Scripture Reading: Luke 14
Sermon Title: The Holy Huddle
Last time we met, we walked verse by verse through the
Birth of Christ in Luke 2:1-7. Luke 2:8-20 is a continuation of our study in
vv. 1-7, for it tells the reaction to Jesus’ birth.
The Good News (Luke 2:1-7) and the Implications of the
Good News (Luke 2:8-20)
The theme of this passage (Luke 2:1-21) is found in the
angel’s declaration in verse 11, “there has been born for you a Savior (and the
implications of this Good News à joy, worship, and evangelism – my added not in
parenthesis).”[2]
The purpose of Jesus’ birth is “Good News.”
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which
was lost” (Luke 19:10).
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord
has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners”
(Isaiah 61:1).
The Gospel is Good News not Good Advice
The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources.
Nothing new can be found inside of us. There is no inner rescuer deep in my soul; I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my sense of fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify.
But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us.
~ Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life
So the gospel is news of what God has done to reach us.
It is not advice about what we must do to reach God.
An Outline of Our Text
Luke 2:8-14: The Shepherd’s Receive Good News
Luke 2:15-16: Good News à A Desire to See and Know à A
Hasty Pursuit (The Greek denotes great haste [1 John 1:1-4])
This pattern is not isolated to the story of the
shepherds. The pattern of the shepherds is the pattern of Scripture:
Notice the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-11)
- Poor in Spirit; Mourn; Meek
- Hunger and thirst for righteousness; merciful; pure in heart
- Peacemakers; persecuted
- The Leper was poor in spirit (kneeling and begging) v. 40
- Jesus has pity, shows mercy, and heals him v. 42
- The leper spreads the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter v. 45
- They were poor in spirit and begged Jesus v. 32
- They were astonished beyond measure and they zealously proclaimed it v. 36-37
- They were poor in spirit and cried, “Have mercy on us, Son of David” v. 27
- Jesus showed mercy and healed them v. 29
- But they went away and spread his fame through all that district v. 31
- So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” vv. 28-29
Many of you might have heard Ed Young Jr.’s controversial
comments this week regarding his harsh critique of reformed theology:
“Most of the Calvinistic Churches don’t reach anybody. Reformed is deformed, most of it. Reformed theology often leads to ecclesiological deformity. Some Calvinist are evangelistic, most are not. Most of it (reformed theology) leads to intellectual snobbery, meanness, and people who don’t care about those going to hell. When you go to a Church, ask the question, ‘Who are they reaching?’”
~ Ed Young Jr.
I would never lead my
family to attend Fellowship Church in Texas. I do not agree with the unwise,
untactful, and prideful way Ed Young Jr. shared his concerns about reformed
theology. However, his critique is very valid. I do not ever intend to lead by pride, fear, or guilt. As
you know, the awe and gratitude flowing from a right understanding of the
Gospel should be our driving and empowering force. However, who are we
reaching? Raise your hand if you are a member here who was led to Christ by
another member of OPBC? Raise your hand if you can say, “I was brought to
saving faith under the ministry of OPBC.”
Now, how many of you would say you were brought to saving
faith through the ministry of a largely Arminian, program-driven,
dispensational Church? How many of you joined here after leaving a place like I
described in the previous question? I would submit we all should repent of
spending more time and energy telling Christian people where they shouldn’t
attend Church rather than telling lost people the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Who are you reaching? Who are we reaching? What are we
doing? I work very closely with those in the membership process and many
questions are asked as people seek to be wise and discerning in joining a
Church. However, the question is rarely asked, “Who are you reaching? What are
your plans regarding evangelism?”
