Sermon Tone Analysis

Service Notes

Update on Graham & Olivia

Update from last nights event

Bible Reading

Review from the story last week.

Pharisees were listening in.

And even AFTER that instruction HE CONFRONTED our underlying greed and covetousness by reminding us that stewardship and generosity

Are NOT MATTERS OF SURPLUS, BUT RATHER FAITHFULNESS.

We know the Pharisees are turning their nose up to this line of thinking.

Today we will see the hatred of false religion toward the truth and the hatred of God toward false religion.

Glad it is not Mother’s Day: Buckle Up

Luke 16:14–18 (KJV 1900)

14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

15 And he said unto them,

Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

Pastoral Prayer

Thank you for allowing us to welcome unbelievers from the community into this building to hear Good News of Christ

Graham and Olivia has to have their first church service in Nigeria

Help us have understanding of today’s passage

Sermon Introduction

First reading, it seems like a strange assortment of thoughts.

emotional response

rebuke by Jesus

huge statement about the act the law never changing

reference to divorce

This is really a very cohesive portion of Scripture.

These kinds of things appear in several places in the gospels.

It is going down a very set, fixed path intended to confront the Pharisees and to instruct us about the destructive components of false religion.

PHARISEES SCOFF AT JESUS' TEACHING ON MONEY AND MASTERS

From murmuring to deriding

Luke 15:1-2 “1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”

Luke 16:14 “14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.”

This word will show up again.

Luke 23:35 “35 And the people stood beholding.

And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.”

Deriding will continue even to the cross.

Mark 15:29 “29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,”

Solomon described men like the Pharisees

Proverbs 13:1 “1 A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: But a scorner heareth not rebuke.”

Proverbs 14:6 “6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: But knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.”

Proverbs 15:12 “12 A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: Neither will he go unto the wise.”

How heart should break those trapped in a false religion.

We come to a passage to helps us define, study, and reject false religion.

But let us have the heart of Christ in this matter.

Jesus came to seek and to save that was lost.

The men in this story are lost and not aware.

They are in the condition of the vast majority of this world.

This should remind us that we should not find safety for us or our loved one by hiding in religious activity.

We might find that you do not have to travel as far as you might think to find it.

With that understanding we might consider the influence that a culture of false religion has upon our lives.

I believe it would be more accurate to say we are a Pseudo-Christian Society instead of a Post-Christian Society.

Covetousness is at the heart of false religion

Luke 16:14 “14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.”

This should not surprise us.

We saw it in Luke 14 when the Pharisee only invited his friends and not the poor to his dinner so that he might be paid back by them.

We saw it in Matthew 15 where we found out that they were unwilling even to help their parents financially.

They actually twisted the Law to say they couldn’t help their parents because all of their money was dedicated to God. (corbin)

We see it in Matthew 23 and Luke 20 where we learn that they are those who “devour widow’s houses”.

False teachers are it for how it would change their life here on earth.

They were minister for sorted gain. 1 Peter 5:2 “2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;”

Today is Graham and Olivia’s first Sunday in Nigeria.

They are in a small building with little AC.

Within a few miles are church buildings nicer than anything we have around here.

With pastors rolling in sports cars and security teams.

False religion is a profitable business because everyone is looking for peace.

There have always been false peddlers of peace.

Promoters of peace for profit.

Jeremiah 6:13-14 “13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”

False religion is marked by hostility towards the Lordship of Christ

They are “triggered” by Jesus’s commentary on the story.

The thought of using their money to help others for eternity was completely against their world view.

“Let not a man associate with the wicked, not even to bring him the law.” - Rabbi commentary on Exodus 18.

Their responses demonstrate they do not understand the things of God.

It was foolishness to them. 1 Cor 2:14 “14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Very religious, but when the light went on they hated the light because their deeds are evil.

John 3:19-20 “19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”

To get along with believers of a false Gospel you must to dim the lights.

Parable of building life upon the rock.

There are two kinds of religious house.

There's a house that has a foundation and a house that doesn't and the foundation is hearing and obeying the word.

Who has the true claim on a relationship to Jesus? 

Jesus answers this for us.

Luke 8:20-21 “20 And it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee.

21 And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.”

They fear was that Jesus was going to do something that would cause them to lose what they wanted out of life, their independence, their freedom, their source of income, their prestige, their power, their position.

― Michael Muhammad Knight, Journey to the End of Islam (Unbeliever)

“People say that America has no religion, but it's the opposite: America has every religion, all the old ones, and produces more new ones than anywhere else on earth.

America's religious life is like the photo mosaic in which a thousand little images add up to one big picture, except there's no big picture, just a blob of unrelated and unrelatable images, texts, and poses, the freedom to take what you want from a religion and reject the rest and be lonely, standing outside the warm shelters of temples with your own goon god that no one else can understand.”

False religion wants an all loving, providing God but not Jesus as Lord.

Story in the book of Judges about a man named Micah:

made his own idols

hires a priest

Believers that God will be pleased with this.

Judges 17:13 “13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.”