Luke 13 (Part 2)

We're in Luke chapter 13, go ahead and open your Bibles there. We're making our way through the Gospel of Luke here on Sunday morning as we make our way on Sundays through the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation. And then on Wednesday evening, we're going through the Old Testament. And right now, in the Book of Psalms. I say right now, we've been there for a long time because it's a big book. It's a lot of Psalms. 150 of them, so we've been making our way one at a time. And well actually, not one at a time per night, we've been, lately have we've been hitting about 5 Psalms an evening but we're getting there. We broke 100 this last week so I was excited about that. Luke chapter 13 is where we are now. We're picking it up in verse 18 and reading through the end of the chapter. Go ahead and follow along as I read.

Stop there. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for gathering us together in this place today so that we might worship together. Open our hearts together to the ministry of Your Holy Spirit and grace. And Father, I thank You also that we can take this time to dig into the Scriptures to understand better what they say to us and how we can apply them to our lives. Father, I know that there are people here today who have gathered for many different reasons. And Lord, I know that You are aware of every single one, every person, every concern, every situation. And Father, I know also that You are able by Your Word to speak words of grace, wisdom, and truth to each and every waiting heart. Father, I ask You to meet every need in this place today. I ask You to touch every heart. I ask You to bring hope and life and purpose Lord, to every waiting heart. I thank You, Father. We look forward to what You're going to say to us through Your Word. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen. There are basically 4 things that we're bringing out in this passage. Let me put them up on the screen so you can see what we're looking at here today.  Insights concerning the kingdom of God :18-21  How many will be saved? :22-27  Threats from Herod :28-30 ---

 A lament over Jerusalem :34-35 Jesus is going to lay out some very interesting insights concerning the kingdom of God, and He'll use a couple of illustrations to do that. Then, a question will be posed to Him, about how many will be saved, and will those numbers be few? Next, He receives a statement from some Pharisees that Herod is out to get Him. And then finally Jesus laments over the city of Jerusalem. But this section begins in verse 18 with Jesus saying, or I should say, asking, “What is the kingdom… like?” He says, “…to what shall I compare it?” And then He offers two illustrations, and they're really very simple illustrations. He talks about a mustard seed plant that grows up to the point where it eventually can, birds can nest in its branches. And He talks also about a woman who took some yeast or leaven, and put it into some flour, and it worked its way through all of the dough. You look at these on the surface and you say, well, it looks like Jesus with the illustration of the mustard plant, He's probably saying that the church is, or the kingdom of God is going to grow really big. I mean, it sounds fairly simple. And you look at the second illustration and then it looks like Jesus is saying that the influence of the kingdom of God is going to be fairly pervasive. Because it's going to work its way through culture, I suppose, and society. And you look at those interpretations, and you might be content to leave it at that, except for the fact that there are some references made in these verses, symbolic references, that we got to be careful not to move over too quickly, because these symbols always have a negative connotation. And the symbols are birds and yeast, or leaven. Now, if you were to do a word study in the Bible, first of all, concerning birds, you would find that often when birds are used in the scripture symbolically, you would find that they often symbolize bad stuff. Even demonic, or Satan himself can be characterized by the symbol of a bird. And again, when they're used as symbols. And the same thing with yeast. We know that yeast in the Bible is almost universally a picture of sin because of its ability to permeate and infest. It's a harsh word to talk about, isn't it? When you're just thinking about baking bread, but you understand what I mean. Yeast is a very common symbol in the Scripture for sin.

And so we're looking at these pictures and we're thinking, wow, maybe this isn't a positive thing. Maybe He's not talking about wild growth in the kingdom of God and great pervasive influence by the kingdom. Maybe there's something nefarious going on here. In fact, there's even a couple other things. There's a couple other points that you should be aware of and it has to do with the pictures that Jesus is painting here. The first is that statement He makes regarding the mustard plant. He says, I'm not a real plant type person, but I'm given to understand that a mustard plant really only grows to the size of what you and I would probably call a bush, not a tree. And it doesn't necessarily provide a great place for birds to nest. And so when Jesus talks about the mustard plant turning into this huge tree that the birds can nest in on its branches, He's suggesting or describing to you and I something that is unnatural. Okay. And then finally we have the size of the dough that the woman works that yeast into. Look again in verse 21. He says, the kingdom of heaven “is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” And again, I'm not a baker, but I'm also given to understand that three measures of flour would enable you to make enough bread for about a hundred people so again, we're talking about something that goes way beyond the common reference to like, baking. And again, it suggests the idea of an unnatural size. Now, that's really interesting I think so what are we to take away from this? I mean, what is Jesus trying to say to us by using these illustrations? Well, many believe that the illustration or the picture of birds nesting in the branches of this large tree is actually a description of what we know historically took place in Christianity after the first couple of centuries. Because we can look back at history and we can see what happened. And you know what we see happen? It did grow unnaturally large, but it wasn't good. In fact, don't know if you know much about church history, but around 300 A.D., I think it was actually around 312 A.D., up to that point, Christianity was persecuted greatly by the Romans. Christians were dying all over the place just because they believed in Jesus. But about 312 A.D., the Roman emperor became a Christian. He's like the king, right? Of Rome. He became a Christian.

So what happened to Christianity? Well, it became the state religion of Rome from 312 A.D. onward, Christianity became the state religion. Do you guys know what happens to Christianity when it becomes popular. When it suddenly becomes the thing to do, and now there are people who have political motivations to say, I'm a Christian, because the emperor is a Christian, and I certainly want to get into his good graces. So if I'm one of his lackeys and I want to get him to notice me or advance me in my career, I'm probably going to say, well, I'm a Christian too. And that's exactly what we saw happen historically in the church. In fact, the church (Pastor Paul shows air quotes) became incredibly corrupt after Christianity became the state religion. And it's exactly what Jesus said. Birds came, and again, birds have a negative, evil, even demonic influence symbolically in the Scriptures. And the corruption that came into the church from that point onward grew into that period of history in the world that we call the dark ages. You guys know what broke the dark ages in around 1500 A.D. The Reformation broke onto the scene when Martin Luther nailed his theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg and said, enough. It was an incredibly dark period of time that dominated religious history around the world. And Jesus is giving a picture here of this unnatural growth that is attended by great corruption and evil. I don't know how much you guys have read on church history, but can I just recommend a book for you? I actually taught a class using this book of a number of years ago, but here's a picture of the cover. It's called, Church History in Plain Language, by Bruce Shelley. And it's one of the easiest reads you'll ever do.

If you were like me, you probably slept through history in high school. It's like boring and yet this book is incredible. If you get a chance, it's a great book to read. But it bears out the reality of what Jesus is talking about here concerning the kingdom of God and the unnatural growth, and the great evil and corruption, which attended it for so many years. Moving on. Verse 22. It says here that, Jesus began to make His way through the various towns and villages on His way to Jerusalem. He's teaching in each of the towns as He goes through and in verse 23, somebody comes up to Him with a question. He says, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Great question. And I like Jesus’ answer too. He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” We talked last week about how there's no such thing as a theoretical conversation with Jesus, remember? You ask Him a question about everything out here and He's going to bring it right back to you. And so this guy says, are the people who get saved going to be few? He says, well, you just make sure that you enter, right? You make sure you “enter through the narrow door.”

And then He answers his question in the last part of verse 24. If you're looking for an answer, there it is. Verse 24 at the end, He says, “For many, I tell you, will seek (or try to) to enter (but He says, they) …will not be able.” And so there's the answer. Many people are going to try to get in, but they're not going to be able to. And this is repeated elsewhere in the Gospels. In fact, Jesus repeated a very, made a very similar statement in Matthew chapter 7, up on the screen for you. Verse 14, He said,

We’ve been going through the I Am statements of Jesus in our men's and women's studies during the week. Sue's teaching the women on Thursday night and Friday morning. And I'm doing a men's group on Friday. And we've been talking about all the I Am statements of Christ. And we just recently went through I Am the gate here a couple of weeks ago. So Jesus said I am the gate. Look what he says here about the gate. “…the gate is narrow.” He also told us that “the way is hard.” And Jesus also said, “I am the way,” didn't He, right? In fact, John 14:6, upon the screen.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And that is why it is a narrow door or a narrow gate, because it only goes through one man, amen. It goes through Jesus. And do you know what? When we quote John 14:6 to people that don't know the Lord, or want to know the Lord, it makes them crazy. They hate it when we quote that verse. How can you Christians be so narrow to think that heaven is only attained through one person? Well, I didn't say it. He said it. And I don't think it's necessarily that Christians are narrow. I mean, and we certainly can be, I suppose. But the point is, the way is narrow. That's what Jesus said. The way is narrow. Because He said, it only goes through Me. I love it when people say to me, well, all religions have a little piece of the truth. You know what that suggests? It suggests that they know all religions and they know all truths. Because how would you know if they each have a piece of the truth unless you knew all truth? It's actually a very arrogant thing to say. It assumes you have incredible insight. But the point is, Jesus is the one who made the statement, “I am the way.” I am the only way. No one comes to the Father except by Me. You guys getting, starting to understand here why a lot of people are going to try to make it and some aren't going to. It's because they just, they're just not going to accept that. It's like, I'm sorry, I just can't accept that it just comes down to one person. I'm sorry. I just, I can't accept that. You're telling me that all these other groups and all these other religions, you're telling me that it's all a bunch of hooey, and Jesus is the only one. I'm not telling you anything. I'm telling you what Jesus said. You can choose to reject it if you want to, but just understand, it's not me. You're not rejecting me. You're rejecting Him. And ultimately, every single person has to come back down to looking at who is Jesus Christ. And is He someone that I can depend on as it relates to the claims that He made? He said, I'm the only one. You want to get to the Father? You got to go through Me. Well, was He blowing smoke? Or was He telling the truth? Everybody's got to come to terms with that question. And you better do it sooner than later. Jesus also talked about how the way is hard. The way is hard in that passage in Matthew that we looked at. Why is it hard? It's hard because it smacks us right in the face. The Gospel, I mean. It smacks us right in the face of our human pride. Because you see, every time we talk about the death of Jesus, that tells us I'm not good enough. I don't measure up. Because, you see, Jesus had to die to pay for my sins. I couldn't be good enough on my own, so He had to die for me. He had to do what I couldn't do and live to tell about it. People don't like to hear that. I mean, do you like to hear that you don't measure up? Were you one of those kids maybe growing up that was the last one to get picked for basketball, or soccer, or something like that? Wasn't that fun? To, they're picking teams and you're the last one standing. Who wants Paul? Nobody. Isn't that fun? It just screams, you don't measure up. Or maybe you were really looking forward to getting that raise and that promotion at work, and they passed you over and went to somebody else. You didn't measure up. Wasn't that a fun feeling? Nobody likes to hear that so when the gospel comes along and says to you and I, oh, by the way, you don't measure up. Right? You have to trust Jesus and what He did on the cross. You literally have to lay yourself down and say, you know what? I throw myself upon the mercy of God. Who wants to do that? It makes us feel like we're nothing. And that's exactly why the way is hard because my human pride doesn't want to go there. It just doesn't want to go there. You're trying to tell me that God won't accept me as I am? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Yeah, because exactly as you are, is a sinner. How dare you? God said it, not me. But we don't want to hear it. We don't want to hear it. You don't measure up, you never will measure up. Jesus came and died for sinners, like me and you. Right? That's hard to hear. Have you ever heard of the statement, the offense of the cross? Because that's what that is. The cross is offensive. I'll show you where that statement is actually made. Paul wrote it in his letter to the Galatians. In Galatians chapter 5, he said,

…if I… still preach circumcision, (which is a form of law keeping, he said) why am I still being persecuted? (right? And then he goes on to say,) In that case (here’s the statement) the offense of the cross has been removed. In other words, what Paul is saying there is, if I'm telling people that you can be saved by being a good person or keeping laws, that's not going to make me unpopular. In fact, people are going to like it if I say that because I'm going to basically be telling them, you can do it. But if I tell them you can't do it, there's no possible way you can do it. They're not going to like me and they're going to persecute me. And that's what the cross is all about. It's offensive. Stop offending me, you Christians, by telling us we're sinners all the time. Hey, listen, that is the reality of the cross. People find it offensive. And that's why the way to heaven is hard. It's very hard. And then Jesus goes on to share a message that seems pretty directed to the Jews who were listening to Him at the time in verse 25 through 27. He gives this illustration of the master of the house rising to shut the door. And He says, and you're going to be standing outside knocking and saying, hey, open the door. And he's going to say, I don't know who you are or where you're from. And they're going to respond by going, wait a minute, we ate and drank with you. You walked through our towns. We listened to you preach. We pelted you with questions. Okay. You talk to us and he's going to say, I don't know you. I don't know you depart. And this is really a sobering group of verses, even though we know that He's directing it essentially to the people that He was speaking to at the time, it's a warning here for everybody and for all time that to know something about Jesus isn't enough. Or to say, I believe in God. Oh, I get that one all the time. You start talking to people about the Lord and they go, I believe in God. And we're like, that's not what I'm talking about. I didn't ask you if you believed in God, we're talking about the cross. We're talking about what Jesus did on the cross. And we're talking about whether you've accepted what Jesus did on the cross. They're going, I believe in God. It's a ridiculous statement. And we got to come back and go, guys, Satan believes in God. Okay. He knows He's there. The Bible says the demons believe in God and they shudder at the sound of His voice. (James 2:19) So don't tell people, I believe in God, deal with the cross. And that's what Jesus is saying. It's not enough to have some distant association with Jesus. He walked through my town. So what? I mean, if He did, you were greatly blessed. Maybe He walked through your family. I've had people tell me in the past, I bet you have too, I was raised in a Christian home. So that means the Lord walked through your home, your family. Doesn't matter. Did you accept Him? Did you embrace Him? Well, my parents are Christians. I don't care. God doesn't have any grandchildren. Only children. And you need to personally accept Christ as your Savior. Not based on the fact that your parents were believers. Have you received? That's why I love the answer to this question.

This man says, hey, how many people are going to be saved? And Jesus says, hey, make sure you enter through the narrow way. Make sure you get in. Let's not just talk theoretical. Let's talk you. Let's talk your life, your heart, your response to the Gospel. And that's the only way to know Him, is to receive Him as Savior and as Lord. And it says, as He goes on in verse 28, Jesus says, some of these people are going to react very badly to finding out that they never ever responded to Him. But they were hanging on the fact that, hey, He walked through my town. He says in verse 28, “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And He says, these people are actually going to see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and all the prophets with them. But they themselves are going to be cast out and they're going to wail. Because you see, the Jews at that time were depending upon the fact that their human lineage was enough. Just like some people who say I was raised in a Christian home, same thing. The Jews had that same mentality. We're sons of Abraham. They used to say that to Jesus. We're sons of Abraham. Remember what John the Baptist used to say to them about that? He said, and don't say to me, you're sons of Abraham. He said, God can take these rocks and raise up sons of Abraham. (Matthew 3:9- 10) Don't think that you're okay because of your human lineage. Right? So who is going to come into the kingdom? Look at verse 29. I love this. You know what? Because this is talking about us. He says, “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” And He's talking about the Gentiles. Because Jesus was addressing the Jews at that time. And he says, but people are going to come from the north, south, east, and west. And they're going to come into the kingdom. And they're going to be part of the kingdom. And they're going to be, they're not going to be Jews, they're going to be mongrels, just like me and you. They're going to be mutts. We're like nothing. I think I told you guys, my parents did a DNA test. And it was just what we suspected, we're mongrels. We come from like, well, we come from Europe, but all over. Everybody wants to think that they came from royalty or something. I'm sure my forerunners were street sweepers or something like that, but, still, it's like we're nothing special, but yet here we are, children of God. We're in the kingdom, you guys. We're in the kingdom. We're part of the kingdom of God because we have accepted what Jesus did on the cross, right? Ah, what a wonderful thing. But then Jesus adds an interesting comment in verse 30. He says, “And behold, some are last who will be first, and (then) some are first who will be last.” And this statement is something that Jesus repeats in the other Gospel accounts. And He's really just talking about the fact that in the kingdom of God, there's a different, sort of a way of reckoning importance or quantifying someone's value. We're pretty worldly in the way we do that. If somebody's popular, which means good looking, you well…, we have little check boxes, then they're first right in our culture. But Jesus is making the point that when the kingdom of heaven bursts upon the scene and that's when Christ returns. We're going to be shocked at the people who are first because we didn't even know their names here on earth. They were like, we didn't even know they were last because we didn't know them at all. And they're going to be exalted into this place that is just going to blow us away. In fact, I think we're going to be shocked. All over the place when we see, who's in heaven with us. You got here? How in the world did that happen? I thought you were on your way to hell for sure. And here you are standing with the saints, dressed in white through the blood of Jesus Christ. We're going to be blown away, you guys. We're going to be blown away. You're going to look at some people in heaven and go, I read about you in the newspaper, you are a nasty. And they're going to say, I know I was, but when I was in prison, I gave my heart to Jesus Christ and I made Him Savior and Lord. And look now what He has done. We're going to be shocked. We're going to be shocked. I think there's going to be some people that spent their whole life praying. Nobody ever knew it. They just prayed, their prayers, they’re intercessors. Like Jesus said, when you pray, go into your inner room, shut the door and pray to your Father who sees in secret. (Matthew 6:6) And there's going to be a lot of people in heaven who lived their lives in the kingdom of God in secret because they were praying. They just, and they never made a big deal of it. They didn't talk about their prayer life. They didn't talk to people and draw attention to themselves. They just prayed and they're going to be huge in the kingdom of heaven.

