Confronting Complacency (part 2)
Luke 12:54-13:9 ·January 21, 2024· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke, Confronting Complacency
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My name is Joel, in case I forgot to say that earlier, I'm pleased to serve Christ and serve you all as pastor here at New Creation. Last week, last Sunday, Jesus confronted us. If you were here or you listened to the sermon, you know that it was confrontation time for Jesus. He called us to be ready for his return by having an active spiritual life. And as I hinted by calling last week a part one, today's part two, the confrontation continues. What he tells us today, it's even harder than last week.
I'm just going to tell you that right now. It's even harder because he calls us to do something that we perpetually resist doing. Brie has guinea pigs, four little guinea pigs. They're like our family's four little mascots. And no matter how much gentleness we show them, no matter how much love we show them, they still resist being picked up. You go in to pick them up and they scatter. They're prey animals. Their natural instinct is to think our hands are like claws from birds or something and they just run for cover.
It doesn't matter how much love we show them. That's their instinct, to run, to resist. The big topic today is repentance. And that is something that we run from, that we resist. Jesus calls us to repent. That's the big thing in today's passage. That is the entire point of everything, all the different things that he says in this passage all ties together about a call to repentance. Man, that is just so hard for us. But the benefits are even sweeter.
Okay? So we need to hold on to that. We need to trust our Savior. He has our good in mind, like I told you last week. Let's listen to him. Let's take him at his word. And let's answer his call for repentance today and find out just how good it is for us. So let's go to the book of Luke, God's inspired word through the author of Luke, as we listen carefully to what God says. And Lord willing, with the Spirit's help and activity in our hearts, respond to it as we should.
This is God's word, starting chapter 12, verse 54. Therefore, he also said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, a shower is coming, and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, there will be scorching heat, and it happens. You hypocrites. You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer. The officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny. There was some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?
No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And he told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then, if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down. Pray with me.
Oh, Jesus, open our ears and soften our hearts so that we can respond to your holy word. You yourself speaking to us today, right now, so that we can hear and respond, Lord. Do that work in us for our good and for your glory. Jesus, we pray this in your holy name.
Okay, confronting complacency, part two. Repentance is a requirement and a gift for our life with Christ. Repentance is a requirement and a gift for our life with Christ. This is absolutely essential for the Christian life. It is non-negotiable. But it's also a gift for us. Now listen, this passage is going to have way more impact if you decide right now, right here and right now, to focus on yourself instead of other people. Okay? Can we make that agreement together?
Father, don't think about how other people need to repent, need to listen to this, okay? Bat away those thoughts from your mind like they're mosquitoes or something.
Come alongside the Holy Spirit and say, what do you have for me here, God? What do you want me to hear and learn? It's in your hands how other people respond. I just need to deal with myself, okay? Let's do that together. Okay. Section one, the time to respond. When Jesus peers out over these crowds, he sees a huge glaring problem. He perceives it out among them. And to point it out, he makes a contrast. He says, look, let's talk about the weather for a second.
Clouds come from the Mediterranean Sea. It brings rain. A wind blows up south from the desert. It brings heat. They saw these patterns all the time. They knew how it worked. They knew what they meant, and they responded to it. They saw it. They knew what it meant. They responded. But then verse 56, Jesus says, when it comes to the present time, you don't get it. You don't understand. The present time is his own ministry. His own time walking the earth, which he said was the coming of God's kingdom.
The kingdom coming right before them. He's saying, look, you know trivial things like weather patterns. There is a hurricane of spiritual activity happening all around you, and you're just standing there, slack-jawed. You don't know what to do.
I remember almost 16 years ago now, Nikki was discharged from the hospital after Cadence was born. I pulled the car around to the little discharge area. Car seat base was latched in the back seat. I waited outside, and Nikki was wheeled out, holding Cadence. And I thought to myself, wait a minute, are they about to send us home with this baby? Are they crazy? We don't know what we're doing. This is serious business. I felt suddenly aware. Compared to caring for a newborn, everything else in my life seemed very trivial all of a sudden.
