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Sermon Series: Misc. Luke sermons

The Kingdom Without Obvious Signs

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 28, 1993.

About this sermon

Vos and Ridderbos both inform this reading of the Pharisees’ own hope for obvious, immediate signs of blessing, a hope Christ’s answer in Luke 17 deliberately disappoints. The contested phrase ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ in 17:21 gets careful exegetical attention. Three observations about Christ’s kingdom close out a chapter that resists the very kind of sign-seeking it describes.

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Sermon transcript

Now, having been questioned by the Pharisees, as to when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Nor will they say, Look, here it is or there it is, for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. And he said to the disciples, The day shall come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, Look here, look there. Do not go away, do not run after them.

For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man.

They were eating and they were drinking, they were marrying and they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot. They were eating and they were drinking, they were buying and they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just the same on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down and take them away. And likewise, let not the one who is in the field turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it alive. I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed. One will be taken and the other will be left. And there will be two women grinding at the same place. One will be taken and the other will be left. Answering, they said to him, Where, Lord? And he said to them, Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered.”

Lord, you are sovereign with respect to your word, your word’s power in our lives. We would pray to the same end with respect to the lives of others, that indeed the lost may be gathered, but also, Father, that your people may be strengthened. We are asking also, Lord, that in keeping with your word, that pattern of authority may be in place in the respective congregations and churches throughout the world, in those churches where you are honored, where your word is revered.

Bless us too, Father. May we not be presumptuous, may we not be vain. Instead, Lord, may we be humbled before you. Knowing that our strength is found in and with you, our hope is Christ. Lord, we are animated, as it were, by your Spirit. Bless us then, Lord, open hearts and your people also throughout the world that you might be honored indeed. We ask this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

We had them spending time in the epistles and also in Genesis for some time now, and I was getting a little hungry for some gospel. So not that the gospel isn’t found in the epistles and in Genesis, but I thought that we would take a little diversion here tonight and look once more at Luke’s gospel.

It has now been observed that the major theme of the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, is the Kingdom of God, or in Matthew’s Gospel, as it is called there, the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the central organizing thought. This is the central organizing reality. We see it central to the preaching of John the Baptist, but we also see it central to the preaching of Christ.

The first messages, at least as we have them recorded for us in the Synoptic Gospels, the From each of these individuals is repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. We have been helped a great deal in this century in seeing this central organizing character of the kingdom of God for the synoptic Gospels by two very important very capable scholars.

The first was the godly professor of biblical theology at Princeton Seminary, Johardas Voss. Johardas Voss wrote his book, The Kingdom of God and the Church, in 1903. and set the tone for the study of the Synoptic Gospels amongst Reformed people in this century. Now, Ross’s insights were expanded later by another Dutchman by the name of Herman Ritterbos. Ritterbos’s book was entitled The Coming of the Kingdom and appeared in the mid-fifties.

Both of these volumes proceeded along a similar line, setting out the centrality of the kingdom and making it plain that there were actually two focuses with respect to the kingdom as Jesus proclaimed it. Yes, the kingdom was coming, but also the kingdom was very much a present reality in and through his ministry. This perspective then set the Reformed understanding of the kingdom of heaven as it is declared in the Synoptic Gospels over against some other very popularly held conceptions of the kingdom. It is the night of the discussions that have gone on during this century that I wander into this territory tonight. As you know, the Kingdom in that time leading up to the time of Jesus and even during his ministry was a major, if not the major, preoccupation for Israel. For Israel, the kingdom spoke to her of a glorious future in which there would be a transformation of things as they presently existed, a universal reorganization of things. Instead of living humbly and even in a humiliated state, instead of living under the thumb of others, Israel was convinced that there belonged to her, by the promise of God, a future in which she would be especially exalted. The kingdom would make its appearance with signs. signs would precede it, but also be a part of it, making it obvious that, in fact, the kingdom was a reality.

Now, the Pharisees, who are mentioned here in the 20th verse of Luke 17, did not come to Jesus with blank minds. with respect to the question of the kingdom of God. They had their mind very much made up. They had very definite ideas as to what the kingdom of God was, how it would be identified, what signs would accompany it. So we must not think that when the Pharisees approach Jesus to question him about the kingdom of God and when it is going to appear, that we have here a case in which the Pharisees are proving to be sincere seekers after the truth, as if they recognize Jesus as an authority on the subject.

Here, as elsewhere in the Gospels, we must see beneath the surface, and understand that there is actually a sneer stamped upon the souls of these men as they approach Jesus. They are possessed of some sort of inner snarl that crosses their lip. For them, then, there is no question in their mind, no real question in their mind, no sincere question in their mind as they approach Jesus. They do not recognize him as an authority, much less do they recognize him as the Messiah. even though they fully recognize that this individual has messianic illusions, that he is possessed of a messianic pretentiousness. Therefore, behind the questions that these individuals may direct to Jesus, we can perceive the question that really is on their mind, a question that is no question at all but an accusation.

If you are the Messiah, then where are the signs of your messianic kingdom? Now it is not only necessary for us to understand what is beneath the surface of the Pharisees’ approach to Jesus, it is necessary for us to understand what they recognized as legitimate signs attendant to the kingdom. The signs that they were interested in were not those common ordinary garden variety murals. They weren’t simple religious wonders.

They weren’t healings, particularly, nor were they the casting out of demons. for they fully believed that there were those in their own circles that had the power to perform such things. Jesus makes that observation about them on one occasion. By whom, then, do your sons cast out demons, he says? If you’re indicting me, suggesting that I cast them out by the Prince of Darkness, by Beelzebub himself, So no, the Pharisees do not have in mind here signs of the common ordinary garden variety, miracle types, wonders.

Messiah, in their estimation, would come accompanied by extraordinary signs. cosmic in character, universal in scope. The kinds of signs they were looking for were those that would rearrange things in heaven and on earth, those that would be premonition with respect to even the great conflagration and the consummation of all things, even the end of the age.

They see no such signs. So when they ask Jesus when the kingdom will come, they are scoffing. They are accusing. We see no signs appropriate for the Messiah and his reign. In any sense accompanying your ministry, therefore, you cannot be. You are not the Messiah. Rather, you are an imposter, a fraud. the boldness of Jesus’ response. If these Pharisees recognize in him no authority, he is not put off by that for a moment, but asserts his authority so as to put the Pharisees in their place.

The Pharisees say, the kingdom is coming with these great signs. and the Messianic ministry will be punctuated by such signs as we expect. But Jesus says the kingdom is not coming with signs, and the Messianic ministry will not be punctuated by such signs as you expect. And I happen to know that for a fact. And then, without even as much as breaking stride in his remarks, he tells them that what they expected with signs is already present without them. The atonement of God, Jesus said, is not coming with signs to be observed.

Not only is Jesus bold now with respect to the kingdom, bold with respect to his understanding of it, unhesitant in his assertions with regard to it, but as he finishes out, rounds off his remarks to the Pharisees, he will be bolder still. for he will set himself in the center of their attention. He will set himself center stage with respect to any consideration about the kingdom of God. For behold, he says in verse 21, the kingdom of God Now, I don’t have to tell you that the conclusion of that twenty-first verse has been a center of controversy, even with respect to how it is to be translated.

