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Luke 12:1-12
What is the most common command in the
Scriptures? Fear not. Do not be afraid. Hundreds of times in
the whole bible – the message is repeatedly given “Don’t worry.”
But we do.
All the time. About
everything.
I bet if I asked you to make a list of things
you were worried about at the moment, you could reel off at least five
without thinking about it. If I gave you enough time you’d fill a sheet
of paper with worries. We are
fearful people. And Jesus knows
us. So He keeps on persisting
with this teaching, till maybe some of it sinks in.
Luke 12 rams home the ‘Don’t worry’ point
again and again.
4
"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid
7 …Don't be afraid
11
"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do
not worry
22
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life
26
… why do you worry?
32
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been
pleased to give you the kingdom.
The repetition tells you – we’ve got a
problem with fear. But it also
tells us, Jesus has a solution to fear.
But Jesus’ solution to fear is different to our gut reactions to
fear. We usually have one of two
gut reactions to fear. One
reaction is just to take the Nike logo to heart – Just Do It. You’re afraid, so what, just do
it. Notice that Jesus doesn’t
tell us that.
Everytime He says ‘Don’t be afraid’ He gives
us a reason not to be afraid. And in this chapter it’s always one of two
reasons. He says ‘Don’t worry,
God is very powerful.’ Or He says ‘Don’t worry, God loves you very
much.’ He’s very powerful, He’s
very loving – those are reasons not to worry and Jesus wants those truths
to sink down into our hearts until the worry goes. So Jesus does not say ‘I don’t care if
you’re afraid, just do it.’ Jesus
wants to address our fears, He wants us to examine them and to replace
them with a confidence in His Father’s power and love.
The other reaction we have to our fears is
simply to run from them. If our
first reaction is the stiff upper lip, this reaction is the cowardly
retreat. Our fears dominate our
lives so that we never do anything scary and we just live very dull,
never risking anything. Sometimes
I’ve spoken about fears and people have said to me ‘I don’t fear
anything. I’m not the kind of
person that gets worried.’ My
next question is – What risks do you regularly take? When do you make yourself vulnerable
to others? How do you engage with
and serve this broken world? When
have you tried to get new initiatives off the ground? How often do you back a cause that
won’t necessarily be popular?
When do you take moral stands? And this is the one that really bites: How often do you speak up for Jesus
even when it won’t be popular?
Inevitably the answers to those questions are
– I don’t. A person who says they
have no fear is almost always a person who is very controlled by
fears. They live a life of
humdrum mediocrity, with very few highs, very few lows, they don’t speak
out for Christ, they don’t stand up for Him, they don’t give their hearts
and their service to others, they surround themselves with safety and
comfort and in fact every aspect of their life is controlled by
fear. The cowardly retreat from
fear is very common. It’s in all
of us. It’s what stops us from
being the radical disciples that Jesus calls us to be.
We’re not the people we want to be because of
our fears. It’s not that we’ve
looked at the way of Jesus and said ‘I’d be perfectly happy doing that, I
just don’t really fancy it.’
We’ve looked at it and said ‘I can’t do that – I’m petrified of
living that life.’
And that’s why Jesus keeps coming to us
saying – ‘Follow me and don’t be afraid’. He doesn’t say ‘Follow me and stuff your feelings’. And He doesn’t say ‘Don’t worry about
following me if you’re scared.’
He commands us ‘Follow me and don’t be afraid.’
And this puts us onto one of the deepest
truths about fear. Freedom from
fear does not come by staying safe.
Freedom from fear comes as you put yourself in danger. It’s so counter-intuitive which is why
we so rarely experience freedom from fear. We try to find freedom from fear by avoiding all conflict
and danger. But you don’t find
peace there – not God’s peace anyway.
You find God’s peace on the front lines. God’s peace comes in war.
Freedom from fear comes as you take up your cross daily and follow
Jesus to Golgotha.
