are Full

Again Jesus is saying, “Hey, what is your value system?”

Are you full?

Do you think you have all the righteousness you need?

Are you so full of self-righteousness that you don’t need the preaching of the Word of God?

Even for the Christian, do you sit in the pew half-hearted, thinking, “I have what I need”? I can sit here and text my friend, I can doodle on my phone, I can do my crossword puzzle. I’ve already heard all this stuff, and I already know all this stuff.

How arrogant! How prideful within your own self! How full of this world you must be!

Friend, when the apostles spent 3 and a 1/2 years with the Lord, being taught by the Lord, and yet we see so many times they slipped up. And Jesus would have to correct their way of thinking.

Do you believe the Bible when it says that the devil is a raging lion seeking whom he may devour?

I bet everyone in here, you would not go to the zoo and climb that cage or go on safari in Africa and walk up and brush up to a lion as if it were nothing.

And yet we are so full of our own righteousness, I’m not talking to just the lost man, I’m talking to the Christian, we become so full of our own piety, our own obedience, our own faith, and we forget where all that comes from, and we are so full of ourselves. That suddenly, we tune out the Word of God, we tune out the preaching, and we become full on ourselves.

Jesus says, Woe,

B. For You Shall Hunger

Be sure of this, if you are hungry for righteousness, if you are hungry for the things of God, you will understand that no matter how many years you’ve been a Christian, not matter how much preaching you have sat under, not matter how much you read your Bible, that you still need more. You need to go deeper with God.

In fact, if you’re paying attention to all those things, the more you hear, the more you learn, the more you read, you will know even more, just how desperately starving for the things of God that you are.

But friend, those that think they are full, well they actually are full, they are full of the world, how desperately hungry that they will be in that day when all things come to a head. When the temporal gives way to the eternal. When the satisfaction of this life is over and you have nothing wherewith to sustain you in the eternal.

How hungry you shall be.

III. Woe To Those That Laugh

A. To Those That Do Not Mourn Over Their Own Sin

Jesus is not talking about simply being merry or joyful. The Christian can laugh and be merry and joyful, but this is only after he has mourned over his own sin and seen the desperate state that his soul is in. And even then, he checks himself everyday, when he sees sin creeping up in his life and in his heart, he mourns over it.

But this one does not mourn over their sin. They simply ignore it. After a while God will turn them over to a reprobate mind and then they will even parade their sin. They are proud of it.

The word for laugh here in the Greek actually means to “make large of”, “to praise the greatness of”, “to honor highly”.

These people make large of their sin and their wicked, dead spiritual condition.

B. Woe, For Ye Shall Mourn And Weep

Why will they mourn and weep?

Jesus in the New Testament often referred back to the sin of Sodom, for it is the same sin.

Ezekiel 16:49–50

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Isaiah 65:13–14

13 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: Behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, But ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, And shall howl for vexation of spirit.

But what will be the source of their mourning and weeping?

Jesus said,

Luke 13:28

28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

Friend, when that day comes, when the ultimate judgment comes down and they are standing at that great white throne of judgment, they will see all the saints, those that are bound up in faithful Abraham, testified to the fact that They believed God, and it was accounted unto them for righteousness, but they themselves that once laughed and mocked at the things of God, those that loved their sin, now totally deprived of all their riches, totally deprived of all that filled them inside, totally deprived of all that made them laugh, they will mourn and weep like no other mourning that has been found from the foundation of the world til now. They will be thrust out of the presence of God and into eternal damnation.

There will be no laughing there.

IV. Woe To Those With Popularity Due To Compromising The Truth

A. Woe Unto You, When All Men Shall Speak Well Of You!

Friend, the fact is, if you are a friend to the world, you are an enemy of God. It’s that simple.

Now, that does not mean that we are not to love people, and want to see them saved and their lives changed by the grace and mercy of God. On the contrary, that is what we are called to do.

But friend, the world doesn’t want to be saved, they would rather be left in their sin.

Why?

Because they are blind and deaf to the things of God. satan has them blinded and they believe they have all that they need.

And when the preaching of the true Word of God comes to their ears, it cuts. It cuts deep, and it brings about conviction.

Conviction never feels good. Not even for the Christian. Conviction is always uncomfortable. But it is profitable, if we will let it work in us.

But friend, there are those that would claim they are Christians, there are those that would claim they are preachers of the gospel, and their fame and popularity is unmatched by those that hold the true Word of God.

Why?

Because they preach a message of false hope.

Because they preach a false message of prosperity, and fullness, and laughter.

They preach a message of your best life now.

They never preach on sin or repentance or to mourn over your sinful condition. It is all fluff and roses.

And so the world loves them.

Heck even Christians love them, though I would say they are babes in Christ, because if they ever get fed on the meat of the Word, they would realize just how corrupt and how deceiving that message is.

Who doesn’t want to hear how great things are coming your way.

And those things are true, just not in the temporal sense. They are true of a world to come and not this one.

But just like the false prophets of old, that brought the same news and lies that are prevalent today, they spoke well of those false prophets.

Friend, when I stand to preach, I preach Jesus, I preach the depravity of man, and the righteousness of Christ, I preach repentance of sin and a turning to God, and therefore I expect most that hear my message to reject it. Most will say, he’s just judgmental and hateful. Which is the furthest thing from the truth.

I believe it is hateful to know the truth, to know the only way of escape from death, to know the true riches that are not found in this world but are found in Christ and Christ alone. It would be hateful to keep that truth from others.

Closing:

In closing, Friend, I hope that you are among the poor.

I hope that you are among those that are hungry.

I hope you are among those that weep now.

I hope you are among the persecuted of the world.

Because it is those that are truly rich, with eternal riches.

It is those that will be full and satisfied throughout eternity.

It is those that will laugh and be joyful with an endless joy.

It is those that will rejoice because of their great reward in heaven.

But friend, if you find yourself as one that we talked about today, one that has the woes pronounced upon, it’s not too late.

If the true Word of God has touched your heart and convicted your soul, don’t turn away from it.

Don’t shun it off.

You can come to Jesus, and cast all that vileness upon Him for He has nailed it to the cross.

And in exchange he will give to you the true riches that only come from and through Him.

It will be the greatest exchange you ever made.

That’s the message!