Jesus is trying to make these crowds feel that same thing. Compared to reckoning with me and the kingdom, everything else in your life is trivial. Who cares if it's going to rain today? Who cares if it's going to be hot today? Respond to me, Jesus says.
When it comes down to it, knowing how to respond to Jesus is infinitely more important than knowing anything else. You might know how to change your oil, or do your taxes, or deliver a baby, or build a house, or run a company, or play an instrument, or score a goal from a corner kick. If you don't know how to respond to Jesus, you are stuck in trivialities.
So how should they have been responding to Jesus' ministry? Well, let's go back to the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. Right after Jesus was baptized, as he began to work, the very first thing out of his mouth was this. Repent. For the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That's how they should interpret the present time. As a time to respond with repentance. The very beginning. The very first response. Now Jesus makes that point here again with an analogy. He says, imagine you owe someone money, and you're being sued. Verse 58. As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, he's hauling you off there. Make an effort to settle with him on the way. For a long time, there was that Marks and Harrison commercial. Let's settle this one, you know.
I looked it up. 95% of lawsuits end with a settlement before they get to a judge. Even today, we know it's only going to get worse if you get before a judge. Settle. Let's settle this one. Marks and Harrison, they had it right.
And settling means repenting. Jesus is making an analogy. How you settle with your accuser is to repent. Now, before we go any further, we've got to get clear on what repentance is. You can't get anywhere in listening to Jesus and applying this if you don't know what biblical repentance is. Okay? So I want to give you three marks. Three marks of biblical repentance. Conviction, remorse, and turning.
Conviction. Let's start with this. Conviction starts when we stop lying to ourselves. We drop the excuses. We stop claiming to be a victim, and we take responsibility. Our mind is changed.
We see our sin as God sees it. It's not just a little bit off. It's not just kind of bad. It is completely opposed to him. David says, against you I have done what is evil in your sight.
It's not too strong to say we should be repulsed by our sin. Many years ago in a other place, I was at a dinner in a Chinese restaurant with my friends. And I was having beef lo mein, which at the time was my favorite thing to have if I was having Chinese. I was about, I don't know, two-thirds of the way through eating my bowl of beef lo mein. And you know how you get when you're getting towards the end of something. You're kind of picking around at it.
You're trying to find the things that you still want to eat. You know, you're moving stuff around. And I see a little thing, and I put my fork on it, and I pull, and it emerged from underneath some stuff was a big old cockroach.
Now, do you think I just said, hmm, that's not what I would have preferred? They didn't list that in the menu. I know how you know how I responded because you just responded that way. You were repulsed.
That's how we're supposed to respond when we see our sin. That is gross. It's disgusting. I can't believe that was in me. Get it out of there. It's not just a little, oh, I guess that's kind of, no, it's like, no. That's just, that's gross.
That's conviction. Now, along with this conviction comes remorse. This is not being sorry that you got in trouble. It's not what remorse is. It means grief over your sin, how it has hurt other people, how it has offended the God that loves you.
It is not an exaggeration to say that you should be heartbroken over your sin. God says, return to me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, rend your hearts. That means tear them apart and not your garments. People were in the practice of literally ripping their clothing to make this demonstrative show of how repentant they are. But God says, you know what? God, what I want is for you to be heartbroken, not to make a big show of it.
And if we're repulsed by it, if we're heartbroken over it, we want nothing to do with it. But it's important at this point not to hide it, not to cover it, not to sweep it under the rug, but to turn from it towards God, to confess your sin. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what we just read. And then to say like David, create in me a clean heart, O God.
This disowning of sin and seeking God's help for change is what is sometimes missing when we repent. That's why when some people came to John the Baptist to be baptized, he saw right through them. He said, why are you here? He said, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. One of the most important verses to understand repentance. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Turn from it and turn to God.
So conviction, remorse, and turning. Now listen, I look back on my life and this is, I'm just telling you, I'm just being honest with you. I don't want you to say, gosh, I'm never going to get there. That full on repentance is something we should strive for. All right? It's a work of the Spirit in us. I don't put those things before you to try to beat you up. I just put them before you to say, this is what God calls us to. Let's go there together.