Let’s go back in Luke and get the context for
chapter 12 and we’ll see that the whole context for this teaching is actually
walking with Jesus to execution.
That’s the context in which Jesus says ‘Don’t worry.’
Turn back to Luke 9:18
Luke 9:18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his
disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I
am?" 19 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist;
others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago
has come back to life." 20 "But what about
you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered,
"The Christ of God." 21 Jesus strictly warned them
not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, "The Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests
and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be
raised to life." 23 Then he said to them all: "If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or
forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my
words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory
and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
In this passage we see four groups of people
that will appear again in Luke 12.
There is Jesus, there’s the disciples, there’s the crowds and
there’s the religious authorities – v22, the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law. These four
groups are very important for understanding Luke 12.
First of all the crowds think Jesus is
someone amazing (v19 – like a prophet back from the dead). That’s the crowds – the disciples know
that Jesus is much more than that. He is, v20, the Christ of God. That means God’s King who made and
rules the universe. That’s who
Jesus is.
But the religious authorities of verse 22 –
they are the ones who reject Jesus and hand Him over to be killed.
The crowds think He’s a public
spectacle. The religious leaders
think He’s public enemy number one.
The disciples know that He’s the King. And that’s who Jesus is but what does Jesus do?
Verse 22:
He suffers, is rejected by the religious authorities and all the
most respected people of the world, He’s killed and three days later
rises. That’s who He is – God’s
universal King – who suffers, is rejected and dies. And He says to everyone, v23: If you’re following me, you’re coming
the way of the cross. Daily we
take up our cross. Taking up your
cross is what the condemned criminal did to walk the last mile or so to
execution. And Jesus says – today
and every day live like you’re going to be executed. Follow me, counting your own life as
effectively over. And along the
way, v26, do not be ashamed Jesus or His words. Stand up for Jesus, stand by His words, stand out in the
world and point to Jesus Christ your King. That’s what the Christian life is. Death to self, and witness to Christ
in a hostile.
But do not be afraid
When we get to chapter 9:51
we find a very important verse in Luke’s Gospel:
Luke 9:51 As the time approached for him to be taken up
to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
Jesus knew He had
to die in Jerusalem, that’s where all the faithful prophets of old
died. And so to set out
resolutely for Jerusalem meant for Him to set out resolutely for the hill
called Golgotha where He would die a godforsaken death. Even for Jesus the path to heaven went
through crucifixion. Will it be
any different for His followers?
No, Jesus assures us, if we are to follow Him, we too take up our
cross daily and follow Him.
But do not be afraid.
In Chapter 10 –
Jesus sends out 72 of His followers to go and tell surrounding towns and
villages about Jesus. And Jesus
says verse 3:
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Lambs get torn
apart by wolves. ‘Go!’ says
Jesus.
But do not be afraid.
And as you go,
verse 16:
16 "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you
rejects Me; but he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent me."
As we speak about Jesus,
the world will respond to us the way they respond to Jesus. And the way they respond to Jesus is
the way they respond to God the Father.
So our words about Jesus are absolutely vital. As we speak of Jesus, people’s eternal
relationship to God is on the line.
This calling is incredibly solemn. But notice also that rejection of us is rejection of
Jesus. Which means people will
reject us the way they rejected Jesus.
But do not be afraid.
The way of Jesus is the way to heaven that
goes through crucifixion. It’s
the way of daily dying to ourselves and witnessing to Jesus in a world
that hates Jesus.
And we say – I’d just like some peace and
quiet. Jesus says ‘I’ll give you
peace but not quiet.’ The peace
of Christ is not the peace you get sipping drinks by the pool. The peace of Christ is a peace that
transcends all understanding, a peace you receive on the front lines of
battle.
We’ll see how that works as we study chapter
12. But that’s a little bit of
context as we dive into verse 1 of chapter 12. Here we see our four
groups of people that we met in Luke 9: Jesus, the disciples, the crowds
and the religious authorities.