And then along comes some Pharisees and who knows what their motivation was, but they say to Jesus, get out, get out of here cause Herod wants to kill You. They probably just wanted to get rid of Him or scare Him or whatever. And Jesus says in verse 32, hey, listen, you “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.” An interesting response, isn't it? By the way, that time reference to “today… tomorrow, and the third day” really doesn't have anything to do with three days and then the resurrection. It was actually a common Jewish idiom that was used to describe a short period of time followed by a particular event. And so Jesus is simply saying, I am going to keep going and doing what I'm doing, and then I'm going to complete what I'm doing. In fact, He repeats it in verse 33. He says again, “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following,…” And He's basically saying there's not a threat in the world that's going to change My course. And you can go back and tell Herod I am not going to be bothered by these threats that He might throw out of doing bodily harm to Me. And I think about that and how different that response is by Jesus from what we read in the Bible of Elijah. And don't get me wrong, Elijah was a great prophet. But after his great victory against the pagan prophets of Baal, the Bible says that he received a poisoned pen letter from Jezebel, and he absolutely went into an emotional tailspin. He ran for his life. And once he got as far as he could go to hide in a cave, he prayed and asked God to kill him. Lord, take my life. I'm not worthy of being your servant. A different response, isn't it, than the one Jesus gives here? A little bit different. He says, you go back and tell Herod, I'm not changing My plans. You go back and tell Herod, I'm going to keep doing exactly what I'm doing until I get to the end of what I'm doing. And I love that because it underscores the courage of faith. I like that. Because I don't necessarily possess it. But I want to, in greater measure. Don't you? No matter what the threat may be. Because Herod's probably not going to threaten to kill me or, I don't know, anybody else for that matter, I'm not really sure. But there are all kinds of threats that try to rise up and cut us off at the knees and get us to stop doing what we're doing, whether it's just fear. Maybe the Lord's been telling you that you need to start witnessing to people that you come in contact with, but you've just been afraid and that's the threat to get you to stop doing what you're doing. Maybe it's a threat that has come from a health scare. Or a financial threat that is trying to keep you from moving forward in your walk with the Lord and doing what you're called to do. Or whatever the case might be. I think that all of us need to take a lesson here from Jesus and begin to pray for that, the courage of faith to be able to say, listen, you go back and tell that fox, whatever the thing is, right? That's rising up against you. I am not going to stop. I am not going to put down this calling that the Lord has placed upon my life. And I am going to keep doing this no matter what. And you can go back and tell him because I frankly don't care. It's, I like that attitude. It's that and we all need to learn to do that. Just look at the things that threaten us and just go, I don't care. I'm going to keep going because this is the Lord's calling on my life. And then in the middle of verse 33, Jesus says, “‘for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’” And then He begins to lament over the city. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” And that's how God views Jerusalem. Should be a city of great renown where the presence of the Lord at that time was magnified. And yet, it became the center of where people were often killed who were sent by God. In the middle of verse 34, Jesus says, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,…” What a beautiful picture. He's saying, How often would I have come alongside to just gather you up and protect you? But you would have nothing. You would have nothing of it. And so He says, in verse 35, in a very sobering statement, “Behold, your house is forsaken.” And that would apply to any nation or any person, for that matter, who repeatedly determines in their heart to reject God. And that sort of an end is inevitable. “Your house is forsaken.” And then He ends with these words, “And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

And that's an actual quotation from a passage in the Psalms. We haven't gotten to it yet. We're going to get to it soon. But in Psalm 118, don't, make a mental note of it. We won't turn there now. But in Psalm 118, it's a beautiful prophetic Psalm about the second coming of Jesus and how the people of Israel are going to react to His coming at that time. Because you see, that Psalm actually talks about how the nations gather against Israel. And that's what we're told prophetically is going to happen. This, we're talking about a time period referred to as the Great Tribulation. And at the end of the Great Tribulation, under the leadership of the Antichrist, the nations of this world are going to come against Israel to try to completely obliterate it. And it's going to look like they're succeeding. And at a very desperate hour in their situation, that is when Jesus is going to return to this earth. And we're coming with Him, by the way, the church. And Jesus is going to fight for Israel and He's going to destroy all of those enemies that came against her at that time. And Israel is going to recognize her Messiah and in a national turning to the Lord, they are going to cry out blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord and Zechariah tells us that, they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as for an only Son. (Zachariah 12:10) In other words, they will realize this is the One we crucified. This is the One we reject, and they will mourn over their stubborn refusal to accept the One who came as their Savior. But because He has delivered them from their enemies, there will be a national turning to the Lord at that time, and that's why Paul talks about in Romans that at that time, all Israel will be saved. He's referring to that time at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation. It's going to be a horrible and then ultimately a great time for Israel because of the deliverance that the Lord brings to them. But Jesus prophetically speaks here and says, “you will not see me until you … (cry), ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” He's saying right there. I am coming back. Jesus is coming back. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready for Jesus to come back?