Let's strive after that kind of repentance together. Myself included. So, section two. Let's keep going with what Jesus says. The need for repentance. When the crowds hear Jesus' challenge, they bring up a tragic situation.
Some Jewish believers in Galilee had been killed by the Romans while they were offering their sacrifices. It's a very terrible event. There's no doubt about that. But look carefully at how Jesus responds. Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?
There's a reason why they brought this situation up. And Jesus sees it. You can't get anything by Jesus. He sees it. He's put his finger on it. They're trying to get him to focus on somebody else's sin. They're uncomfortable. Hey, what about, have you heard about those Galileans? Look, Jesus, you say we should settle with our accuser, but we're not as bad as them. Look what happened to them.
The strong impulse when we get called out is to look around and point to somebody else. Well, come on, I'm not as bad as that person. What about him? What about her?
They're trying to dodge Jesus' confrontation, and they're using really bad theology to do it. But Jesus responds with his typical directness. No, I tell you, they were not worse sinners, but unless you repent, unless you repent, you all will likewise perish.
And then he's not content there. He wants to drive home the point. So he brings up another awful situation, a tower in Jerusalem that fell and killed 18 people. The Galileans, the first situation, it was people that were murdered by a sinful ruler. However, the people in Jerusalem, they died because of an accident, something that can happen in a fallen and sinful world. But his point is the same. Do you think they were worse offenders because that happened to them?
No. Focus on yourselves. You all will likewise perish unless you repent. Now, at this time, and for a long time, it was common to believe that bad things only happen to bad people.
People that Jesus was talking to, and people for the next, I don't know, 1,700 years, most of them believed, look, those people must have deserved it. As long as nothing like that happens to me, that must mean that I'm okay. I'm morally righteous. I'm upright. I'm acceptable before God. I'm righteous. Jesus is pushing back hard against that and saying, no, you're wrong. You can't look at your life of relatively little suffering and say you're okay.
You, too, need to repent. Now, today's society has the completely opposite viewpoint. 100%, the other direction. Modern people like you and me, we don't see tragedy as an indication of personal sin because modern people don't believe people are sinful at all. There's no sin to repent of. Our culture's belief system is that people are basically good.
If there is a God, what people deserve from him is good things. That's a tenet of secular humanism. This belief is so prevalent and proclaimed so consistently, it gets into our thinking before we even know it. And to test it, here's a question to ask yourself. What does God owe me? Ask yourself that question. What does God owe me?
That'll indicate how much of the secular humanism thought has seeped into your head. And then go to the Bible and find out. What does the Bible say God owes us instead of gives us freely and graciously?
Jesus here is pushing back against us. In our modern way of thinking, he says, look, you're wrong, too. You can't just look at your own basic humanity and say, I'm okay. God ought to accept me. All of you modern people need to repent, too.
So to the ancient and the modern alike, Jesus says the same thing. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And I know what some of you are thinking. I know what tends to bubble up in my mind. I think things like, but we're made in his image.
What a minute. Wait a minute. We're going to perish? We're made in his image. He took his time with us. He stamped his image on us. Yes, but we're his enemies. On account of our own rebellion against his rightful place in our lives. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.
That's what the Bible says. So we switch gears and we protest again. But God is love. How could a loving God do that? Because he is also a holy God and he is just. To leave sin unpunished is unjust. The wages of sin is death.
The shocking news is not that Jesus says you will all likewise perish. The shock is these three words. Unless you repent. That is the shock. The great surprise is that he has made a way out. And that way is open today.
So let's go into this last and shortest section. The gift of repentance. The gift of repentance. If you're looking for proof that God is merciful. Start with this. That he calls you to repent.
He doesn't have to do this. He's under no obligation. He could have judged the world a long time ago. Right there in the Garden of Eden. Right after he called Adam and Eve out from hiding. He could have sat on the judgment seat and judged them. But instead he chooses to show the world the riches of his glory through his mercy. That's the point of the parable of the unproductive fig tree. The last thing in this passage. That parable has only one point to us.
