Luke 12:22-26

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22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? ~ Luke 12:22-26

My biggest sin is worry. There are explanations, like having my mom die when I was five and my father died when I was seventeen, but these explanations do not help with overcoming this condition cemented in fear.

 In v.22 we read, "Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear." 

The word translated “worry” in v.22 means “to be torn apart.” It provides the picture of a ship being tossed about in a storm. “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow,” said Corrie ten Boom, “it empties today of its strength.” 

Worry is a sin that rises from a failure to understand the sovereign love of God. And, in order to understand the love of God, we must understand His promises and purposes. He does have our best interest at heart, we just lack the ability to recognize His wisdom.  

In the previous verses, the Lord Jesus implored us to be rich toward God. Meaning, give God control of all of our lives. When we are rich toward God we will be dependent upon Him because we have given all we have to Him. When we have done this, we have come to the realization that all we have belongs to Him. 

In v.23 we read, "For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." We exist for a higher purpose than just eating and clothing ourselves. Life is more than food and we have bodies for more reasons than just clothing. We're not the final product of evolution, and our bodies are not designed to be something that's just supposed to be clothed for its environmental protection. We have a divine priority and purpose.

God has saved us to give us eternal life, now. With this life comes purpose, meaning, a plan, and a destiny. There is no need to horde so that we can survive into the future. We are being sustained by the One whose purposes for our lives will come to fruition. And, His greatest purpose today in all of our lives is to reveal Himself to us. This is the point of the impossible things He allows in our lives. And, the greater the impossibility, the greater the revelation of Himself to us.

God's plan for our lives is that we might thrive, and the only way to thrive is with Him at the helm of our lives. And when we understand this priority of having Him direct our ship, we will truly live and exist for His purposes, and He will sustain our lives until those purposes are fulfilled. Thus, we don't have to worry about it.

In v.24 we read, "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds."  Birds are the most fragile beings. Yet, they are a great illustration of God's provision. Now, if God feeds birds, don't you think He's going to take care of making sure our needs are met?  This is an analogy from the lesser to the greater.  Israel, to this day, is the largest area of bird migration on the planet. That little land is the most fertile soil in the world. And it's always been a dense place for bird migration. And, the Lord Jesus points out they don't sow or reap. They are totally dependent on God who provides for them daily. 

We do not need to spend our lives worrying about whether we're going to have enough. Our God promises to sustain us to the end of His purposes in and throughout our lives. Life is from God. He gives it. He sustains it. He makes provision for it.  

In v.25-26 we read, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? How can we be effective witnesses to a lost world and encourage them to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ if we ourselves are doubting God and worrying? It is not inconsistent to preach faith and yet not practice it. 

Worry has more questions than answers, more work than energy, and thinks often about giving up. Worry has no positive side effects. It subtracts moments from our lives in heart stress and rising blood pressure. We must look at our lives from heaven’s point of view and make sure that we put God’s kingdom first in everything. If our hearts are fixed on the transient things of this earth, we will always struggle with worry. But if we are fixed on the eternal, then God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds. 

When we aren’t focused on our problem, we have a sudden availability of brain space. Worry divides the mind. It splits our energy between today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems.  The result is half-minded living! God made us for more than a life of angst and mind-splitting worry. Today and everyday, He has a new chapter for each of us. And, today, He is ready to write ours! But, we will not realize this adventure unless we allow Him to write our story. So, why not get out our pen and place it in His hand, and let Him write out our adventure, today?

Luke 12:16-21

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16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” ~ Luke 12:16-21

Today, we travel back to the response of the Lord Jesus to the man who had previously asked Him to settle his inheritance with his brother. 

In v.16-17 we read, "And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops."

The Lord Jesus told this parable to reveal the dangers that lurk in the greedy heart. Here was a man who had a problem with too much wealth! People say that money does not satisfy, but it does satisfy if you want to live on a certain level. People who are satisfied only with the things that money can buy are in great danger of losing the things that money cannot buy. 

Money is neither moral nor immoral. It is what we do with it that determines the outcome. The Lord Jesus said, "You can not serve God and money." And yet, we need it to buy food and pay our bills. It was at this point the Lord Jesus told a parable to get across the point this man needed to hear most.