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.
Jesus has been at a Pharisee’s house. Pharisees were very moral, very
respected, very religious people.
And Jesus has just laid into them while He enjoyed their
hospitality. Very bold of
Him. He dishes out three woes to
the Pharisees from verse 39 and then in v45 another group of religious
authorities pipes up so Jesus lays into them with another 3 woes. So Jesus then leaves them in v53 and
while their plotting how to kill Him, Jesus in chapter 12:1 tells His
followers watch out for the religious types.
Be on your guard against the yeast of the
Pharisees. The thing about yeast
is, it spreads. And there’s something
about the Pharisees that will spread like wildfire even among the
followers of Jesus.
Hypocrisy. Watch out for
hypocrisy.
Literally hypocrisy means playing a role or
putting on a face. It was the
word for the masked actors of the first century. And Jesus says religious people love
to wear masks. Watch out.
What does this hypocrisy look like? Well look at what Jesus says to them
in chapter 11:39:
39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the
outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and
wickedness.
Imagine a gleaming silver cup but you look
inside it and there’s rotten meat, maggots and mould. That’s what hypocrisy looks like. One thing outside, another thing
inside.
Or look at chapter 11:42:
"Woe
to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all
other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.
You should have practised the latter without leaving the former undone.
The Pharisees gave 10% of
their herb garden away – and people obviously knew about it. It was a small, tangible work of
obedience and they were known for it.
But justice and love of God?
Well how do you measure that?
It’s much harder to be known for that and so the Pharisees didn’t
bother. They were obedient in the
minute and measurable, but they neglected the main things.
Finally, they had a love of
reputation. Verse 43
"Woe
to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the
synagogues and greetings in the market-places. 44 "Woe to
you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without
knowing it."
They loved to be known
publicly but what nobody knew was how dead they were inside.
That’s hypocrisy. And it spreads like wildfire. Because if I’m cleaning up my cup on the outside and I show
it off to you in all it’s dazzling glory and I hide the filth that’s in
my heart what are you going to do next time we meet. You’re going to hide your filth and
pretty soon all we’ll be doing is comparing how outwardly clean we all
are. And on the inside will be
spiritual salmonella.
Watch out for hypocrisy. How?
Well know this, verse 2 and 3:
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.
If that’s true, why are we spending our times
polishing the outside of our cups?
We invest huge efforts in wearing masks but one day those masks
will be entirely gone. There will
be a day when everyone is laid bare, warts and all. The way of the Pharisee is the way of
performing for others now hoping you’ll never be found out. But Jesus already knows us.
In Luke’s Gospel, there are nine occasions
when it either says or assumes that ‘Jesus knew their thoughts.’ (5:21f; 5:30f; 6:7f; 7:39f; 11:38f; 15:2f;
16:14f; also – 9:46f; 11:17) It’s usually the
Pharisees that Jesus catches out too – they are thinking or muttering or
plotting something wicked and Jesus knows their thoughts. There are no masks with Jesus. There is nothing concealed that will
not be made known.
Which means when you
come to Jesus you come to Him as you are. Warts and all. The
last thing Jesus wants us doing is wearing masks. He can handle the filth inside our
cups, but He hates it when we try to distract people with
polishing the outside.
When did you last
really confess to Jesus your inside stuff? When did you last really confess to another Christian your
inside stuff? They go hand in
hand in the bible. And it’s as we do that – bringing out what’s hidden
into the light – that we guard against hypocrisy.
There’s another sense
to these words in verses 2 and 3.
Not just that we should stop hiding in secret the bad stuff, but
that we should stop hiding in secret the good news. In the parallel passage in Matthew 10,
here’s what Jesus says to the disciples:
26 "Do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will
not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27
What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in
your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of
those who kill the body
Clearly here the thing that we’re not meant
to keep to ourselves is Jesus’ words. What we know in our hearts, we’re
meant to speak out to the world.