And that is this. The time of mercy is open. There is a delay in cutting down the tree. The owner comes around and says look it's been three years. Cut it down. We're in the NFL playoff season. And it's kind of hilarious to me. When teams go too long without a playoff win. You start hearing from the owners. It's been too long. Fire everybody. We're cleaning house.
But the vine dresser intervenes and says you know what give it a little bit longer. Give it more time. The single point of this parable again is that God has delayed the judgment. This parable that one year of not cutting down the tree. That represents the entire time between Jesus' first coming and his second coming. The time of mercy. The time of salvation. The time we read earlier from David. Seek the Lord while he may be found. He may be found.
Isn't that good news? You can find him. You can find mercy. That is amazing. There is mercy to be found. He has delayed the judgment. Paul says we have. We implore you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God. Behold. Now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation. Paul wrote that a long time ago. But it's still true. Now is the favorable time. The day of salvation.
Jesus is like a firefighter. Propping open the door. The last exit of a burning building. And saying hurry. Get out. Go. Go. Run. Run before it's too late.
But that's not all. That's not all. Look at the vine dresser. Helps the tree bear fruit. Did you see that? He digs around it. He puts down manure. I'm going to help this tree bear fruit. God not only delays his judgment. He is working. Even now. To bring people to repentance. And to trust in him. He's out there doing the work.
All this tells us that God who is just and holy is also gracious and merciful. The question is, how are you going to respond? Over 500 years ago, a professor. You might have heard of him. His name is Martin Luther. He nailed 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. He had something important he wanted to discuss. Some things he'd been seeing in scripture. He wanted to talk about it. The very first of the 95 theses said this. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said repent, he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
Now when you get that, that changes things. That changes the whole pattern of your Christian life. Repentance is a gift. Not just when we come to Christ, but as we abide in Christ. Let's look back over the passage and see from this passage what repentance takes us from and to. Instead of being headed to prison, we have freedom. Nothing is more liberating than confessing sin and being forgiven. Nothing. When you say, you know what, that's not who I am.
That's not who I am in Christ. And I don't want to live that way anymore. You are walking in true freedom. And if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed. Indeed, I've experienced that and I've been honored to be with people when they've experienced that. When you experience it, you want more of it. More of that sweet freedom when you forsake your sin and you cling to Christ. Oh, that freedom feels good.
When we repent, instead of being fruitless like that tree, we are fruitful. We bear fruit. Our neighbor planted a garden last spring and she started it by getting this yard torch. I'd never seen one of these things before. A yard torch that I think it was propane driven. And she just lit the ground on fire. Completely torched the area that she was going to plant in. Incinerated it. The grass, the weeds, everything. When she stopped, it was barren.
But not for long. Not for long, the vegetables had room to grow. All kinds of good things popped up out of that soil. When we bring our sin into the light to make it wither and die, we make room for the Spirit to bear the kind of fruit that He alone can bear. Love and joy and peace and patience. Kindness and goodness. Faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. That's what happens in us. We become fruitful.
And finally, when we repent, we have life instead of perishing. Abundant life, flourishing life, life that begins today, right now. Marked by real peace with God. And friends, that life is eternal. Even death. Even death is just a doorway we pass through to see our Savior face to face. With Him, we await the promised resurrection, the new heavens and the new earth where there will be no more repentance.
We will have put an end to repentance. Even faith will be gone. Replaced by sight. Because we'll be seeing the one that we have been turning to. Putting our hope in. As we have every hope fulfilled. Let's pray. Jesus, at first it seems so hard to listen to you in this passage, but then the more we do, and the more we follow through on it, we see and we experience how sweet it is to come out from the bondage of our sin and come into the freedom in you, Jesus.
I pray, Lord, that every one of us here would taste and see how good it is to turn from our sin and turn to you. Help us walk in real repentance. Help us live lives that demonstrate a forsaking of sin and a clinging to Christ. Lives that are marked by freedom and fruitfulness and life. Jesus, thank you for this work that you're doing.
Thank you for even the hard things in our lives which you use to drive us to depend on you more, to forsake our sin and hold on to you. Do more of that work, Lord, and we pray this, Jesus, in your name.