The Good News According to Luke: Part 15
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: We will find Christ’s power and joy when we find the right posture in our hearts before him.
The Right Faith
The Right Attitude
The Rightful Ruler
The Right Faith
The type of faith that God provides gives grace to overcome sin and causes mountains to move!
Luke 17:1-6 ESV
“And he said to his disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.”
Sin is serious to God and destroys relationships with him and others.
Because sin is so serious to God, not only those who practice it, but those who promote it will be judged severely.
Think of what things in our culture promote sin on a daily basis - from the music we listen to, to the entertainment in which we indulge, to the political agendas that people endorse.
What God says about those who cause others to sin by introducing such temptations should be a check to us all and where our allegiances lie.
We should pay attention to not only what, but who we are ultimately representing in our choices in life.
If your brother or sister finds themselves in sin, according to Jesus, we should not enable or ignore their sin, but rebuke them with the word of God.
The goal is repentance followed by the forgiveness that Jesus paid to distribute through his sacrificial death on the cross for our sins.
Through Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we have not only forgiveness of sins, but a new faith and grace that allows us to live in the authority of Christ to move mountains in our lives!
The Right Attitude
The type of attitude that the Holy Spirit provides is a humility and gratitude that sets our hearts free.
Luke 17:7-19 ESV
“"Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'" On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."”
Though sons and daughters of God through Christ, our posture should continually be of humble servants to Almighty God.
In our modern culture these seem like mutually exclusive identities - you are either a child of God or a slave, a servant or an heir.
Yet in Christ our identity and relationship to God is not an either/or but a both/and proposition.
We are simultaneously a son or a daughter as well as a servant of the king; a friend as well as a submitted follower (John 15); a slave to righteousness (Romans 7) as well as a co-heir with Christ (I Peter 3).
It is just as a man can be simultaneously a son, a brother, a husband, a father and even a grandfather.
These are all different components of the same individual’s identity and must be stewarded in unison to relate to the proper people at the proper time.
This is what the above parable shows us about God’s expectation of us as we live as yes, his children, but also his servants in the world.
Attitudes of humility and gratitude make this possible.
We must be humble enough to understand that we will forever be unworthy servants who are saved by grace through faith alone in Christ’s redeeming work at the cross.
It is not only our duty, but privilege to serve the eternal, inexhaustible, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and overwhelmingly gracious King of the universe with humility and gratitude for the very breath that he provides.
When we live in such humility and gratitude, and not with the entitlement of our age, we are able to encounter God in his strength receiving our healing and restoration in the midst of a broken world.
Jesus shows the lepers that he is powerful enough to heal them with simply a word.
As they put their faith in Jesus’ ability to heal and followed his instructions, they were cleansed.
It was not enough to take Jesus at his word - the lepers needed to do what he said.
*So often we want healing but don’t follow God’s instructions, and wonder why we remain in the same spot, even when we believe that he can heal us.
Always remember, faith and obedience are God’s recipe for experiencing God’s power moving on our behalf.
When we see God move, do not take him for granted.
It was the nine native Galileans, those who would have been “churched” in our culture, who did not return to thank Jesus for their cleansing.
Many people find themselves in sullen, dissatisfied, embittered lives because they spend their mental energy being consumed with the things they do not have rather than rejoicing in God for the things that they do.
*Lack of gratitude leads to lack of joy.
For both big things and small things, we will cultivate our relationship with God and find great joy in Christ when we develop the habit of finding the things for which we can be thankful and expressing it.
What ways have you been like the lepers stealing glory from God?
In what ways do you, like the Samaritan, need to find the joy of your salvation by learning to thank God for all that he already has done - things both big and small?
The Rightful Ruler
The type of redemption that God provides is complete and is realized when we fully surrender to Jesus as Lord.
Luke 17:20-35, 37 ESV
“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." And he said to the disciples, "The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, 'Look, there!' or 'Look, here!' Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left." And they said to him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."”
Jesus said that the coming Kingdom of God would be in the midst of us.
This means, among other things, that his rule in our lives should be something that is growing in an ongoing fashion, not just an event to be observed.
In what ways is the rule of God growing in your life?
At the same time, there will be a day when Jesus makes his return to judge the world in righteousness.
Those who have repented of their sin and put their trust in his atoning work at the cross will be saved.
Those who have rejected Jesus and persisted in their rebellion will get what they asked for, an eternity without God in hell.
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ”
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Do not be of those in this world who try to preserve their lives and find that they are losing it.
Who is it in your life that can be a mirror to you, disciplining you and helping you to grow in devotion to Christ?
Who is it that you are helping to do the same?
Now is the time to prepare your heart before God and his coming Kingdom that is to be among us.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher