Sermon Brief
Date Written: September 1, 2012
Date Preached: September 2, 2012
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Miscellaneous Sermon
Sermon Title: Why Is It So Hard For Us To See?
Sermon Text: Luke 12:54-59 [NASB]
Introduction:
Did you know that statistics reveal that most flat tires occur either on Monday morning OR Friday afternoons? Now we are not really sure about the ACTUAL number of real flat tires or if they are just unverified reports of flat tires?
All we know is that it is usually Monday morning when we really don’t want to go into work, and that after lunch on Friday afternoon is when we really don’t want to go back to work…
The fact of the matter is as humans we find ways of rationalizing our choices… We make choices based on what WE want and then we build up the rationalization to justify our choice… “I really don’t feel like getting up and going into work this morning, I’ll sleep in and tell my boss it was a flat tire… who’ll know?”
Now we all know what happened here last week… Hurricane Isaac brought his slow moving, high wind and rain droppin’ self here to our fair city and he wreaked havoc upon our state, our city, and our community.
There are many of us who decided to stay here at home and ride out the storm. Many of us made this decision because they had said Isaac was not predicted to be that large of a storm… at best a Cat 2 Hurricane…
Another factor was probably the fact that the closer the storm came to shore, the more it looked as if Isaac would ever achieve Hurricane status…it almost looked as if he was losing steam and would dwindle to just a depression…
But eventually he did make it to hurricane status… and we found out that Isaac was going to take his sweet time as he crossed our path… He dropped over 10 inches of rain in some places! He lingered so long that his 70-80 mph wind became too much for a lot of the infrastructure and a lot of damage was done!
However, God is still good and even through the damage; God is still at work, both in our lives and revealing himself to the world…
Let me ask you a question this morning? How did you know that Hurricane Isaac was coming? [show of hands] Many of us heard it on the news… many of us heard it on the radio… some of us may have even tracked it on our computers or our smartphones or tablets!
In our world today there are MANY MANY ways to learn of this type of an event! But what I want to emphasize here is that when you heard of the storm coming… what did you do?
Well we all reacted in many different ways! There were some who boarded up our homes and got out of town, evacuating to a safe distance from the storm.
Others chose to stay and began to stock up on water and ice. Many ran to the grocery store and bought a lot of easy non perishable foods for our homes. Many went and sat in line at the gas stations to fill our cars and our gas cans…
There was a decision to be made… do we stay or do we evacuate? If we leave, to where do we evacuate? What do we take with us? What do we leave behind? These were the decisions ALL of us had to make based on the news we had about the coming of hurricane Isaac.
Some of us left the local area and traveled to family in other parts of the state or in other states. Some of us chose to stay and ride out the storm. The point here is that we had to make many choices… BASED on the fact that a storm was coming!
Today as we read our passage of Scripture from Luke 12 we see Jesus uses people’s knowledge of signs from nature and how they predict the coming events… Jesus did this to teach an object lesson to those following Him and to those who doubted Him as well. Let’s look at this passage found in Luke 12:53-59 [NASB]
Read passage here…
54And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. 55And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. 56You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time? 57“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? 58For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”
Illustration:
Jesus is using illustration here to get the attention of those he was speaking to… His illustration was something very simple and he uses 2 versions of the same illustration:
First in v.54 Jesus says this…
54 And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out.
Now we must understand WHERE Jesus is at this time… a cloud from the West was cloud coming from over the water… coming from the Mediterranean Sea. This meant moisture in the air, and it meant that rain was coming!
I can see these people looking at each other and then back to Jesus and nodding their heads… “Yep, that’s right Jesus, when we see a cloud out of the West we know it is bringing in moisture and will bring rain!”
This is almost like us seeing a front coming thru the Gulf… well like Isaac… we KNEW the cloud was bringing moisture and we KNEW it was going to rain!