We have before us tonight the New American Standard translation of that statement by Jesus. To give you an idea of just how this statement has been interpreted by various groups, there are those who wish to turn this statement by Jesus into testimony that Jesus, after all, was a first-century humanist. Here we have a genuine statement from Jesus. Now, there are many ingenuine statements. But here we have a genuine statement, for Jesus tells us the truth about the kingdom of God. And what is that truth? That truth pertains to the inner potential that resides within civilization and humanity generally conceived. Nothing supernatural, no appeal to any kind of external force, no God out there anywhere. Forget all of that. Get rid of that language from your vocabulary. It has no place. In fact, it had no place in the vocabulary of Jesus.

The kingdom of God is solely something that pertains to the inner potentiality of civilization and humanity generally conceived. And along this line, Jesus is really one of the first ones to tell us that our fondest hopes and desires, our dreams in fact, for this world and our lives are actually attainable through our native capabilities.

The problem with the Pharisees was that they were a bit too spiritual. They actually did believe in supernatural realities. Jesus was the prototypical modernist. There have been others, of course, who have seen the interpretation of this statement by Jesus along other lines. They have judged this approach of the humanists as being too crudely secularist. They instead now have interpreted Jesus’ remark as referring to something that, yes, is spiritual, but yet pertains to the inner potential of the individual soul.

So rather than focusing upon society at large, or humanity generally, we’ll narrow things down a bit. We’ll speak about personal potential. We’ll speak about the power of positive thinking. We’ll speak about the power of possibility thinking. And we’ll see Jesus, then, in our hands, made useful to us in the West, this one who was essentially a religious philosopher of the East. Well, thank you, Norman Vincent Peale. There have been others, Christians well-intentioned, who have preferred the King James reading of this text. Remember how that goes? The kingdom of God is within you, so translates the King James.

I have preferred this translation because they have felt compelled to protect what they call the present spiritual nature of the kingdom. They veer away from the humanist and secularist approach. These people are thoroughly supernaturalistic in their intention and design. They veer away from these who are the propounders of a philosophy of positive thinking. But they are also concerned to protect what they call the present spiritual character of the kingdom.

And along this line they say, then, that the kingdom of God, as Jesus here declares it, and in keeping with his intention, has no present outward manifestation but is inward, and the inward character of it will eventually be validated in the day of resurrection in the kingdom that belongs to the heavenly estates. Not only has this interpretation had devastating effects upon Christians in their understanding of what the Christian life and world are all about, but it is a major cause for the present low view of the Church held by many evangelical and conservative Christians. For if the kingdom of God is within you and has no present outward manifestation, we can in no sense identify that kingdom with the Church.

But I want you to note the force and the power of Jesus’ words that makes even this interpretation impossible. Jesus is speaking to Pharisees. Well, you note that, he is speaking to Pharisees. And Jesus would hardly be saying to Pharisees, his enemies, the kingdom of God is within you, because it obviously wasn’t in them. So it is the force and power, then, of Jesus’ statement.

He intends, as I pointed out, to call attention to himself. And notice the way in which he does that. For he prefaces what he says at the end of verse 21 with the words, While he’s telling them, these Pharisees, that there are no signs to behold, these Pharisees are compelled to behold him. In fact, I believe that it is not stretching this text too far to suggest that there is laid within it the suggestion of a gesture by Christ. So that in response to these Pharisees and their question, Jesus then presents himself with the gesture, Behold, indicating himself He, the embodiment of the kingdom, is in their midst.

Quite a few things can be said from this point on with respect to this passage. We could even go beyond those that we have critiqued thus far to critique a few more. We could do a pretty good job of critiquing, say, dispensationalism and its ideas of the kingdom. Let me point out, in conclusion, three things that I trust may well be helpful to us in our reflections about the kingdom and its nature. This is summary. of what we have said for the interests of focusing our thoughts.

Jesus in this text places himself at the center of every question about the kingdom of God. You cannot ask questions about the kingdom of God without considering Christ and his Jesus is at the center of every question that can be conceivably asked about the kingdom of God. So absolutely true is this, that it is confirmed by the remainder of what we find in Scripture.

Have you ever been somewhat nonplussed by the fact that when you get to the gospel of John, there doesn’t seem to be much vocabulary about the kingdom of God in that gospel at all? Have you been stymied somewhat by the fact that when you get to the epistles of Paul and you’re reading through them, there doesn’t seem to be much language there at all about the kingdom of God? Well, what’s happened as you move from the synoptics to the rest of the canonical literature in the New Testament? You see, Jesus is so identified now with the kingdom of God, he himself is the embodiment of that kingdom, no, in fact, he absorbs that kingdom, even to the place of displacing the kingdom in discussions about the kingdom, so that rather than discussing the kingdom, we now discuss Jesus. That is not that the kingdom has disappeared, it is that the kingdom has been summed up in, absorbed in, the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

I know that there are many, many misinterpretations of this, and we have even heard representations of those misinterpretations tonight. But Jesus is saying unequivocally, the Kingdom is here. And it is an event that has taken place in his own coming. The Kingdom is here. Now, this must be understood in light of what we must also say. The kingdom is here, but at the same time, this Jesus will teach us to pray, Thy kingdom come, as if it were not here. So you are faced with both, and you must embrace both. The kingdom is here, and yet the kingdom is coming.

Now, how do we focus our thoughts with respect to the presence of the kingdom in our present circumstance? If indeed Jesus pointed to himself in his statement that the kingdom of God is in your midst, he then was pointing out to these Pharisees the reality of his own existence and his own body. His own body. And where is the body of Christ today? another one. Behold the kingdom of God. Now, that ought to change your life. If nothing has up to this point. The Church, then. Living stones. The people of God, the body of Christ. Here is the concrete demonstration of the kingdom’s present.

How far from the mark is dispensationalism? How far from the mark is dispensationalism? That movement that refuses to identify the kingdom of God with the church of Jesus Christ. While it is true to say that the kingdom has an ideal and future character, it is not a dream yet to be realized.

It is a present reality, and that reality is known in the person of Christ in whom we, by the Spirit, abide. Whom to love and to trust is eternal life. Let’s pray. O Lord, give us a heart for the kingdom and for the King. May we see the King always and ourselves identified with him so thoroughly. that we now would even be bold to make the claim that we are his body. Truly, the present demonstration of the kingdom of God in the world. O Lord, help us to live as those who are identified with the kingdom and even as the kingdom. For your glory. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 28, 1993
Beyond Audience Analysis

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 4, 1992.

About this sermon

Audience analysis drives much of modern church strategy, and Matthew and Luke treat their audiences very differently. In Luke 6 the Lord denounces Pharisaic behavior and offers a different model from market research. Knowing an audience on Christ’s terms and catering to it are two different things.

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Sermon transcript

Can I do a reading from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 6, beginning at verse 12? And it was at this time that he went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also named as apostles. Simon, whom he also called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he descended with them and stood on a level place. There was a great multitude of his disciples and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. All the multitude were trying to touch him, for power was coming from him and healing them all.

And turning his gaze on his disciples, he began to say, “‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you and heap insults upon you and discern your name as evil. for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and weep for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep Lo to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. And just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way.

And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same thing. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same payment. But love your enemies and do good and lend.

Expect nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be the sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Do not pass judgment, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you shall not be condemned. Pardon, and you shall be pardoned. Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return. He also spoke a parable to them. A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye and do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take out the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, neither, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil, for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

And why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?’ Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock, and when the flood arose, the river burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who has built a a house upon the ground without any foundation, and the river burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.