Reformed people often join Churches motivated by finding
a fitting holy huddle for their family. We hide behind our families, our
children, our intellect, and our knowledge to the neglect of the primary
purpose for which we are here:
“The fact that Paul begins his discourse on Church
affairs with this particular topic indicates the important role that prayer is
to play in the life of the Church. If God’s primary objective for His Church
involved fellowship, knowledge of the Scriptures, or conformity to the image of
Christ, His plan would be best accomplished by bringing us to Heaven
immediately. But these are not the central function of the Church on earth. God
has left us here to reach the lost.”[1]
“The response of
those who come to Christ is to tell others about Him. Usually the most bold and
passionate people in proclaiming the Gospel are the newest Christians; the
longer people are saved, the less excited they seem about their salvation, and
the less eager they are to share their faith. But true spiritual commitment is
determined by the quality and tenacity of believers’ long-term joy over their
salvation. One measure of that joy is how eagerly they share the gospel. Lack
of the zeal and passion that compels believers to tell others about Christ
betrays a sinful heart of indifference and ingratitude”[2]
Christians will – and should – continue to feel bad for
not sharing their faith. Christ is the most glorious Person in the world. His
salvation is infinitely valuable. Everyone in the world needs it. Horrific
consequences await those who do not believe on Jesus. By grace alone we have
seen Him, believed on Him, and now love Him. Therefore, not to speak of Christ
to unbelievers, and not to care about our city or the unreached peoples of the
world is so contradictory to Christ’s worth, people’s plight, and our joy that
it sends the quiet message to our souls day after day: This Savior and this
salvation do not mean to you what you say they do. To maintain great joy in
Christ in the face of that persistent message is impossible.[3]
Hell is Real. Hell is Soon. Hell is Forever.
Eternity is a sea without bottom and banks. After millions of years, there is not one minute in eternity wasted; and the damned must be ever burning, but never consuming, always dying, but never dead. The fire of hell is such, as multitudes of tears will not quench it, length of time will not finish it; the vial of God’s wrath will always be dropping upon a sinner. As long as God is eternal, He lives to be avenged upon the wicked. Oh eternity! Eternity! Who can fathom it? Mariners have their plummets to measure the depths of the sea; but what line or plummet shall we use to fathom the depth of eternity? The breath of the Lord kindles the infernal lake (Isa 30:33), and where shall we have engines or buckets to quench that fire? O eternity! If all the body of the earth and sea were turned to sand, and all the air up to the starry heaven were nothing but sand, and a little bird should come every thousand years, and fetch away in her bill but the tenth part of a grain of all that heap of sand, what numberless years would be spent before that vast heap of sand would be fetched away! Yet, if at the end of all that time, the sinner might come out of hell, there would be some hope; but that word “Forever” breaks the heart. “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.” What a terror is this to the wicked, enough to put them into a cold sweat, to think, as long as God is eternal, He lives forever to be avenged upon them!
~ Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 63.
Biblical wrath is not impersonal. It is the outpouring of
the fury of a Person done wrong.
The takeaway from Luke 2:1-20 is that God is not a God of
isolation. He seeks to involve himself with creation. God pursues; God serves;
God humbly bows; God rescues; God engages; God spares no expense to save. Where
are the afflicted? Where are the captives? Where are the broken-hearted? Where
are the prisoners? I am troubled over the fact that many of us would sit here
much more uncomfortable and disturbed knowing we forgot our telephone or wallet
this morning versus knowing we have forgotten the blind, afflicted, captive,
broken, prisoners of darkness. God pursues; Jesus seeks. Jesus did not come to
be educated so he could preach in the Temple, hoping the lost would be invited
to hear his teaching. He went to where they were. He went to get Matthew and Peter.
He went to find James and John. He came to seek.
Think about the Scripture reading in Luke 14:
Luke 14:7-24
à The Parable of the Great Banquet “Go out
quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and
crippled and blind and lame. And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the
highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled’”
(Luke 14:21b-23).
Aren’t the most popular mission trips ones that take us
far from our own neighborhood? Wouldn’t you be excited if I announced today
that we were going to Honduras, Russia, or Africa? Why is that?? Woe to us! May
we repent of indifference, intellectual snobbery, haughtiness, self-absorption,
idle time, wasteful and shallow entertainment!
Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned?
~ Leonard Ravenhill
Sources:
- MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1 Timothy. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009.
- MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 1-5. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009.
- Piper, John. The Darkness that Feeds on Self-Absorption taken from When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 65, 2006. www.crosswaybooks.org.
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