These people saw the signs of the cloud coming out of the West and they understood what would be the result of that happening… RAIN! Jesus was basically telling them… “Hey you know this is true! When we see a cloud from the west it means rain!”
But Jesus uses a 2nd illustration… this is used to enhance his first point. Jesus says in v.55:
55And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way.
You see a Southerly wind in Israel would be coming from the Negev… an arid land just to the south… It would bring with it an arid heat and no moisture… Like one of our HOT summer days, only without the humidity!
Now I remember living in Las Vegas, NV where in the summer you are taught to keep a towel in your car and NEVER… NEVER… grab your door handle OR steering wheel with your bare hand… because of the intense, arid heat!
It was definitely like what Jesus described here… living in Las Vegas in the summer was a ‘scorcher’… but why did Jesus do this…
Basically what Jesus is doing is setting the stage with founded truth to reveal the fallacy of those who rationalize away the principle OF that very founded truth.
Basically, Jesus was saying, “Hey guys, you KNOW things are going to happen in the weather by looking at the signs! YOU KNOW THESE THINGS TO BE TRUE!”
Once again I can see these people standing around Jesus and looking at him and each other and nodding their heads in approval. “You are right Jesus! When we see these signs we KNOW that these things are going to happen!”
Jesus uses these illustration to form the principle behind the truth which is this… certain signs lead to certain events… when certain signs are present… certain events are inevitable!
Again the people are nodding in agreement with Jesus… then Jesus figuratively slaps them upside the head with his next comment:
56You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?
Basically Jesus takes these people to task for their willing blindness to spiritual matters… especially when they are so observant about physical matters!
Does that sound familiar to you? It should… this is our society today! But I believe this hits a little closer to home for believers today… NOT only is this our society, this is also a picture of many who sit in the pews of the churches today… many of those who PROFESS a relationship with Jesus…
You see these remarks by Jesus were directed at the Pharisees! The Pharisees were the epitome of godly in the eyes of the nation. They DID everything according to the LAW and they were the authority on God and godly things… or so they believed!
Jesus calls them out here in this verse… but NOT only the Pharisees but anyone who thought like they did… anyone who believed that God worked as the Pharisees portrayed Him working…
Jesus calls them ‘hypocrites’ and this word is the Greek word hoop-oh-kree-tace which is a word that was used for actors… for those who played a part totally different from who they REALLY are… in other words people who MISREPRESENTED themselves to others around them for a purpose!
Actors misrepresent themselves to create a fantasy story for entertainment purposes… however, Jesus was speaking to those who were misrepresenting themselves for THEIR own purposes… for gain, for power, for prestige, for position… for selfish reasons!
Jesus calls these people Hypocrites because they were NOT the paragons of virtue that they had been lifted up to be by the people! The Pharisees were merely playing their part, but were not genuine in their hearts about what they were doing… what they were teaching… how they were living!
Jesus is exposing them for the frauds that they were… and after his illustration and then revelation… Jesus then lays out his reason!
57“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? 58For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”
In v.57-59 Jesus places a warning that goes hand in hand with his revelation and teaching… this warning is directed to the Pharisees but it is also relevant for ANYONE who lives as they lived!
In v.57 Jesus is saying that these types of people live for ONE thing and that is themselves… look what he says:
57“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?
Here Jesus is telling these people… Hey you have said it yourself… YOU know what you are looking at and you know what the results will be… (remember his illustrations about the weather)
Here Jesus is saying to these Pharisees and to all those who thought like them… “You know what is right, why don’t you DO what is right?”
Jesus is warning the Pharisees that they were NOT doing what was right in God’s eyes… that even tho’ they KNEW the right thing they were going the other direction! And here Jesus is asking them WHY? Why would you do this… if you KNOW that a certain bad thing will happen if you do a certain thing… then why do it?
I want us to look at these illustrations, this revelation and this warning by Jesus and I want us to see how it is applicable to our everyday lives!
