Luke Series #74 August 04, 2002
Title: Two Responsibilities We Have for Other Christians.
Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com
Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info
Introduction: Welcome to New Life in Christ. This morning we are in Chapter 17 of the Book of Luke in our verse-by-verse teaching series out of that book.
Read Luke 17:1-6
Opening Prayer
When I was in basic training for the Army, the Drill Sergeant would often conduct surprise barrack’s inspections. The outcome of these inspections often determined whether we received a weekend pass or if we would spend the weekend cleaning the barracks. During the first of these inspections we learned a valuable lesson. On our first inspection, 38 soldiers passed the inspection and only to soldiers failed. Those who passed the inspection were ready to celebrate until they found out that those two people’s failures meant that everybody failed and therefore would be spending the weekend cleaning. You could imagine how everybody felt toward those two soldiers. Now the Drill Sergeant did not do this to be cruel but rather to teach us that we were a unit and not just individuals. As a unit we were all responsible for one another and one person’s actions could negatively affect everyone else. We had to learn that as soldiers we had a special type of interconnected relationship with each other and that this meant we had certain obligations to each other.
The same situation is also true for Christians. As Christians we are family, we have entered into a new kind of interconnected relationship with one another. As such we have certain obligations or responsibilities to fulfill within this relationship. In today’s text, Jesus gives us instructions regarding our responsibilities. In particular there are two responsibilities Jesus discusses here.
1. First, be careful that you’re not a negative spiritual influence. Luke 17:1- 3a
2. Second, be forgiving of those who have repeatedly hurt you but have repented. Luke 17:3b-6
Jesus probably spoke about these two particular responsibilities at this point because these attitudes and problems were particularly associated with the religious leaders of the day, i.e. the Pharisees. They tended to have a negative spiritual influence on people, which means that their behavior, teachings, an attitude did not exactly bring people closer to God. In fact Jesus had told them earlier that every convert they made was twice as much as son of Hell as they were (Matthew 23:15) and in Luke 11:52 he told them that they were actually a hindrance to people entering into the kingdom of God. The first problem was that they were a negative spiritual influence.
Religious leaders of the day were also unwilling to forgive those with sinned against them. In fact they tended to shun them and make great demands as a condition of forgivness. These two problems, being a negative spiritual influence and being unwilling to forgive, were things that Jesus did not want to see in his disciples so he gives us instructions regarding these particular problems in today’s text.
Now let’s look more closely at the first responsibility we have in regard to other Christians.
Read Luke 17:1- 3 a
1. First, be careful that you’re not a negative spiritual influence.
World War II produced many heroes. One was Butch O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.
One day while on a mission, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. Unable to complete his mission, he turned around and headed back for the aircraft carrier. As he headed back, he saw a squadron of Japanese Zeroes heading straight for the American fleet. All the American fighters were out on a sortie, leaving the fleet virtually defenseless.
He dove into the formation of Japanese planes in a desperate move to divert them away from the fleet. After a frightening air battle, the Japanese airplanes broke off their assault on the fleet. Butch O’Hare’s tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. He was recognized as a hero and given one of the nation’s highest military honors. O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is named after him.
Some years earlier, there was a man in Chicago called Easy Eddie. In those days, Al Capone virtually owned the city. Capone’s mob was involved in bootlegging booze, murder, and prostitution. Easy Eddie was Al Capone’s lawyer and kept Big Al out of jail. In return, Easy Eddie earned big money and lived like a king on an estate so large it filled an entire city block.
But Easy Eddie had one soft spot—a son whom he loved dearly. Eddie saw that his son had the best of everything: clothes, cars, and a good education. Despite Eddie’s involvement with the mob, he tried to teach his son right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.
But there were two things Eddie could not give his son—a good name and a good example. Deciding that giving his son these two things was more important than lavishing him with riches, Eddie had to rectify the wrong he had done. He went to the authorities and told them the truth about Al Capone.
Easy Eddie eventually testified in court against Al Capone and the mob. He knew the cost would be great, but he wanted to be an example to his son and leave him with a good name.
Within a year of testifying against the Mob, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street. He had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer at the greatest price he would ever pay.
What do these stories have to do with one another? Butch O’Hare was Easy Eddie’s son.
Source: Bruce Cecil, Coachella, California
Easy Eddie realized the truth that he was going to have an influence upon his son one way or the other. This truth does not just apply to parents and children but also applies to Christian relationships. Every one of us will influence other Christians so as Jesus said, "Watch yourselves!"
1. First, be careful that you’re not a negative spiritual influence.
In verse 1 in NIV says, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come. . . " Unfortunately this is not the best translation of this verse since the phrase "cause people to sin" is actually just a single Greek word which in most other places in the Bible is translated as "stumbling block" or "obstacle." Jesus is not just warning Christians against enticing other Christians to sin. He is warning them against doing anything that could cause them to stumble in their spiritual walk.