Father, we might be found resistant, but we pray from the depths of our hearts that you would press your word upon us, that we would not then avoid its clear teaching and implication. O Lord, we ask that we might be found in your word, and may we, Lord, live in keeping with what you say. May you be pleased to help your church throughout the world, not only with respect to those who declare the truth from the word and preach it week by week, but also in terms of those who are given responsibilities to rule in light of that word and even to serve with the word as their guide. Built up, then, the eldership of the church throughout the world. Lord, encourage the beacons of your church so that they, in keeping with your word, would be responsive to the needs of the poor.

We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. It is perfectly reasonable that the whole question about audience analysis should, in the last thirty years, with the avalanche of technological advancement, the whole question about audience analysis should, in the last thirty years, pass from the realm of naive common sense to that of a sophisticated science. Political candidates and the world’s commercial concerns and interests invest big bucks for the purpose of making sure that they are saying the right things to the right people. In the mid to late sixties, the Church picked up on these advances. They picked up on this, or I should say the theological seminaries picked up on this, especially the practical theology departments.

I remember my seminary days. I remember the little cell group into which our class in practical theology was broken. I remember sitting around the table. with the bunch of us acting like a lot of professional sociologists. There were a few of us, however, thinking to ourselves just how silly this whole business was. And I sincerely doubt if any of my fellow cellmates are doing much scientific audience analysis today. I can hear my professor, however, saying, ìThatís right, boys. And that’s why you all have small, struggling, marginal congregations.

There was, however, a good side to the practical theology push for audience analysis. Interestingly, out of those classes, the more thoughtful students of the Bible began to asked many penetrating questions, questions about the specific audiences addressed in and by the biblical texts. There are various audiences, for instance, that are addressed specifically throughout the Gospels. Take Matthew’s Gospel. We have three audiences in Matthew’s gospel identified specifically. These audiences are addressed in a quite consistent manner. What are the multitudes? The multitudes in Matthew, at least initially, are not openly hostile.

They are, however, possessed of a halting indecisiveness, and this eventually lands them in the company of Jesus’ opponents, conspiring with those opponents against Jesus. For the most part, multitudes are viewed as those who are possessed of that halting indecisiveness. not knowing which direction to go, running hot one moment and cold the next. There’s no question as to how the Pharisees are running, however, how the Jewish leaders are running. They are consistently presented as hostile to Jesus. Their hostility is open, and their disbelief in him is equally open.

We have then these two groups, specifically addressed by Jesus, treated by Matthew in his gospel, and consistently so. There is the third group, however, the disciples. The disciples may on occasion be halting, somewhat like the multitudes, but at root, the work of God’s Spirit evident in them, they believe, they obviously believe, they are open in their belief. They stand behind, and with Peter and in his confession, they too confess, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus, in dealing with them, deals with them seriously, to be sure, but also solicitously, endearingly. But as consistent as Matthew is in keeping these audiences straight, Luke appears to be somewhat uneven and even inconsistent. in his treatment of the various audiences.

I want you, first of all, to look at Luke chapter 3. Here we have the account of the ministry of John the Baptist. I want you to note the progression in the passage with regard to the specific audience that is pointed out for us there, especially as you note verse 7 and the mention of the multitudes. We are told here that the multitudes were coming to John for baptism. Now note what follows in verses 7 through 10 as Luke goes on to report how John speaks to these multitudes.

He calls them, at the end of verse seven, a brood of vipers. He talks to them about bringing forth fruits in keeping with repentance. He charges them with pride, holding up Abraham, their father, as their security. And he talks about the ax that is already laid to the root of the tree.

Well, that’s familiar enough language, but you might be a little bit unsettled as you look here at Luke and the treatment here with respect to the multitude, and you recall the setting in Matthew 3 when those words are not directed to the multitude, but they’re directed specifically to the Pharisees.

But the story goes on. Before the story ends, verses 10-17, we have the multitudes viewed quite differently. They appear in the light of repentance and faith, poised for the appearance of the Messiah and his baptism with the Holy Spirit. There is a shift from Matthew to Luke. There is a shift. Matthew specifically having the Pharisees in view, Luke having the multitudes in view, but then Luke setting before something of a progression as the multitudes are looked upon very negatively and before your eyes seemingly transformed and treated very positively. What’s going on here? What’s happening?

Well, I hope that Luke’s emphasis by the direction of the Holy Spirit is coming through clearly for us as we compare Matthew with Luke and look at the various treatments of the audience in view. His message is this, those out of which then the church rises are no less than the Pharisees, a brood of vipers who but for the grace of God would never have been spared God’s wrath and judgment. Those then out of which the church rises are no less than the Pharisees, a brood of vipers so described, so identified, who but for the grace of God in Christ would never have been spared God’s wrath and judgment.” We have here, then, an extremely powerful message. Multitudes passing from wrath to grace, passing as it were from the world into the Church, and now this message coming to them as they are in fact seen to be part of the assembly, disciples indeed of the Messiah. This message from Luke is further reinforced in Luke 6, and reinforced in ways that may not be altogether clear to us as the case is prosecuted there in that sixth chapter. of Luke and in the so-called Sermon on the Plain. Note the context.

Jesus now has chosen twelve disciples specifically, which he has separated from the general lot of the disciples and from the multitudes themselves. Jesus now descends from the mount to the plain, and he is met by disciples, a broad group. He is met as well by multitudes so described, and he ministers to these But now we are told in verse twenty that he turns his gaze upon the disciples and he begins to speak specifically to them and about them. We now hear him speak with words which in many ways are similar to what we have heard in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew five through seven.

But you will note Here, in the Sermon on the Plain, there are remarkable differences against stressing Luke’s emphasis, an emphasis that he is bound to stress because of the work of the Holy Spirit in him. What do we find here? Well, something similar to what we found in the baptism story. There in that baptism story were words reserved elsewhere for Pharisees now spoken with respect to multiple and so also here we find words elsewhere reserved for Pharisees.

Those who are open hostility to Christ directed towards disciples or to multitudes who have gathered around Christ in a worshipful fashion. Now, I know that those woes seem to be directed specifically against those that would oppose the disciples and the multitude that would bind themselves to Jesus. Yet they are set in this context, and the terrifying character of them is communicated that in this context they are spoken to the disciples in such a way that the disciples cannot themselves avoid the implications of them.

But for whom are the woes reserved in Matthew’s gospel? Do you remember Matthew 23, the long list of woes that occurs there as Jesus goes through a litany of woes pronounced upon his enemies, those who are openly hostile to him? Check it out, Matthew 23 verses 13-30. Here, in this context, the woes appear in an address that is particularly applicable to disciples and to multitudes that would gather around Christ. In Matthew’s Gospel, the figure or the parable of the blind leading the blind applies to the Pharisees. Specifically, Matthew fifteen verse fourteen again in the woes passage, chapter twenty-three verse sixteen and also twenty-four. But here in the Sermon on the Plain, in the Luke in context, By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and his direction, that parable and that figure is applied to the disciples and to those multitudes who are attracted to Christ.

Now, I ask you, what is the Spirit’s intention in all of this? with the world, then here are not directed against pharisaical hostility, opposition and indifference. Again, what then are those woes directed? Are they not directed against a church caught up in its own affluence and leave a church in danger of forgetting the true nature of the kingdom? You disciples, you would-be followers of Christ, take stock of yourself, understand the seriousness of this matter in which you are engaged.

And the figure of blind guides, the parable of blind guides, here in the Sermon on the That parable is directed against the church’s self-righteousness, by which it glories in leading but never in following, even conceiving of itself as that in front of its master and teacher.