This farmer saw his wealth as an opportunity to please himself. In this story, there is no indication he had no thoughts of others or of God. The Lord Jesus knew this man's motivation: selfishness. In fact, I count eleven personal pronouns in this parable. Then, the Lord Jesus concluded this man was a fool. 

He was a fool because he wasn't building his life on the things that last into eternity. There are two things in this temporal world which will last forever: the word of God and people. When we get to heaven, we will then know the utter value of investing in these two, the word of God and the souls of people.

In v.18 we read, “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.’”

Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with following good business principles, or even with saving for the future. If my dad said it to me once, he said it to me a thousand times, "Son, save for a rainy day." But, we must be on our guard for selfishness that is cemented in covetousness or greed.

In v.19 we read, "And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."

This man lived alone, for when he had a conversation it was with himself. It would have been a little window into something good about this guy if he would have said, “I said to my wife,” or, “I said to my family.” But this man had conversations with himself. He was a loner.

This man lived in the singular, thought in the singular, had a conversation only with himself. And, he had it all. “Take life easy” means “retire.” “Eat, drink, and be merry” is what most people believe this life is all about. When we get to heaven, we will see things much different. Randy Alcorn once wrote, "Abundance isn't God's provision for me to live in luxury. It's his provision for me to help others live. God entrusts me with his money not to build my kingdom on earth, but to build his kingdom in heaven." 

Then, in v.20 we read, "But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself."

Wealth cannot keep us alive when our time comes to die, nor can it buy back the opportunities we missed while we were thinking of ourselves and ignoring God and others. The Lord Jesus made it clear that true life does not come from an abundance of things, nor does true success or security. This man had a false view of both life and death. He thought that life came from accumulating things, and he thought his death was far away. 

The greatest tragedy is not what the man left behind but what lay before him: an eternity without God! The man lived without God and died without God, and his wealth was but an incident in his life. God is not impressed with our money.

And the application of the story? The final point is driven home  in v.21 where we read, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Literally, he is mindless, because he hasn’t given consideration to his eternal condition. He lacked a personal relationship with God and his choices had not been redeemed through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. His sight was stunted to this earth.

The reality is, we probably aren’t going to live long enough to use all that God gives us. And, since that’s the case, we must be rich in reference to eternity and the souls of people. 

To be rich toward God is to acknowledge gratefully that everything we have comes from Him, and then make an effort to use what He gives us for the good of others and the glory of God. Wealth can be enjoyed and employed at the same time if our purpose is influenced by the eternal. 

It's foolish to be so concerned about materialistic satisfaction that we neglect reality, the essentials of walking with God and others. Hidden in all of this is this fact: in order to experience eternal life now, we must abandon ourselves to the Lord. To the degree that we abandon ourselves to Him will be the degree to which we will experience ZOE, eternal life, now.

Luke 12:13-15

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13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”  ~ Luke 12:13-15

In v.1 of this same chapter we read, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Then in v.15 we read, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." The pervasive bookends which must be avoided if we desire a personal relationship with God are hypocrisy and greed. Both have as their common denominator, self. The opposite of eternal life is self life.

Now you might look at hypocrisy and greed, and say, “Well, those are two randomly selected sins out of a long catalog of sins that perhaps Jesus is only using as illustrative of the greater, all-encompassing list that He might have given. But that’s not the case. 

These are not randomly selected sample sins among many. These represent the two essential realms which exist, the material realm and the spiritual realm. Hypocrisy relates to the spiritual realm, and greed relates to the material world. Both  threaten to trip up our souls' pursuit of God.

The Lord Jesus had been teaching on the danger of hypocrisy which is saying we know God when we don’t. He has also been warning not to worry about what men say when the worst they can do is kill our body.

According to v.13, a man in the crowd asked the Lord Jesus to solve a family problem. The people expected the Rabbi to help settle legal matters, but the Lord Jesus refused to get involved in this one in that way. He knew that no answer He gave would solve the real problem, which was greed in the hearts of the two brothers. 