I could paraphrase what Jesus is saying like this, "Things a trip people up spiritually speaking are inevitable." There will always be things that will cause people to lose faith in God, become neglectful in obedience to God, and stunt spiritual growth. Things like the teaching of evolution in school, the suffering of the righteous, or things that tempt Christians toward immoral behavior such as Internet pornography are spiritual obstacles that will always be there. The spiritual stumbling blocks, these negative influences are bound to come. We cannot avoid this truth in a fallen world but Jesus wants us to make sure that our lives, behaviors, and attitudes are not part of the problem. This is why Jesus says, "Watch yourselves" and "Woe to the person through whom they (hindrances, negative influences) come."
1. First, be careful that you’re not a negative spiritual influence.
You may be saying to yourself, "I don’t have to concern myself with this instruction because I can’t see how my life would hinder or negatively influence another Christian." I hope this is true but just to be sure I want to share some ways that we can be obstacles are negative spiritual influences.
One way is through our moral choices and behaviors. Your decision about whether to engage or not to engage in certain acts does influence other Christians. Let me give you an example of this principle in action. Many years ago as a young Christian I made a commitment to keep my life free from immoral entertainment. One night on my first real venture into ministry, I decided to go on visitation ministry at the local church I was attending. I was assigned to go with one of the assistant pastors who was in charge of the youth. On the way to the visit, I was in the car with the pastor and he asked if I minded waiting while he returned some videos that he rented at Specs. The videos were on the front seat of the car were I could not help but notice them. I was familiar with one of the videos because I had thought about renting it a few weeks earlier but decided not to as it was rated R because of nudity and sex scenes. Instead of warning me about the video, the pastor told me how great the movie was during our discussions! Now this simple moral choice on his part proved to be an obstacle or negative influence to me. It was a negative influence because I left that night wondering if maybe I wasn’t going overboard in my commitment to only watching moral or pure entertainment. I already had struggles with this choice because my flesh (old self) wanted to view these videos and this decision on his part only made it harder. My reasoning was that if a mature Christian could watch these things then certainly I could watch them also.
This is not the only way we can negatively influence other Christians. According to Romans 14:13 we can also be a stumbling block by imposing legalistic rules about spirituality on another believer. For example when Christians judgmentmentally bring up topics such as the length of a person’s hair, style of clothes they wear, or smoking cigarettes, many Christians or seekers are turned off to Christ in the same way that the Pharisees’ religious rules had a negative influence on the people of Jesus day.
Another way we can negatively influence one another is by spiritual apathy or lukewarmness. The Bible tells us in Hebrews that we’re to spur one another on to good deeds but often we have the opposite affect because of spiritual apathy. When some Christians are half-hearted about such things as daily Bible reading and prayer, church attendance and fellowship, and sincere corporate worship this has a negative influence on the whole congregation. Some people within the congregation will come away with the idea that maybe these things are not as important or is valuable as they are professed to be. They will begin to follow the example they are given and this will impede their spiritual progress.
There are other ways that we can cause people to stumble in their walk with God such as false teaching which causes people to question the goodness of God or their own salvation. I could share other ways that our attitudes and actions can negatively influence other Christians going but I think the point is clear; none of us is an island to himself but our choices, attitudes, and words do impact others, so "Watch yourselves."
1. First, be careful that you’re not a negative spiritual influence.
Jesus wanted us to know how serious he was about this principle so he speaks about those who have a negative spiritual influence in verse 2. He says, "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck that for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." The word translated as "sin" here is actually again the word stumble. The reference to "little ones" probably refers to spiritually young believers since they are the ones most likely to be negatively influenced by other’s actions and attitudes. Now to die at sea by drowning in this fashion was especially bad because the body could not be recovered and buried which was especially important in New Testament times. The point is not that genuine believers that cause others to stumble will lose their salvation but rather that they would have been better off to die shamefully than to cause someone else to stumble or even possibly miss Heaven. Jesus is using hyperbole to express the seriousness of the responsibilities we have within our Christian relationships. Our first responsibility is to make sure that we do not negatively influence other Christians in their walk with God.
Now let’s look at the second responsibility Jesus speaks of in these verses.
Read Luke 17:3b-6
2. Second, be forgiving of those who have repeatedly hurt you but have repented.
Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" often shows newspaper headlines he has received from all across the nation. He doesn’t get normal headlines though. He gets headlines that have mistakes in them. Like the one that said, "Security firm loses Oakland Airport." Wouldn’t that be tough to do? Another one read, "Seven of the nine commissioners voted unanimously." Source: www.sermonnotes.com
It seems that most humans are prone to making mistakes. Of course the same isn’t true in regard to Christian relationships. Isn’t it wonderful how Christians never hurt one another? Isn’t it great how Christians never make mistakes but rather always show love, support, loyalty, and kindness to one another? We all laugh at this because we know that this is not true. The truth is that within the Christian community there will be times when you are hurt by other Christians. You may be betrayed, a confidence may be broken, you may be gossiped about, treated unkindly, be deceived and cheated, and so forth. Since this is true we need to know what our responsibility is when we’re hurt by another Christian. What are we to do? Jesus gives us instructions for handling just such a situation.