Jesus wants his church, his disciples, his followers to understand. that they are not above him, and it is their goal to be like him. As the Sermon on the Plain develops, his people must be more interested in performing their own lives than in judging the lives of others. If Christ’s people, if his church, cannot follow, cannot humble themselves, they become a paradigm of hypocrisy. Indeed, as Jesus’ words go on to prove, they become bad trees bearing bad fruit. capable of generating good words such as Lord, Lord, but words that lack meaning, substance and truth. Those who are truly his, then, Jesus says as he prosecutes his case here in this sermon, those who are truly his, hear his word and don’t These, then, stand in the day of judgment in a house well built against every storm, even the deluge of the Second Coming.

The message is clear as we move from Matthew to Luke. If our Lord has manifestly denounced Pharisees, how much more severe will he be to those who, in claiming that they follow him, so manifestly exhibit all the characteristics of the Pharisees? So then, the audience is important to the gospel writers as they tell the stories of Christ, and the audience is important to Jesus himself as he addresses various groups. Most specifically, he loves his disciples, it is obvious. What a marvelous testimony we have to that running throughout all of the Gospels. And he loves those drawn to him from the multitudes, those who come in sincerity, with due humility, broken in heart, casting themselves upon the mercies of God to be found in him. He heals them, he blesses them, and then he endows his disciples the apostles that are mentioned with great power in the Holy Spirit, but simultaneously he issues the most severe and serious warnings, warnings that are to be heard, warnings that must register upon the consciousness of those that would claim him.

As we move from one gospel to another, from Matthew to Luke, Moving into Luke, that warning becomes ear-piercing. For the church, the people of God, beloved of Christ, those for whom Christ has given himself, can never be content that God’s judgment is merely reserved for so-called card-carrying Pharisees. and the like. But his wrath turns as well upon even his own people if they are guilty of the sins that have been the undoing of many a Pharisee.

Father, we are wonderfully blessed, but we are duly warned. Will we not then approach the matter of your message and the kingdom with sobriety, with of your spirit wherein we would be able then to perceive the seriousness of the warnings that are uttered.

For surely, O God, you have no further word to send to us other than that word which you have given us in your Son. Your next act, O God, will be the end of the world. And Father, we who believe continue in our faith, recognizing that we have been duly warned, and that because of your love. May we all the days of our lives heed your warning.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

October 4, 1992
Luke, Theologian of Repentance

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 27, 1992.

About this sermon

Luke is the New Testament’s theologian of repentance, and the modern church has largely failed to recover his teaching. Calvin’s account of repentance corrects that failure. The woman who anoints Christ’s feet in Luke 7 shows real sinfulness meeting real holiness, as proper repentance requires.

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Sermon transcript

Every once in a while we take a detour from what we had expected to preach on, and this is one of those days. We are this morning looking at Luke chapter 7, and we are reading from verse 36. This is Luke chapter 7, verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in that city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee.

And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman?

I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he saith unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, By faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Our Father, you do confront us with our inadequacies.

We know this to be the universal truth, that throughout the world men then are accused and they are without excuse. Father, we would pray for intelligence born of your Spirit with respect to the circumstances that are found here and throughout the world. that we would not be so naive as to turn our head towards those that would pretend as if we have no sin at all. Our God, even in the political process, may we be wise. May we have that understanding that comes from you and by your word. Truly there would be those who would deceive we ask that we may not be deceived, and pray all the more for your grace, yes, in our case, but also in the case of the nations of this planet.

We ask it through Christ. Amen. This is a message that has been building in me for some time. In fact, the necessity for this message has been accented by the events in my ministry over the past year. I bring it to you, praying that I might do so with all humility and grace.

I am struck, first of all, with a certain feature of Luke’s writings. It may well be said that Luke is the New Testament theologian of repentance. The evidence for this abounds. We have a story in Luke chapter 5, a Lucan version of the calling of the initial disciples.

It’s a very moving account with respect to the person of Peter. Simon, they are called, who has been fishing all night, caught nothing. Jesus has come to the shore, he has been teaching. They set out from the shore a little bit in the boat, and Jesus commands Peter to let down the net for a catch, and at Jesus’ bidding, Peter obeys. The catch is phenomenal.

Luke goes on to tell us about Peter’s response in that fifth chapter. He says that Peter then threw himself at Jesus’ feet and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. A testimony to Luke’s interest, specific interest, in the theme of repentance. in which we see this premier apostle prostrating himself before God incarnate and making confession of his own worthlessness. We progress to the seventh chapter, and we’ve read a portion of it this morning. Here, once more, we are confronted with Luke theology of repentance.

The sinful woman, she stands behind Jesus. If Peter throws himself at Jesus’ feet, she stands behind Jesus, not even venturing to look into his So sensitive is she, so much aware is she of her own unworthiness before him. And then she adorns his feet with her tears and draws those tears with the hairs of her head. And in the end, she receives statements from Jesus that evidence her vindication, her justification her sins are forgiven, she is told.

And so it is through Luke’s gospel, but even into the Acts of the Apostle, also written by him, you catch the power and the force of the second chapter of Acts, as Peter That man who had prostrated himself previously, before Christ, now calls upon those assembled in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost to prostrate themselves in acknowledgment of the sin of which they are guilty, namely the execution of the Lord’s Messiah, the Son of God. And they, stricken in conscience Even though many of them weren’t even in Jerusalem at the time Jesus was executed, they stricken in conscience because of their consciousness of the covenant and its significance.

Yes, we are corporately involved. They take them the sin to themselves and they cry out to Peter, what then shall we do? The desperation of that statement. One has to be made of brick, not for it to register as you read through that second chapter of Acts. This message, with respect to such repentance, is found also played out amongst the Gentiles. The sixteenth chapter of Acts, the Philippian jailer the midnight earthquake, the doors of the jail open, the chains dropped off. He’s fearing for his life. He comes and throws himself at the feet of Paul and Silas and cries out, What must I do to be saved? the premier theologian of the New Testament with respect to the message of repentance.

But how might we define repentance? What is it? We who have been trained in, we who have memorized the shorter Catechism, know question and answer Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. a magnificently full, comprehensive definition.

One would have to admit, as much as we love the Catechism, as much as we are trained in it, as much as we revere its definitions, that its definitions can in fact come across a bit technical. We do well to inform our understanding of repentance and even our grasp of what the Catechism is driving at with the biblical illustrations that are multiplied for us throughout the entirety of the scriptural testimony. And those, even most particularly, that come to us from Luke’s writings. For it is in Luke’s writings, as elsewhere in scripture, that there is set well before us the pathos, the pain of repentance.

Men and women throwing themselves completely upon the mercy of God. The emphasis in Scripture being upon a self-humiliation, that which these individuals are willing to endure because of what they have seen with regard to themselves and with regard to God.

There is no price they will not pay. There is no limit for them in the expression of their humiliation and their subsequent humility in this repentance. It is confession, then, that is without qualification and without excuse. Repentance then comes without reservation, as it is presented to us in Scripture, as the individual with abandonment casts himself upon the mercy and grace of God, specifically as they are found in Jesus Christ.