The “you” in v.14 is plural, and as long as both men were covetous, no settlement would be satisfactory. Their greatest need was to be made right with God. Like too many people today, they only wanted Jesus to serve them but not to save them. 

In v.13 the man says, “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” This was his greed talking, and he wants the Lord Jesus to tell his brother with some kind of authority, because it was obvious Jesus had great power and authority to give him his money.

 

In v.14 the Lord Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Wading through this man's temporal issues, the Lord Jesus speaks to his real need, his spiritual need. 

So, in v.15 we read, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Here the Lord Jesus exposes the real issue. The sin is not in having more, the sin is being discontent. The sin is not in having wealth, the sin is in what we do with it. It’s not about what we have, it’s about not having a heart for people and being greedy.

To define life as an acquisition of material possessions is to commit the deadly sin of serving the creature rather than the Creator. “Life does not consist in an abundance of our possessions.” The word “abundance” means “more than enough,” “more than sufficient.” The word “life” in the Greek can be one of two words: bios, which is biological life or as in the case here, zōē, is the type of life that has the touch of eternity on it. Zōē encompasses all that makes life worth living, all that is real life: satisfaction, fulfillment, enjoyment, meaning, purpose. 

The life the Lord Jesus is referring to here is eternal life, because that’s the only kind of life that is fulfilling, satisfying, meaningful, purposeful, producing peace and joy and hope. We will never get zōē from the material world even if we have more than enough.

Those not experiencing Christ's life will never have their thirst quenched, because the life that is needed, the life that satisfies, the life that fulfills, the life that is eternal and lasts forever is the life of God come to mankind's soul, and it’s not going to come through acquiring possessions. Greed is the issue here. 

Covetousness is an unquenchable thirst for getting more and more of something we think we need in order to be truly satisfied. It may be a thirst for money or the things that money can buy, or even a thirst for position and power. The Lord Jesus made it clear that true life does not depend on an abundance of possessions. 

The Lord Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that you might real life, and have it more abundantly.” At the core of who we are there is this longing within us that only God can address. The common denominator to our sin is self. 

Now, when the Lord Jesus gives us His life, we are freed from self. We begin seeing and thinking in a transcendent way. His life is a life that brings us to the end of self and frees us from the low thinking of self. Be patient, this is a gradual thing. Of course, our sins have been forgiven and we are on our way to heaven, but God wants to so impact our lives right now that others get in on this eternal life. It took you as long as your age is right now to get to where you are right now. Give Him time and He will train you to think and to zōē like Him.

Luke 12:8-12

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8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” ~ Luke 12:8-12

Today, we come back to this conversation between the Lord Jesus and His disciples. It takes place in the context of a very large crowd, just after the Lord Jesus had eaten a meal at a Pharisee's house. During that meal, He pronounced six woes upon the religious establishment.

After warning the disciples of hypocrisy in v.1-7, the Lord Jesus now says to the disciples in v.8, "I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others." The word "acknowledges" means "to own up to what is true" or “to say what is true” or "to agree with God."

In Matthew 7:21-22 we read, "Many will say unto Me on that day, Lord, Lord, we did this, we did that, we did this."  He says, "Depart from Me, I never knew you."  You know, “You honor Me with your lips and your heart is far from Me. "I don't know you, depart from Me you workers of iniquity."

True salvation comes only to those who own up to God the Father's definition of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. These religious leaders of Israel were trying to honor God while cursing the Lord Jesus, at the same time. We dishonor God by rejecting or denying Christ because God Himself has said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him."

In the second part of v.8 we read, "... the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God." If we own up to the correct identity of the Lord Jesus, He says, "I will own up to knowing you before the angels of God." Heaven will belong to those who honor God by honoring the Son. We cannot honor the Father without honoring the Son. True conversion is evidenced by a confession of the Father's definition of the Lord Jesus, that He is His Son and we are to be defined by Him as our Messiah.

In v.9 we read, "But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God." The Holy Spirit is always at work in those who make this true confession of the Lord Jesus. We can't know Christ without the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who reveals Him to us. It is Christ who shows us the Father. The way to Christ is through the work of the Holy Spirit. And, the way to the Father is through the work of the Son.

It is the purpose, the job, the ministry of the Holy Spirit to convict mankind of sin and to convince us of our need for the savior. If a person, after hearing the gospel, continually rejects the work of the Holy Spirit, the drawing of the Holy Spirit, by rejecting the One God sent, there is no forgiveness for sin for that person. This is the unforgivable sin.

Peter denied the Lord three times before and during the trial of the Lord Jesus. Yet, at the end of His life He affirmed the Father's definition of His Son. He died having been forgiven.

Judas Iscariot walked with the Lord Jesus for years, he had seen His miracles and heard His messages. He, at the end of his life, denied the identity of the Father of the Lord Jesus. And, he died in his sin.

In Matthew 7:22-23 we read, "Lord, Lord, we did all these things in your name," Jesus says to them, "I never knew you!" Are there things that God does not know? No, He knows all things. The key, here, is He knows us. He uses the Greek word "gnosko" which means personal relationship. You see, the Lord Jesus knows us as a result of us agreeing with the Father regarding the identity of His Son. When that happens, the Holy Spirit makes us alive to God and we have entered into a personal relationship with Him. This relationship is not perpetuated by our good works or by our determination to be good, it is continued by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  

In v.10 of today's text, we read, "And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." It is blasphemy to ignore God, to resist the Holy Spirit's call to believe in the Lord Jesus. And, the moment you and I believed on the Lord Jesus, we were forgiven of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The only thing that gets us into heaven is the only thing that keeps us out. That is: what do we do with the Lord Jesus.

Then in v.11-12 of today's text, we read, "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

Once we began to believe the testimony of the Holy Spirit about the Lord Jesus, the Spirit began to assure us that we will always be a believer in the Spirit's testimony. And, the Holy Spirit gives us a story with the Lord Jesus that will be useful in our most difficult hours. The Holy Spirit is our internal teacher and He will continue to keep our faith alive and intact even in the severest conditions. 

This is how we avoid the disaster of being a hypocrite, by believing the testimony of God the Father about the Lord Jesus, and by believing the testimony of the Holy Spirit about the Son. 

Luke 12:1-7

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1 Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. ~ Luke 12:1-7

At the end of Luke 11, the Lord Jesus confronted the hypocrisy of false religion which is a system whereby people pretend to know God. The Judaism of Jesus' day was a perversion of true Old Testament worship. It had defected from the truth and it was hypocritical. It was so hypocritical the Lord Jesus pronounced six woes or six curses upon these religious hypocrites at the end of Luke 11. Through these woes, the Lord Jesus reminded us that religion is not useful in knowing God, it is a descent into satanic deception. 

In Luke 12, the people are becoming fixed in their resentment and resistance to the Lord Jesus. In the early years of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, the people were interested in His message of grace and truth. Now, most of the crowd is siding with the hypocritical and skeptical religious leaders.  

In v.1 we read, "Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." A massive crowd is now framing up the scene after the Lord Jesus had a meal with this Pharisee. Most of the people in this crowd are entrenched in the false religion of the religious leaders. They aren't being taught to know the God of the Bible, they are being taught to be inauthentic and manipulative of God and others. 

In v.2-3 we read, "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."

The Lord Jesus is teaching His disciples that a key ingredient in our walk with the Lord is honesty which is the enemy of hypocrisy. He tells them that at the end of all time the truth of who we are is going to be revealed for all to see. God already knows everything there is to know about us, even the things we do not know quite yet. And, since He is God, and our primary audience, it is a good rule of thumb to be open and honest about who we are, especially since hypocrisy is known to thrive in these types of religious contexts.

In v.4 we read, "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more."  We must not be afraid of those who may want to kill us. The worst they can do is kill our bodies. But, this is not the worst that can happen to us. The worst thing is that we spend eternity in HELL. 

The character of hypocrisy is it fears men. Its preoccupation is with what people think. The whole design of a hypocritical religious system is to train people to fear the leaders and to make them look good by putting on a show for the people. 

In v.5 we read, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him."  Only God has the power to cast anyone into hell. Nowhere in Scriptures are we told to fear Satan. The Scriptures tell us "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." All of life is best lived by fearing God. He is best feared when we put Him at the center of our lives. This fear is not the cowering fear of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is the fear that causes us to bow in worship while in His presence.

