Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 29th Jan 2012
Lk 19v1-27
Last time we saw: Jesus predicting his death, followed by the healing of the blind man.
From all that we saw that salvation is possible because of what God has done in Christ, and therefore what he can do for us if we cry out for salvation.
Next we find Jesus still on the road to Jerusalem, this time passing through Jericho v1.
The verses give us two answers as to why Jesus came into the world:
1) he came to seek and to save the lost.
a) V10 is the key to this section, Jesus tells us why he has come into the world.
He came to seek out and save those who are lost!
But who is lost? Luke provides an example:
· V2-4: introducing Zacchaeus.
A very rich man, but his wealth is most likely due to corruption.
Yet he wants a see Jesus, he wants to see who Jesus is! But cannot, he is too small!
Thus tries to find a vantage point v4 where he is able to see Him.
So here we have a lost soul seeking Jesus!
b) so how does Jesus respond to this lost person?
V5-7 Jesus sees him, calls him down, and invites himself to dinner!
Which leads to two reactions: Zac receives him with great joy, the people to complain.
But the main point in it all is that Jesus openly accepts Zac! He does not condemn or ignore!
What an encouragement that is to us to seek Jesus.
After all as we seek him, we find that he is in fact seeking after us!
c) he seeks and saves but does not leave us where we are.
Salvation changes everything. Zac was a son of the promise, a son of the Spirit.
He was not a son of the flesh, what an encouragement Jesus brings him v9.
And it is because of who Zac is, that he then changes his ways v8.
App
One’s life is never the same after Jesus has entered in! Salvation is eternal life starting now. We cannot go on the same as we always have. But how do we change?
The next point puts heads us in the right direction.
2) he came to teach:
a) Our transformation comes as we grow in knowledge of Jesus and His ways.
V11 with their attention Jesus takes the opportunity to teach - because they were near Jerusalem, and because the people were full of expectation about the kingdom
b) the parable has three players:
· the king v12 goes off to be made king v15a is made king, returns to reward & punishes the workers v17,19, 22
· the workers v13 given responsibilities, 15b-16,18, 20 questioned about their responsibilities, then rewarded or rebuked
· the enemies/citizens v14 don’t want the king, 27 are punished
c) what is the teaching?
i) He is correcting the peoples thinking about the kingdom. They thought that a new Jewish empire was about to rise and that Jesus was going to do it all and very soon.
Their idea of salvation was too shallow, to earth bound, to parochial and too soon!
What they needed to see: two things
· That most of them really they did not want Jesus as their King!
The old Israelite problem: they wanted king Saul not King Jesus (1 sam 12v12)!
It would not be long before their joy and expectation over Jesus would turn to hatred and derision.
· The King was going to return to the Father before the Kingdom would rise.
App: The Kingship of Jesus is always the sticking point! Will we have him to rule over us?
Or will we continue to be master and commander of our own lives?
The King is coming back with the full force of the Kingdom how then are we to live?
ii) then he teaches about how we are to live if we do accept him as king.
The servants were given all given one mina each, that’s about three months wages.
They had to put their money to work while the king was away.
Those who did well were commended and the one who was too afraid was condemned.
What made the difference? Faithfulness with what had been given.
App:
· Faithfulness
We all have work to do, some may be high profile, some low! But that matters not!
We are just servants, that’s it! We must joyfully do what we have been given to do.
Paul planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God brings the increase - 1Cor3v5-6.
· The warning: v26.
We have to get to work or we will lose even what we have!
To put that into our situation, we need to get on with what we know we should be doing! We are not called to action for actions sake, we are called to be faithful with what we have.
In the first place that means that we must seek Gods leading and guiding.
The unfaithful servant had taken his eyes off the King! He had a perverted view of him altogether!
· Further warning comes to us from the response of the rest of the servants.
As the king gave the mina to the servant who already had ten the other complained.
Their response is so often how we respond! But that is not fair we say to God!! What about us we ask!
iii) then he is teaching about the need to accept him as King.
Those who reject him in the end are slaughtered before the King!
This is the only place in the NT where the Greek word, here translated “slaughter” is used.
And what a graphic horrible scene it presents to our minds.
This is not the gentle Jesus meek and mild we like to think of!
So what is he doing? He is shocking us because he wants us to sit up and take note!
There are two very clear options before us:
the wonder of future blessing and ruling with the King, or the fate of those who reject him!
But think, the terrible fate that those who reject Jesus is not necessary.
For the Lamb has been slaughtered!
Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was going to die. Why? To seek and to save the lost.
That is the good news, he saved Zac, he can save you too!
sunday evening 29th Jan 2012
Spiritual transformation into Christ likeness.
This morning we saw why Jesus came into the world: to seek and to save the lost.
· A major part of that seeking and saving work came through his teaching.