The Church of God is in trouble. This means that the people of God are in trouble. They have been in trouble for at least a hundred years, if not more, specifically because of this issue, this matter of repentance. Is it not evident to you that in our own time that the kind of repentance that is evidenced in the Lutheran stories has become the exception, not the rule? In fact, it’s almost as if it has completely disappeared from the experience of the Church. Let me give you one illustration as to how this is obvious in our present time. As a minister, I am called upon time and again to deal with married people. I am called upon to counsel, to listen to the difficulties, the problems. But you know what the process of confession and repentance has become In the marriage affair of our time, it has become an exercise in plea bargaining.

Brooke, dear spouse, if you will own up to these faults, then I will own up to these faults. If you will merely confess on this side, then yes, I may be moved to confess on the other side. Do you see how far of the mark this kind of repentance is from that which we find in the Lucan material? In the biblical accounts of repentance, there is no plea bargaining going on as the sinner comes before God, nor is there to be plea bargaining going on when someone who is guilty of offense comes before the person they have offended. Regardless of what you have done, this is what I have done, and I was wrong. Will you forgive me?”

So then we see how far we have departed from the biblical definition of repentance in our present time. because of this plea bargaining idea with regard to repentance. But this is only one place where people are having problems with the definition and the reality of repentance in our time. area of concern is how far we have departed from the reformational grasp of the nature of repentance. I have in mind here specifically how the Reformers recaptured that sense of repentance and spoke of it as if with new force and power to the people of God.

Calvin was not going to allow repentance to be reduced to a single point in time. Something that you did once, having done it, you can now forget about it and move on from it. For Calvin, repentance was a way of life. The humiliation experienced initially in repentance as one came to Christ was carried on in a life of humility as you walked with Christ.

So there was no justification for your haughtiness. There was no justification for you making excuses for yourself as you moved on through your Christian experience. Repentance was an ongoing affair. Otherwise, why would it be necessary for you to continually pray, forgive us our debts? Such a prayer becomes utterly meaningless. This repentance and contrition and frustration before the Lord are not to characterize the Christian life as a whole. The things are even more serious yet with regard to this matter of repentance.

In Protestant circles, it seems from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, repentance can now become strangely and oddly, ironically in fact, repentance can become an opportunity to boast. Repentance can be an exercise in pride, or at least telling people about your repentance can be an exercise in pride.

The students are here. I dare say that things haven’t changed much from my student days, and that you students have probably been treated in the religious affairs of your college to a number of folks who have passed through, who are delighted in telling you just how great a sinner they were. In fact, they even give you the impression that you’ve missed out on something, because you haven’t quite been that great a sinner. There’s something backward about all of that isn’t there? If not perverse But there is one final blow with regard to the biblical teaching and truth with respect to repentance that is now taking its toll amongst the people of God in our time.

And that is this. Repentance itself is dismissible. Repentance itself is dismissible. It is no longer a factor. Now it’s opportune that we preach this message at the political season. Politicians have mastered the technique of never calling the constituency into account. It’s always the opponent, the sinner. It’s always the other party that’s the sinner. But it’s never the voters. The voters are innocent. They never sin. They’re responsible for nothing. Do you see how this is now coming to the church? So that the church has itself become politicized, and by that I mean its messengers have become politicians. Congregations don’t sin, people in them don’t sin. That’s a negative concept.

How are you going to get ahead in the ministry if you talk like that? But not only has the ministry become politicized, it has become commercialized. What commercial that you can name beats up on the people you’re trying to get money out of? What corporation in its advertising is calling those who are prospective customers into account with regard to their wants and desires?

Repentance done has been discounted and dismissed. And a whole generation has now been brought into the church that have come into the church or into the faith by some other route than that of repentance. And we, the Church of Jesus Christ, are going to pay dearly for that. How is it that they have been brought into the church, if not by repentance then? They have been brought into the church or into the faith because they have sensed within themselves a certain incompleteness. There is a certain deficiency and they are looking for something then that will make them whole.

This is a far cry from Peter prostrated Jesus feet in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, far cry from that woman who can’t stop crying because of her sins, a far cry from that assembly on the day of Pentecost that cries out with abandon, what then shall we do? Or the Philippian jailer that throws himself completely upon the mercies of God, as those mercies are found communicated in and through God’s messengers. I was lonely.

I’m not, you see, disparaging those who in their loneliness turn to Christ. I’m not disparaging those who sense an emptiness within them and then begin to look towards God and to cultivate a relationship with Him. But to stay at that level means that you have accepted something far less than the biblical definition of the gospel. For the biblical definition of the gospel has at its heart a message with regard to repentance. And even more tragic, those who have begun without repentance continue without repentance. And that is sad doubly, because now they cannot imagine, they cannot imagine that God would ever be angry with them for anything.

Have you met these people? Have you run into them? It doesn’t matter how they live. It doesn’t matter what they do. She may be publicly, as far as the church is concerned, a paragon of virtue. Living her life before the church as one who is upright, she might even have all kinds of ribbons tied to her automobile’s aerial antenna. declaring herself before the world.

But every night of the week, her boyfriend’s car is parked in front of her house. And it doesn’t leave until 7.30 the next morning. The sad truth is that even in her sin, this young lady cannot even conceive that God might be angry with her. I’m sorry to say that increasingly she is not the exception. But in the Church, broadly conceived and defined, she is becoming the rule.

No repentance at the beginning, and no concept of repentance in the process of Christian living and experience. On the other side, hopefully never born of self-righteousness, but always informed by the truth with respect to the glory and holiness of God, with respect to our own depravity and sinfulness.

We have prostrated ourselves before God with abandonment and without excuse, and called upon him for his mercy, in the certain knowledge now that his son has been given over for sin in our case, and has not been abandoned, but has been raised again to life. And we, mercifully, graciously, united to this one by our faith, also know the depths of our sin and the glories of God’s grace found nowhere else but in Him. You should not be a stranger to repentance. And if you are, read Luke, the Gospel and Acts, and pray that the God of all mercy will prove merciful to you. O Father in Heaven, may we see ourselves in those figures that are described for us in your word, and may we learn wonderfully the lessons concerning repentance, the truthfulness that is required in it, yes, Lord, the abandon that is prescribed, that we with wholehearted humility might find ourselves within your embrace. Lord, then your reception of us and your kind words to us revive our souls. not so that we might live haughtily, but so that we might live humbly, continuing to express those sentiments, those words of repentance, those requests for forgiveness even to our dying day. O Lord, encourage us through Christ the One who has taken our offenses upon Himself, who now is alive, so that we might live in Him. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 27, 1992
What Children Teach Us About the Kingdom

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 10, 1991.

About this sermon

Luke keeps his eye on a journey, Christ’s road to the cross and the church’s road beside him, and that frame shapes the parables of Luke 18. In 18:15-17 Christ welcomes the children, and they teach how to receive the kingdom. The journey and the parables make the same point from different angles.

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Sermon transcript

Yet because this widow troubled me, I will avenge her, that by her continual coming she wearied me. The Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his foes? He laughed and cried day and night unto him, though he there wronged with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” And he spake this parable unto servants which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not, as other men are, extortioners and unjust adulterers, and even as this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing far off, would not lift up so much as his eyes on the heaven, but smoke on his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalted himself shall be amazed, and he that humbled himself shall be exalted.

And they brought unto him also infants, and he would touch them. When His disciples saw it, they rebuked them, but Jesus called them unto Him and said, “‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them none who have such as the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.’” There’s a certain rule of action saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? If none is good save one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these I have kept from my youth up.

Now, when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Get practice of thou one thing, sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful that he was very rich. When Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the needle’s eye than for rich men to enter into the kingdom of God.