In v.6 we read, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God." In that day, sparrows were tiny birds that were caught in nets and cooked and eaten. These sparrows were so cheap one could buy five for two cents. Matthew tells us these sparrows cost two for a penny. For two pennies you got an extra one thrown in, two for a penny, or five for two pennies. They were cheap and an abundant food source. And if God knows about sparrows, He knows about us. God has never acquired any knowledge. He has never been taught, He knows all at all times. Therefore, we can trust Him with our lives.

In v.7 we read, "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." God even knows the very number of hairs that are on our heads. We should fear God because He knows everything. And, the truth will be uncovered before all to see in the end. And, hell awaits the hypocrite. God knows everything and He knows you are His if you have trusted that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ has paid the debt that you owe for your sin. If you are not His, it is time to fear God.

At the heart of a true and meaningful relationship with God is honesty. Perhaps this is in the top three list of God for us along with gratitude and faith. To foster honesty in our souls we must

first be honest with ourselves. 

Honesty is truthfulness. An honest person has the habit of making accurate, trustworthy statements about life, self, others and God. An honest person represents himself just as he is and tells others the truth about themselves. Honesty is not the goal, knowing the God of the Bible is the goal. An essential element in knowing Him is being consistent with the truth. I guess this is why God values confession so much. 

Luke 11:52-54

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52 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” 53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say. ~ Luke 11:52-54

We rejoin the continuing conversation between the Lord Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel. It is obvious that these "leaders" did not know God, they knew religion which is man's best attempt to please God. For them, this obviously was impossible, therefore they could not lead the people into a personal relationship with God. They were the blind leading the blind.

In today's text, the Lord Himself confronts these false leaders.  These, who are the architects and purveyors of apostate Judaism, hear the word “Woe” from the Lord Jesus. "Woe" is a word that means "cursed to punishment." These people had taken religion to its absolute radical extreme. The more religious they became, the further they went away from God, and the more they obstructed the advancement of His kingdom in their lives and the lives of their followers. 

At this point, the Lord Jesus had perfect opportunity to go to lunch with this Pharisee. His goal was to expose them for what they were: hypocrites. In v.37-44 of this same chapter the Lord Jesus had defined them as being clean on the outside and quite dirty on the inside. And in response, one of the experts in the law, in v.45, says, "Teacher, when You say this You insult us." 

Now, religion will never be the answer because it is man's ineffective reach to God. It lacks the spiritual power to accomplish the eternal. The religious leaders had developed a system, as all religions do, of complex, demanding, and impossible rules to follow. And there was no power because there was no presence of God in their lives. God had been locked out of mankind's life when the original couple rebelled in the Garden. Therefore, these religious leaders had perpetuated their rebellion without a change in their hearts. There was no Holy Spirit in their hearts, and God was not involved in their lives. 

This is the problem with false religion. It cannot be righteous because the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  And it cannot mortify sin, so all their religion was absolutely useless, it just created a complex system that frustrated the people, and when we get behind the surface of it all, we find sin all over the place. The leaders then became master hypocrites, and those who are the best at hypocrisy are those who are the leaders in such a system. If you can make people think you're holy, righteous and virtuous and somehow you're above it all, you're just the most adept at it. 

In v.52 we read, "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." At the bottom of every false system is the absence of truth. “You have taken away the key of knowledge.” The knowledge of truth is in the Scripture.  These religious leaders had taken away the key that unlocks the truth and therefore unlocks the message of salvation and so they didn't enter in to a personal relationship with God, and those who were entering in, they hindered.

The key is the accurate interpretation of the Scripture under the illuminating direction of the Holy Spirit. And, an accurate interpretation of the Scripture leads us to the Lord Jesus who is THE key in understanding the Scripture. These religious leader's hearts were evil and unchanged and blind and dead. They had turned the Old Testament into a collection of riddles, allegories, secret meanings, obscure interpretations that did nothing but create fanciful nonsense and support their false system of self-righteous works. They discarded the true key to the knowledge of Scripture and that is an accurate interpretation. 