So there’s a dual sense in which we can take
these words. We’re not meant to
hide our sin and we’re not meant to hide the gospel. But that’s the temptation.
We hide in secret our bad stuff and show in
public the good stuff
But we keep to ourselves the good news and
speak to the world trivia
And Jesus is calling us to a radical
integrity. We are to be who we
are in every circumstance from the smallest to the greatest. Not hiding our sin but dealing with it
openly. Not keeping silent about
the gospel but speaking it openly.
And why is that hard? Because of fear. We fear what people think if they were
to see inside the cup and we fear what people will say and do to us when
we speak of Jesus. And so Jesus
says, verse 4:
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 the killing of the body, has power
to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
This is so radical. We read this and say ‘Yikes, we could get killed.’ Jesus tells us, Don’t worry. You can
only get killed!’
He’s asking us to completely reshape our values. Don’t value the preservation of your
life most. Value Christ most.
Fear is a response to what we value. I fear death because I value it so
highly and Jesus says, ‘Value Me even more than your own skin and you’ll
be released from fear. Because they
can only kill you.’ Jesus stands
on the other side of death as the great judge – He’s far more powerful
than even a jihadist terrorist. He’s in charge of eternal death. And verse 4 – He’s called you
‘Friend’. So what are you worried
about?
Jesus says don’t fear anything but Me. He says to His friends, fear me. Not so that we run away from Him, but
that we might honour Him and give Him the due reverence. When we fear our friend Jesus who is
in charge of life and death and eternity, then all other fears fade.
Jesus gives us another reason not to fear in
verse 6 and 7:
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.
Being known by another means intimacy:
Who knows your name? (probably a fair number of people)
Who knows your address? (probably fewer people)
Who knows your middle name? (perhaps fewer again)
Who knows your birthday?
Who knows your trouser or dress size?
Who knows how many bones you’ve broken?
Who knows your blood type?
Who knows all your moles?
By this stage perhaps only one or two people
know this stuff.
Who knows how many hairs are on your
head?
Knowing that is very intimate. This isn’t just a description of how
all-knowing God is in an abstract sense, it’s about how He knows you
intimately. Worthless birds fall
to the ground and the Father remembers them. He has that kind of care for His creation. And you are worth so much more. You are cared for by a Father in
Heaven who knows you. He knows
what no-one else knows about you.
He knows you better than you know yourself. You don’t know how many hairs are on
your head. He does. Often I’ll say say something and then
think ‘I don’t know why I just said that.’ But God knows. The
Bible says God knows completely what we are going to say before we’ve
said it. He knows us better than
we know ourselves.
So why fear?
The One who calls us friends, He is more powerful than anything
else, more loving than anyone else.
And that’s always at the heart of fear. We fear because basically we think God’s not powerful or
God’s not loving. Every fear you
have can be traced back to one of those two doubts. God is either not really in charge or
He can’t really be trusted because He’s not looking out for my best
interests. But if our hearts are
really captured by the truth He is so powerful and He is so loving, we
won’t worry. We will fear Jesus
and not the world.
And so we will be unafraid to witness to
Jesus. Verse 8:
8 "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man
will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. 9 But he
who disowns me before men 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.
This is really the heart of the issue. It’s possible, especially in the west,
to live a life largely free of fear.
We might worry about our health and ultimately we still worry
about death, but in the west we can pretty much opt for a humdrum,
mediocre, risk-free life of comfort. But not if we acknowledge the Son of
Man before men. Acknowledging
Jesus brings your life into a collision course with this world.
What’s another way of saying ‘acknowledge’
Jesus – well it’s the opposite of verse 9. To acknowledge Jesus is to OWN (not disown) to OWN Jesus
before men. To say ‘I stand with
Jesus, He is my Master, my King.
I stand by His words they are truth. And I make His way my way.
I make His words my words.’ It’s the opposite of verse 10 – it’s
speaking a word FOR the Son of Man.