Third, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. I plead with you for the sake of Christ, our Savior whom we love, that this Word we would treasure and hold it to be dear. Truly, it is nourishment to our souls. We tell our Father that there are blessings spelled out here for us, yes, for this life, but also for that which is to come. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.

Dominating the scene in Luke’s gospel is a travelogue. Believe it or not, dominating the scene in Luke’s gospel is a travelogue, the story of a journey. And that journey commences in the 51st verse of the ninth chapter of Luke, and is not concluded until the end of the 19th chapter. So you can see that Luke is concerned to set before his audience this journey which is taken, as you know, by Jesus as he moves from Galilee in the north, where his home was, to Jerusalem in the south, where he had an appointment with them. So much does this travel narrative dominate the landscape in Luke that we can call Luke’s gospel the pilgrim’s gospel, the gospel that tells us about the journey tells us about the trip made by Jesus and that in a rather remarkable way. So much, in fact, is this journey set out there for us, so much is the pilgrim theme emphasized, that we can say that the figure of Jesus and his teaching with respect to the kingdom of God are subordinated to that overarching consideration.

Pilgrimage, and in the midst of the pilgrimage, the pilgrim. Pilgrimage, and in the midst of the pilgrimage, a way of life that is appropriate to the kingdom of God that is now manifest, that is come, that is revealed. The pilgrim par excellence is none other than Jesus himself. He is the one who goes before, he takes the trip before any other will be called upon to take the trip.

But yes, all who follow Jesus are commended, they are called to take that trip as well. You may remember what Jesus says about his disciples and to them. If you are to be my disciple, you must lay aside matters and concerns of this life. You must take up your thoughts daily and follow Me.”

The way of the kingdom is the way of the Lord. The way forward, the sojourn, Jesus himself is none other than that pilgrim, that maker, that sojourner. In and through him, then, will be articulated the manner of life appropriate to the kingdom of God. In the traveling narrative that we have here, spanning Luke’s Gospel from the ninth chapter to the nineteenth, we find Jesus encountering those who will come with him. That’s as it is for those who may be pilgrims. Just as it has been for the Lord, so it shall also be for the servants.” There are those who oppose mentioned in the context of the passage that we have spoken.

We’ve read this morning, note in 7th chapter of Luke, Jesus is encountering the Pharisees in verse 20. They have a question for him concerning when the kingdom of God would come. But Jesus also, during the journey, is involved in, and this preeminently, in the instruction of those who are his, in the instruction of his disciples. So, after Jesus has dealt with the Pharisees in verses 20 and 21 of chapter 17, he focuses upon his disciples. As his instruction for them, his intent upon directing, focusing, and encouraging their faith, the veracity of that faith, as disciples that belong to him and are citizens in the kingdom that he is coming to establish. There’s an interesting feature.

It binds together Jesus’ opponents and his friends, the Pharisees and the disciples. You might note that in the discussion that Jesus has with his disciples at the end of the seventeenth chapter, there are matters there that are discussed with respect to the appearance of the kingdom itself. The opponents of Jesus want to know when the Kingdom is coming. As you’ll note in verse 37, the disciples in their response to Jesus ask the question, where? They’re in preceding coordinates. They want to plot the whole thing on a graph. Tell us when, monologically, and where, topologically.

Give us a precise fix upon the Kingdom, will you please, Jesus? Interestingly, then, the Pharisees and the disciples think alike, and Jesus is involved now in re-educating those who have come to him and joined themselves to him by faith. He will re-educate them with respect to his true significance and the significance of the kingdom of God. Now, as much as the Pharisees are interested in the when, and the disciples are interested in the where, Jesus is interested in the who.

Who is it that will enter? Who is it that is a true citizen of the kingdom of God? So, as we move through the eighteenth chapter, you have Jesus telling parables, two parables, and then there are two encounters, Jesus with the parents and their children, and then Jesus and the rich young woman. There are these two parables and these two encounters. And in these circumstances, Jesus will then make plain to his disciples the true nature A citizenship within the kingdom of those upon whom, then, he is conferring blessing. Notice how things progress. There is the unlikely character and nature of those who receive, seemingly, the emphasis from Christ. In the first parable, we are given the figure of a widow woman, and in keeping with the story told by Jesus, He concentrating on that widow, she receives an exaltation by way of that parable and a place of preeminence, seemingly.

There is then the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, or the tax collector. The tax collector has no status. He certainly is not one upon whom the eye of the righteous would ordinarily fall. They would not think well of him, but Jesus takes him as the figure that he sets now out in front of his disciples. You have an unlikely character and nature of these three that are held up for us, as reflected in some way. Those who are citizens of the kingdom of God, heroes, publicans, and family of verses 15 And notice the reversal that comes after that, with respect to the rich young ruler. He’s the one who would have expected to fare well.

When it comes to the kingdom of God, he doesn’t fare well at all. The others are included and he is excluded. But this doesn’t turn on its head merely the Pharisees’ estimations of the kingdom of God. This turns on its head the disciples’ expectations and estimations of the kingdom of God. And doesn’t that come out clearly in verses 15-17?

They are the ones who are keeping the children at bay. So, our eye now falls particularly on the children that are spoken of in those three verses here in the eighteenth chapter. Now, there are a number of ways into this text. You might feel a little sympathetic with the disciples yourselves. You might have in mind that the children here in you are a particularly obnoxious lot. They can be that. And they are a special alliance. And the disciples are of the old school, and they believe that children are to be seen, not heard, and that they are to be kept in their place. And many of you sitting here this morning will be saying, Sometimes things get a little wild down here, don’t they? You may feel like a disciple yourself on those occasions.

Why don’t these parents keep their kids in tow? Why don’t they ride herd? Well, I think we’ve all realized that an obnoxious child is a joy to no one. But that really isn’t what we view here in this text. It’s not a herd of kids that are running wild over the countryside, and now are corralled and washed up to Jesus so that he can bless them. The King James has it right. The King James emphasizes the fact that the children in view here are infants. They are days in arms, but they have to be carried. They are the littlest children, proximate to their births, and even these are being brought to Jesus that he might touch them and bless them.

But what possibly could be the objection of the disciples as these parents bring their little children, their babes-in-arms, to Jesus to be touched and blessed by him? What possibly could be their objection? Their objection is related to their view of the kingdom of God.

This pilgrimage that we have been considering as Jesus moves from Galilee to Jerusalem, what is the objective? In the disciple book, we’re going to Jerusalem. What’s going to happen there? Why, Jesus is going to come into His kingdom in all of its power.

And what will be true in that kingdom? Well, it will be merely the establishment and the re-emphasizing of all of those relationships that exist presently for us, now under the administration that is ours, according to the law of Moses and according to the dictates of the Older Covenant, the Old Testament. And what’s true of that administration? Well, I’ll tell you what’s true of that administration.

Widowed women don’t have much power or authority. Neither do tax collectors, and I can tell you children don’t either. How are things measured with respect to the administration of things as they are coming to us out of that older government? Children are kept in their place until they reach the age of accountability within the assembly. Then they have status. Only when they come of age in Israel do they have status. And certainly they can’t have much importance in the disciples’ mind as we move towards Jerusalem and the establishment of the kingdom of its fullness, for the children will have precisely the same status in the new administration as they had in the old.

Jesus says no. Jesus says no. What kind of kingdom is it whose citizens are in pilgrimage? What kind of kingdom is it whose citizens are wayfarers sometimes? What kind of kingdom is it in which the weak are disguised? And the strongest are the weakest. What kind of a kingdom is it where widows have preeminents? Where tax collectors are declared righteous? where children are actually described as if they were the most important.