The Lord Jesus, earlier in His ministry, said, "Search the Scriptures. They are they which speak of me." If we do not receive the Lord Jesus as our savior, we will not understand the Old Testament. In the Lord Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. “Christ is made unto us wisdom and understanding.” Due to the fact that these "leaders" had rejected the Lord Jesus, they couldn't lead anybody else to the truth because they didn't know the truth for themselves.

The response of the false teachers to the truth is found in v.53-54 which reads, "When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say." 

These religious leaders had come to a boiling point. Since the Lord Jesus had become so popular, in their rage, they had to expose Him as a fraud. So, from now on, in public, these religious leaders are going to question Him closely on all kinds of subjects trying to make Him look bad. Their plan was to use His own words against Him.

Hypocrites do not want their sins exposed; it hurts their reputa- tion. Instead of opposing the Lord, these men should have been seeking His mercy. These religious leaders rejected God, and now, they are the supposed arbiters of truth. The answer is to embrace our brokenness through the fact that we were conceived as sinners, and through that brokenness embrace the One who died to embrace us.

Luke 11:45-51

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45 One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” 46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. 47 “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ 50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.  ~ Luke 11:45-51

Previously, the Lord Jesus pronounced a "Woe" on the Pharisees, which produced the response found in v.45 we read, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also." These experts in the law were Pharisees who were practitioners of the system developed by the religious establishment. These law experts were the theologians, the exegetes, the expositors. They were the academicians.  They were the interpreters of the Scripture and they came up with the system which the religious world practiced.  

In response, in v.46, the Jesus says, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." 

The Lord Jesus refers here to the boatload of man-made commandments that had been accumulated over time. These  extra man-made laws were not biblical. In the Old Testament there was the temple in Jerusalem which was the central place for worship. In 586 BC, it was destroyed and the children of Israel were taken captive by the Babylonians. 

In the absence of the ability to practice their ceremonial laws, the religious leaders focused on the written law. This is when the synagogue was developed, while they were in Babylon. Now, when the Jews came back to Israel, they brought their synagogues with them. While in Babylon, with the absence of the sacrificial system, the religious leaders gave birth to these extra laws that were a burden to the people and were not and are not biblical.

False religion lacks spiritual power. These religious leaders put upon the people burdens they could not carry, rules they could not keep. This added religion lacked spiritual power because it was not from God.

And then v.47-48 we read, "47 Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs." 

These religious "leaders" marked the tombs of the prophets that their fathers killed. By marking their tombs, they were enabled to not become defiled by walking near their graves. But the truth of the matter is, while they were marking the tombs of the prophets, they were planning to kill the prophet of all prophets. This explains why these "leaders" didn't have any spiritual power because they were just like their fathers, dead in their sins.

In v.49 we read, "Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute." God sends messengers to those who want the truth. This addresses the question many have, "What happens to all those people who have never heard of the Lord Jesus?" All have heard of the God of the Bible because God has spoken to all through creation and our conscience. When someone responds to the afore mentioned witnesses of God, He will send someone to share the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with them.

In v.50-51 we read, "Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all."  

At the end of v.51, the Lord Jesus notes that "this generation will be held responsible for it all." I recently had a conversation with a friend and he said to me, "I guess I'll have to give an account for that when I face God." It was at that moment the thought came to me, "I won't have to give an account because the Lord Jesus has already given an account on my behalf."

In context, the Lord Jesus is still training the twelve disciples. In a few short months He will be crucified, He will rise from the dead, He will be with them for forty days, and then He'll be gone back to heaven. So, here He's training them and He wants to teach them about some of the things that He had been talking about over the last three years, namely, pride, hypocrisy and materialistic greed. 

It is so easy for us to be side tracked from the essence of the Christian life. Christianity is something we did not find, it found us. Better said, He found us. Once we submitted ourselves to God, He began His work in our lives. Faith is walking with God. It's not what we do, and not what we say we're going to do, it's about following the One who does the doing. Our faith becomes real when we submit to the God of the Bible who knows the best for our lives. And, it is through this adventure that He gives us that which we find is true and worthy of our pursuit.