He taught the disciples, he told parables, all the way up to the cross and even after.
The knowledge that He came to reveal is what we need to know for eternal living.
That is know, not just as ‘head knowledge’ but know by experience, interaction, practice.
…"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” Jh 8:31-32.
We are called into eternal life by following Jesus, knowing Him, holding to his teaching.
Life following Jesus involves a process of transformation, spiritual transformation.
The goal is Christ likeness; God has called us and is conforming us to the image of His Son, Rom 8v29. That is what He is doing, that is His work, but we are to take part in the work!
So the question is, what can we do in this work of spiritual transformation?
We saw in the parable this morning that the king left the servants with money to put to work and how he rewarded those who had done well, and punished those who had not!
So this is a serious business! So we have work to do! We have something to do!
1) the first thing we need to do is make sure we have our eyes fixed on Jesus
a) Heb 12v2 makes that clear.
Our vision of Jesus is all important. This is a lifetimes work!
The eternal Son of God, the Word who became flesh, who is now exalted, is, for us an inexhaustible Picture/View/Movie that we can never stop watching.
The basic plot is found in Philippians 2v6-11.
· Lets remind ourselves of the facts of that text:
V6 he willingly gave up his privileges as one equal with God, “the Word was with God and the Word was God” V7 instead he made himself nothing, becoming a servant, “the Word became flesh”. V8 as servant he died on the cross. V9-11 Resurrection and Exaltation.
Jesus is the one who loves us so much that he left behind all the comfort and glory of heaven, to enter into our world of sin and misery, so that he could save us: by serving us and ultimately offering up his body as a sacrifice for us, thus he was exalted by God.
We need to keep on reminding ourselves of who he is and what he has done for us.
· Note: one spiritual discipline that helps is memorisation of scripture.
That keeps Jesus in our minds, as we constantly are able to turn over memory verses.
b) to take our eyes off of Jesus is when we go wrong.
This much is obvious, we stop seeing, we become blind.
Not physically of course, but spiritually distorted, because we end up looking at other things. The physical is an illustration of the spiritual: If we’re driving and take our eyes off the road we might crash, spiritually it’s just the same.
Peter is the great example here: he denied the Lord, what happened? It was cold, he was warming himself by the fire, mingling with the crowd, then denied the Lord Jh18v18,25-27
2) then we are to want Christ likeness.
a) In our Christian context in Scotland today, people can hear the good news as if it only means that we need to accept Jesus for forgiveness of sins, but then what next?
When we die we’ll get to heaven but until then things just remain the same!?
Something seems to be lacking, many people if they don’t fall away, simply don’t progress.
They don’t enter into the life and life to the full, that Jesus offers.
Why?
Because they never decide to become like Jesus.
They don’t intend in any way to progress their character into Christ likeness.
Without that basic first step, there is little hope of progress.
It’s like the idea of getting fit. We think how good it would be to be fit but until we actually decide ‘right, I'm going to get fit’, then it won’t happen!
b) of course there may be something deeper than this!
We may not actually want to be like Jesus. We may like our character the way it is.
Now it would be great if, our characters were so shaped already that we were like Christ and there was no need for change, but for most of us that is simply not the case.
The world has given us a spiritual training and it is not into the character of Jesus.
Our natures, shaped by the world, battle against us and say: no need to change, it would make your life miserable.
But that brings us back to our first point, we need to see the glory and goodness of Jesus and be so captivated that we want nothing less than to be like him.
Then we have to seriously commit to that project!
3) then to the means:
a) When the Vision is in place, when the decision has been made, then there is room to progress.
The vision of Jesus in Phil 2 is given in the context of our calling to be like him.
Phil2v5 we are to have the mind of Jesus, v12 we are to work out our salvation.
Rom 8v13 talks about putting to death the misdeeds of the body
Col 3v5 calls us to put to death the earthly nature
Eph 4v22, put off the old self, put on the new v24.
b) But the great question is HOW?
What are some of the nuts and bolts that we need to build this new character?
The bible does not spell it out for us!
Paul gives us these great pictures of putting to death the old and putting on the new, but then fails to tell us in detail how that is done.
What did he do? He lived amongst the people to be seen, and called people to follow his way of life! 1Cor4v16-17 “16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.”
But what did he actually do? Wouldn’t it be great to find his diary!
Or what did the Lord himself do? How did he live from day to day?
His spiritual practices are only mentioned in the passing: e.g. LK5v16, 6v12; Mk1v35.
· So what can we do?
That is the starting point: we ask how, we get serious, then there is a long list of spiritual disciplines that can help us. Praying, Fasting, Silence, Memorising/Meditation, Serving one another, Fellowshipping, Works of charity, Sacrificial Giving, Giving!, Solitude, .....