Telling others how great He is.
Repeating His words in the world – even the words of verse 5 which
speak of hell. That all goes into
what it means to acknowledge the Son of Man. Scary isn’t it?
We’re asking you to invite friends to the
mission in September. That will
mean acknowledging Jesus, that will mean owning Him. We pray that it will lead to many more
conversations in which you continue to acknowledge Jesus before your
friends and family.
Jesus promises if we acknowledge Him, He will
acknowledge us in the courts of heaven.
If we say to the world: “This is Jesus and I love Him.” Jesus will say to the most exalted
audience imaginable, “This is Glen and I love Him.”
And Jesus warns us, if we disown Him. We will be disowned by Him. If we consistently say to the world ‘I
never knew Him.’ He will say those
chilling words to us ‘I never knew you.’
Those are the words Jesus says He will speak to many on the last
day. Jesus won’t say ‘I once knew
you, but then you drifted away and stopped acknowledging me.’ Jesus is not saying that you can lose
your salvation. But He is saying
that if you don’t OWN Him in the world, then you probably don’t know
Him. From the overflow of our
hearts our mouths speak and if our words don’t acknowledge Jesus then
clearly our hearts have never been right. And Jesus warns us that if the words are not there about
Him, the heart diagnosis is terrible.
Jesus will say ‘I never knew you’ to those who consistently disown
Him before the world.
This is what the blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit is of verse 10. It’s the
consistent denial and disowning of Jesus in the world. Peter did some majorly awful disowning
of Jesus – denying Him three times.
But He came back for forgiveness and was restored. That’s a bit like v10 – speaking a
word against the Son of Man and being forgiven. But if we disown Jesus indefinitely that is blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit who works in the world to make Christ known.
So Jesus says to us, as we fear the work of
evangelism – who’s opinion of you matters most? Do we want to be warmly received by the world or warmly
received by Him? If He is our
greatest treasure then we will acknowledge Him. And Christ in turn will support us as we face the hostility
of the world.
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."
Jesus doesn’t just command us to make bold
stands for Him. He gives us His Spirit to support us and help us. He doesn’t send us off into battle and
leave us exposed, His Spirit comforts and guides as we stand for Him
And that’s the testimony of the whole church
down through the ages that those who have been most subject to hostility as
they acknoweldge Jesus have actually done it with a supernatural boldness
and joy. When you read the
accounts of martyrdom throught the world and throughout history. They are not accounts of whimpering
wrecks beggin for mercy. They are
men and women boldly witnessing for Jesus even to the end, And we might thing ‘I could never do
that.’ Well, no! We couldn’t! Not without the special
help of the Holy Spirit. But if
we ever were in that situation Jesus promises us the special help of the
Spirit when we are before the authorities and really up against it
So what are we worried about? We#re not to worry about what the
authorities could do to us. We’re
not even to worry about whether we’ll make a good witness to them on
trial!! We’re not to worry about
martyrdom, we#re not even to worry about whether we’ll make good
martyrs. The Spirit will help
us. So what are we worried about.
They can only kill us. And Jesus told us to take up our cross
daily anyway.
In this passage Jesus has taken us from the
inner room of v3 out to our life in the world as we acknowledge Jesus
before men (v8). And then in v11
He speaks of our witness before the authorities. And then (v8) in the court rooms of
heaven. From inner rooms, to our
life before friends and family to ruler and authorities but in the end –
before the angels of God! The
Christian is the same! The
Christian has an incredible integrity.
So following our friend Jesus, knowing the
power and the love of God our Father, equipped by the Holy Spirit, we resist
the fear-driven hypocrisy of the religious, we stand up for Jesus in a
hostile world. And right there in
the midst of that battle we find a peace that is beyond all
understanding. As we follow Jesus
into mortal danger – there we find freedom from fear.
May we all pursue that peace that is truly
peace.
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