Jesus, therefore, sets the child at the center. He sets the child at the center of the kingdom. And truly, as this child is dependent, as this child trusts implicitly the parent, as this child is simple and uncomplicated, as this child is humble, in all of these qualities, the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, the king of God, is reformed. But you see, there’s something of great depth and value here. For Jesus, in this encounter with his disciples over these children, is not merely setting forth the children as an illustration of those who are citizens of the kingdom of God. Rather, he is saying that those who are in the kingdom of God are children and those like them. This has incredible significance with respect to our whole approach to baptism.

Are those churches who have turned to this text and used it as a justification for their practice of infant baptism off-base? The objection has been raised. There’s no water right here, R.I.P.E. There’s no water ceremony in the U.N.E. verses. How can it be that Presbyterians and others use this text to justify their practice of baptizing infants? So it was the older administration that kept the child at bay till he would have stated in his own name and be able in his own name to come to the temple in Jerusalem and present sacrifices there. But Jesus is saying, not so in the kingdom of God.

The children come, and they are welcome, and those who are like them. So when we look at the children of the covenant, when we look at our children, we are to see the kingdom of God. And if that doesn’t tell you how to raise your children, nothing will. You look at the kids and you see the kingdom of God. You know, then, what you yourselves ought to be. You know how you ought to raise those children in keeping with the covenant, in keeping with the kingdom, in keeping with the Christ.

Not only a help so that we might know how to view children, our children, and the children of the Church, but how we might view ourselves, and how we might view the Kingdom itself. Read the text. Deliver the passage. Learn more self. what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Look at the child and know.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, We have a simple, direct, trusting, proud child. We pray our Father that we would not be offended by the child’s weakness or dependence. We pray our Lord that in seeing the child, of the Church and the children of believers, that we would see in this Holy Seed the picture of the Kingdom of God and the citizens of it. O Lord, may we leave off all pretense, may we swear off all doubt, May we be dressed up in true faith and in that abiding confidence in our Father, who disposes all things for his glory and honor.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 10, 1991
Parables About Discipline, Not Evangelism

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 27, 1989.

About this sermon

The parables of Luke 15, the lost sheep, coin, and son, are read here as being about church discipline rather than evangelism, a reversal of how they’re usually preached. Luke 16’s puzzling ‘mammon of unrighteousness’ gets its own careful treatment alongside that shift. A heavenly orientation, weighing earthly riches against heavenly ones, runs through both chapters together.

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Sermon transcript

Alright, let’s respond. Terrible is dead, and then Jesus explained it. With regard to the transition, we move from that 15th to the 16th chapter. It is very important for us to remember the point of the three terribles given up in that 15th chapter. Jesus is addressing himself to the scribes in Pharisee, verse 2, chapter 15.

He tells them, there is joy in heaven when the locks are sound. And what the Pharisee has scribed lacks is them. is the perspective of heaven with regard to that which is lost. There is joy in heaven when the lost are found, but the Pharisees and scribes cannot enter into that joy because they do not have the perspective of glory. They do not have the perspective of heaven. Joy is lost to them, and as it is made plain in the ministry of Jesus Christ, and asserted by that ministry, they then become very defensive, and react against his ministry and his message, and countermand the joy that is imbued in them.

It would be very easy for me to slide off here into a footnote on the 15th chapter of the book, but I’ll just make the comment and leave it there. The various beliefs and parables in that chapter are treated as if Jesus in them were dealing with the issue of evangelism. evangelizing rose who have never except heard or are outside of the parameters of the covenant. That’s not the point of the parables. The parables are not about evangelism. The parables are about your discipline. The parables are about those that wandered outside of the folk. They were in the folk. They were part of the family. The coin was in the house. The sheep belonged to the flock.

The issue is not evangelism. The issue These parables are about Jesus’ message of church discipline. He is a pursuing pastor. When someone wanders, he goes after them to bring them back, and when that person is restored, there is to be sure in the receiving back of that person. and the judgment now that he’s read out upon the Pharisees is this, when those who have wandered away, who have since turned their back upon the covenant into which they were born, with ease return, the scribes and Pharisees find themselves incapable of joy. Now, I know this is new to me. Surprise!

One of the most famous parables of all, the parable of the prodigal son, is not about evangelism. It’s about church discipline. Well, that has been said. and really an indictment upon the Church. This is not to speak with regard to the success of the Church in its pursuit, but oftentimes the Church has given up the pursuit. It won’t go after the individual. The Church does send you a letter after the fact. It tells you what it has done. It doesn’t pursue you. like the shepherds of this passage.

Jesus, after he gives these parables in Luke 15, turns to his disciples after six days. He tells this specific parable, that of the unrighteous stewards, as a warning to them what in those previous parables makes the warning he gives by root of this parable? Now, chapter 16, what in those previous parables makes the warning he now gives? Jesus is saying that what the scribes and Pharisees lack, the disciples are liable to lose. He is saying that what the and scribes lack, his disciples are liable to lose. Having known the perspective of heaven, having known the joy of heaven, the disciples, while yet in this world, are prone to forget their heavenly orientation in order to reap immediate but temporal benefits.

Think of it! if the disciples were to read themselves into the story of the prodigal son. We’ve returned, and now we are enjoying banquets. The best rose rings for our fingers, and we interpret these signs of prosperity and security as indications of divine favor and as ends in themselves. We, in having been restored, now receive these things that we chalk up as indicators of divine favor and as ends in themselves. The temptation, then, for the disciples is precisely this. They will forget their heavenly orientation in order to reap immediate but temporal benefits.

Thus, the parable of the unrighteous steward. This parable is for the purpose of illustrating one point. in it, foregoes immediate riches in order to secure later prosperity. He foregoes immediate riches in order to secure later prosperity. You see, when the steward goes out to those who are in debt to his ministry, and tells them, implores them to pay their bills, he’s not robbing his master by his action, and that’s clear from the master’s reaction. Instead, what the unrighteous steward is doing is forfeiting his own profit and commission that Jesus calls him the unrighteous steward in verse 8 is no reflection upon his collection methods, but upon the fact that he was squandering his master’s estate that mentioned in verse 10. The reason, then, why the steward forgoes his rightful prophet, the prophet that he was entitled to, is so that his newly acquired friend, he’s made friends with these people now, his newly acquired friend will be beholden to him and provide him a place to live when he’s out of work. got it see what he’s done he’s a shrewd fellow his master is absolutely right a shrewd fellow yes not strong enough today just too proud today but a very shrewd man Well, here you are. The intent of the parable is to illustrate this single point that the steward forgoes immediate riches in order to secure for himself a future prosperity. or needs a place to live.

Well, what about, then, the second issue that we raise? Namely, this parable, as Jesus presents it to us, and the fact that he is holding out the actions of this man as a pattern for our own actions. How can the actions of this man, this unrighteous steward, be of benefit to the saints, to the disciples of Jesus? Well, Jesus isn’t telling this parable to suggest that God is pleased with or rewards the shrewdness of the sons of his age, but to commend to his disciples the pattern that is perceived in the activity of this steward, that pattern being one of temporal deprivation. in order that there may be the securing of long-term blessings. That’s the goal. Now we are in position to go ahead and deal with Jesus’ interpretation, verses 9-13.