Here Jesus was speaking about spiritual matters and how the Pharisees were blinded to spiritual matters [more importantly right spiritual living] even when they KNEW what was right…
How does this apply to us in the church today? Well I believe the implication and application for our lives is fairly obvious… if we KNOW the truth, then why aren’t we living the truth?
If we know that sex outside of marriage is wrong in God’s eyes, then WHY do we do it? Why do we have people sitting in the pews of churches that PROFESS a relationship with Christ but rationalize away spiritual living?
If we know that lying to our spouse or our boss is wrong in the eyes of God, then why do we do it? Why do we have people sitting in our pews that believe they can break the law of God and it NOT have any spiritual and physical consequences in their lives!
Men, if we know that pornography will destroy our marriage… destroy our view of women… distort our view of relationships and intimacy with a spouse… then WHY do we do it?
How can we live a double life… professing Christ and His righteousness in our lives while living a blighted and stained life of sin, maliciously choosing to sin in spite of God’s grace extended to us?
Here Jesus asks the question why, but he follows it up with a very strong reason as to why we should NOT…
58For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”
The reason we should NOT profess Christ and live like Satan is simply this… there is going to be a reckoning one day! A day of judgment… and we are going to be held accountable for our actions!
Jesus gives a picture of what he means… if you are going to court with an unwinnable case, your best option is to go to the other party and seek to settle out of court…
People when we live our lives professing Jesus, forgiveness, salvation and the Grace of God…
But living our lives another way… sinful choices, willing sinful choices, living our lives in a way we KNOW is wrong… we KNOW what is right, but we choose to do the opposite!
When we live like this it is like having a LOSING case… like being on our way to court, only this court is the ccourt of heaven and God is the judge… our best case scenario is to go to the other party and seek mercy and a settlement out of court!
You see you NEVER want to sit in judgment of God… we fear the wrong things here on this planet. We fear what can take our lives… but if our lives are ALL they can take, then they are really not to be feared!
Jesus is saying here that what we NEED to truly fear is GOD who can take away our soul… The master of our soul’s destiny… we must fear God!
And brothers and sisters, PROFESSING Christ as Savior and living your lives AS YOU PLEASE and choosing to be sinful in your behavior is NOT living in fear of God… it is living to SPITE God
Now this does not mean that we will be perfect… for we will NEVER be perfect here in this world… but what it does mean is that when you KNOW what is right, and you choose to do otherwise… that is spitting in God’s face!
How did James put it in James 4:17, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin…”
When we come to Christ and profess Him as Savior, our standard is higher than that of the world… we are held to a higher standard, and called to live at a higher standard! We are called to live IN the world but not be OF the world!
People… we have just been through a great storm of physical proportion, and Isaac has left his scars on our lives… for those of us who stayed, we have memories of what we have had to deal with… for those of us who evacuated we have the anxious moments of fear and dread we had all throughout the storm…
But people when we play with the ‘fire’ of willful sin… we are looking at a storm of a supernatural nature in our lives! Do you want God’s discipline reigning down upon you and your family?
God is NOT going to allow His children to act contrary to His will for very long… He will discipline, but ultimately God will get your attention… what is it going to take for God to get your attention to live as you are called to live?
For some… it’s a speeding ticket, for others it may have to be the loss of a loved one… but God is going to get your attention.
This morning we know that the physical storms can take our stuff but that can be replaced. But the supernatural and spiritual storms of life can have devastating effects on our hearts and our witness for Christ…
Where are you today? Are you living as you are called to live? OR are you living as a hypocrite… a person masquerading as a believer… pretending to be someone who you are NOT!
It doesn’t matter what you say you are… you are how you act! You are how you live! Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruit… your position with Christ can only truly be revealed in how you live for Him!
Today, you have heard what Jesus has said… now the question is what are you going to do with this information… with this message? I call on those of you who are struggling in your walk… come and get right with God this morning…
Give invitation for those who do NOT know God…
