Facing Judgement Series

"Facing Judgement"

Luke 13:1-9

A sermon for 9/25/22

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Pastor John Bright

Luke 13 1 There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

Pause right there. Those words I just read; they were “Breathed by God”! God wants you to hear His Word right now! So, what is your response? Do you want to transformed by that Word or do you want to be informed about the words? You must choose.

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I still remember sitting at Duke hospital with Sandy (not her real name). She grew up just down the road from our farm and attended my home church. She was a few years younger than me and it was a shock to hear that she was at Duke with an aggressive form of cancer. I was a student at Duke Seminary so I called and we set a time to meet. It wasn’t her disease or the suffering that she wanted to talk about that day. It was the pain caused by those who claimed to be Christians that caused her tears that day.

She told me that her husband had started going to a church near their home. When he told the pastor about her illness, her husband brought back a message – “You are sick because you have sinned. You must repent to be healed. Because your sickness is serious – it must be really bad sin.” She was shocked. Her husband began to badger her about keeping secret, serious sin hidden from him. He imagined all kinds of imagined sinful scenarios. Eventually, the pastor told him that if she would not repent, he should leave his sick wife and the children.

She looked at me, tears streaming down her face – “Is this what the Bible teaches?” She had been reading her Bible and could not find any scripture that sounded like what this church was teaching her husband. I talked to her a long time that day about living in a fallen world. This would have been a perfect scripture to share with her, but I don’t remember which scriptures I shared with her that day. Most of all, I assured her that God loved her no matter what. Just so you know, she died in less than a year.

Here we find Jesus taking on sin, suffering, human mortality, and the ultimate judgement that every person will face – focusing especially on each person’s choices to follow Jesus and bear fruit for God.

Mortality and Repentance, v.1-5

Luke 13 “1 There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

A few weeks ago, we talked about the tragic loss of life on 9/11/2001. Not once did I suggest that those folks had done something to cause them to deserve death on that day. When I told stories of those who were saved by something as simple as a scheduling error placing a stewardess on a different plane, I never told you those folks deserved to be saved. That’s the basis of the conversation in verse 1. Two events are recorded here where some were killed. One has multiple people be massacred at the Temple. The other is a natural disaster of a tower falling on 18 people.