There are four particular things Jesus emphasizes in these three verses in regard to handling the hurts caused by another Christian.
First, lovingly confront the person who sinned against you.
As Jesus says, "If your brother sins, rebuke him. . ." Before I explain the word "rebuke", I want to emphasize that Jesus is discussing personal offenses, i.e. sins against you in particular, not sins in general. We will always see sin in one another but that does not mean we need to confront every one of them. We need only confront those sins that cause us personal hurt. I’m not going to go to any of you who I have seen speeding and therefore breaking the biblical injunction to submit to the government’s laws and say, "I rebuke you!" Jesus is clearly talking about personal hurts done to you by another Christian as the phrase in verse 4 "sins against you " makes clear.
How are we to deal or respond to those who have personally hurt us? Jesus says that we are to go to them and rebuke them. In other words, we are to lovingly confront the person who sinned against us. We are the ones who are to take the initiative. We often wait for the offender to take the first steps, but Jesus says that he offended person is to take the first steps toward reconciliation. Don’t say, "They already have to know how much they have hurt me." Jesus says that we’re to go to the person and let them know personally how much they have hurt us. Now the word rebuke here does not mean you need to be harsh in your confrontation. You don’t go to a person and say, "You no good unchristlike scoundrel, you hurt me!" No you lovingly confront the person who sinned against you. You go to that person and say, "You probably don’t even know it but you really hurt me when you did this or you said that and it wasn’t even true."
First, lovingly confront the person who sinned against you.
This is the first thing Jesus emphasized in regard to forgiveness. Now let’s look at the second thing Jesus emphasized.
Be willing to immediately forgive the person who hurt you, if they repent.
Jesus says in verse 3, "If he repents, forgive him." If the person is unwilling to acknowledge wrongdoing and apologize to you, you are not obligated to forgive them anymore than God is obligated to forgive those who do not repent. On the other hand if they do repent, which means they confess their wrong and ask for forgiveness and turn from the offensive behavior then you are to immediately forgive them. There are to be no other conditions for forgiveness.
Forgiveness...Jay Leno’s high school principal didn’t think speeding was a laughing matter thirty years ago. However, all has been forgiven, now that Jay has made a large contribution to the school. Leno committed his misdeed when he was a student at Andover High School and was suspended for three days after "burning rubber" in the parking lot. The popular talk host has made amends by donating $250,000 worth of Microsoft computer software in exchange for having the black mark expunged from his school record. Source: www.sermonnotes.com
Sometimes it seems we also want to make people pay for their sins before forgiveness comes but Jesus gives us different instructions. Jesus says you are to...
Be willing to immediately forgive the person who hurt you if they repent.
Now let’s look at the third thing Jesus emphasizes about forgiveness.
Be ready to forgive repeated failures.
Sometimes people say that when a person truly repents they won’t do it again. Is that true? Let me ask you, "Have you ever lied? Did you repent? Were you sincere? So you never lied again?" Of course the answer is that you have lied again even though you truly repented. True repentance means there is no intent to commit the offense again, not that a person won’t ever fail again in the same area. In verse 4 Jesus acknowledges that even with genuine repentance there can be repeated failures. This should not surprise us since it is obvious in our own lives we have repented for the same type of sins repeatedly. The truth is that if the person who offended you does so because of a temper problem, they may offend you again. If someone hurts you with gossip, they may do it again. We all tend to have our weakness which results in repeated failures. This is why Jesus makes a point of saying that we must be ready to forgive repeated failures if a person repents repeatedly. By the way, Jesus was not limiting forgiveness to only seven times. Seven was the number used for completeness and therefore indicates infinite willingness to forgive.
I want you to notice the disciples’ response to Jesus’ teaching on forgiving those who hurt us repeatedly.
Read Luke 17:5
They’re basically saying, "Lord this is too much, I just can’t forgive others like this, it’s beyond my abilities and I’d need more faith to do this." They felt incapable of adhering or living up to the high standards Jesus had on forgiveness but notice how Jesus responded to them in verse 6.
Read Luke 17:6
Jesus is basically saying that there should be no problem in forgiving others because even a little mustard seed size faith can do great things. The problem was not the size of their faith but their willingness to forgive. This leads as to the fourth thing Jesus was emphasizing about forgiveness.
Recognize that there is no legitimate reason you cannot repeatedly forgive those who hurt you but have repented.
We don’t need some supernatural infusion of miracle working faith to forgive others; we just need to obey Jesus. Forgiveness is not a matter of ability but of willingness. The problem is not that we cannot forgive others but that we will not forgive others. You can forgive! You may struggle to get past the memories and the hurt of those who really caused you pain but you can choose not to hold their sin against them, and that’s what forgiveness is.
Conclusion: Let’s review the two basic things Jesus taught us in regard to Christian relationships.
1. First, be careful that you’re not a negative spiritual influence.
2. Second, be forgiving of those who have repeatedly hurt you but have repented.
I hope we will each commit to following these important principles for Christian relationships.
Closing Prayer