We are in position to take up the problem that that interpretation presents to us, namely this, what friends are there to be gained for the saints through the mammon of unrighteousness? You see, it is by our stewardship of the things of this earth that we make friends who will greet us It is by our stewardship of the unrighteous man in this world that we make friends who will greet us in heaven. that is imperative for the disciples of Jesus is maintained here. The joy in heaven that spread out in the fifteenth chapter is again now prominent and prominently placed before the disciples. It is by our stewardship of the unrighteous mammoth of this earth that we make friends who will greet us in heaven. As the angels of God rejoice when the lost are found, so there are those. Angels and saints in glory feel to us as friends when we handle rightly the mammon of unrighteousness, the mammon of this world.

Now, there is an outstanding question. The remaining question is, how do we use the moment of enlightenment? How do we do it? In such a way that the end that Jesus has in view here in this passage is true for us, certainly for us. Well, first of all, according to Jesus’ own words, the mammon of unrighteousness is rightly used when we understand the It is an old adage.

You can’t take it with you. It is not what life is all about. The making of money is not what life is all about. We must feel it. whether we are living now or in another day yet future, or in any day past. The mammon of unrighteousness fails. It is not eternal. All that it can ever be, then, is something that is managed within our stewardship before God, a means by which we express our love for Him and those things which are eternal, never an end in itself. Secondly, The mammon of unrighteousness is rightly viewed when we are not slaves.

This is increasingly difficult for the Christian community. Because, truly, we have come to the point where we measure life in terms of the security of money for the poor. We have been bounced into a hopelessly materialistic world, and we have come to believe that the one thing that is not extendable to us is our wealth, our affluence. the mammon of unrighteousness is rightly used when we are not its slaves for surely we cannot serve God and serve mammon either we are a slave to God or we are a slave to mammon Thirdly, and most importantly, we must realize that famine of this world is rightly used when it is handled according to the pattern illustrated in the parable. When the pattern for our lives corresponds to what we find here, namely, we are going that immediate personal enrichment in order to place ourselves at the disposal of the wealth, the glory, the treasures, and the riches of life. And truly, in the final analysis, as we have said, the success of Matthew 6 is no different here. The route by which this is accomplished in our lives is the root of the process. We give. We give up.

We expend ourselves because we are certain that there are unfulfilled riches for us. and there is an innumerable host of friends gained for us through our stewardship of the manner of this world. Well, the parable of the unrighteous steward who has held out a tavern for us in our whole lives to forego a profit for the prospect a friend came who could be counted on later.

We ourselves But unlike him, rather than being welcomed into earthly evolution, we are being welcomed into eternal life. Our lives are totally focused on heaven and its sky, and the glorious creation made up We thank you, our God, for the riches of glory made plain to us. May we have the courage to put heaven and itself above all else. that the way of life, the way we see life, would be in fact the way that we want and the way we embrace. Help us, Father, that we are weak, we tremble at the threat of loss, even at the prospect of insecurities and spoils that may have been too large, we are not irresponsible with regard to the mammon of unrighteousness. To the end, we may be made responsible for the riches of heaven. Lest we pray

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

August 27, 1989
Jesus and the Word of God

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 18, 1987.

About this sermon

Jesus’ own relationship to the Word of God is close enough that Luke can describe him simply preaching ‘the word of God’ in 5:1, language that echoes 4:4 and 4:22 deliberately. Luke’s narrative keeps its focus tightly on Jesus alone, resisting distraction even from otherwise interesting side characters. That singular focus is itself part of Luke’s argument for who Jesus actually is.

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Sermon transcript

We are in Luke chapter 4. It would be wonderful to read the whole chapter, but I’m not going to do that. I think that you know the story of the temptation of Christ at the beginning of this chapter well enough, so I’m going to begin with verse 14 and read on from that verse to the first verse of the next chapter.

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding districts. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.

And he began to say to them, “…today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” and all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were proceeding out of his mouth. And they were saying, Is this not Joseph’s son? And he said to them, No doubt he will quote this proverb to me, Position, heal thyself. Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, due here in your hometown as well.

And he said, Truly, I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown, but I say to you in truth, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. And all the synagogue was filled with rage as they heard these things.

And they rose up and cast him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went his way. And he came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on Sabbath days. And they were continually amazed at his teaching, for his message, his word, was with authority.

And there was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him.

And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he went out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they began discussing with one another and saying, What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the report about him was getting into every locality in the surrounding district. And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they made requests of him on her behalf. and standing over her, he rebuked the fever and it left her, and immediately she arose and began to wait to serve them. And while the sun was setting, all who had any sick or various diseases brought them to and laying hands on every one of them, he was healing them. And demons also were going out of many, crying out and saying, You are the son of God, and rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak because they knew him to be the Christ. And when they came, he departed and went in a lonely place.

And the multitudes were searching for him and came to him and tried to keep him from going away from them. And he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Now it came about that while the multitude was pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. Lord, in this day, your church has gathered and you have been present. Your people have come in faith, knowing that you are there, that you are present indeed to bless faith directed towards you.

Encourage us in our faith and with that confidence that our God is present to bless and strengthen us, Lord. in that conviction. After all, we are your children, called by your name. You have owned us, and we, by your grace, have owned you. Now, Lord, encourage us through your word to the praise of your glory. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

Through the passage like this, Luke chapter 4, it is very easy for us to be sidetracked by the many things that we encounter here. I think that you have a feel for what I am saying. Take, for instance, the opening of the chapter, the first thirteen verses. These verses are familiar to us, they recount for us the story of Jesus’ encounter with the devil and Satan’s temptation of our Lord. Invariably, when we deal with this passage, What happens to us is that we are not so much concerned about the struggle between Christ and Satan, but what the passage can teach us about the nature of temptation. And therefore, because of that, we easily slide past the original and foremost intent of the text to something however important, is not the main consideration.

Also, as we move through this fourth chapter, we next encounter Jesus’ preaching activity, his teaching ministry, specifically as it unfolds in his hometown. Note verse 16, he’s returned to Nazareth, where he grew up. And our interests here are basically the response of those who should have been closest to him, should have known him best. We are interested in the responses of these people from his hometown.

Next, in verses thirty-three through thirty-six, we are faced with Jesus’ encounter with the demon-possessed man in the synagogue in Capernaum. And our interest here is in Jesus’ power, or even more particularly, the phenomenon of demon possession. how that may well relate to circumstances that the Church faces today.

And once more, as important as that matter may be, we are led by it past the main consideration of the text. The interests here throughout this chapter are not temptation generally considered, nor the response of hometown folks to profits in their midst, nor to the phenomenon of demon possession. And as you go through to the conclusion of the chapter, neither is the interest here simply Jesus in his relationship to sickness and disease. as that is spoken of in verses 38 and following. You can see that all of the things that have been mentioned here are seemingly important. In fact, they can be made to be so important that they reach out and grab us and grab for our attention, asserting themselves as the most important thing, the most important consideration in this chapter.

Yes, temptation, my temptation, the temptations that come to me, those that you know and experience, and how we might gain strength from the word and even from the experience of Jesus in that regard. what it means to be an outcast, to speak the truth and then be held accountable for it, for speaking the truth, to be the odd man out in your own community. The phenomenon of the devil’s work in the world, the question of whether or not there is still demon possession in the world presently.

The whole matter of Jesus, the gospel’s relationship to illness. We all have experienced illness, disease. Our families, if not we ourselves, having contracted diseases, sometimes tragic diseases, debilitating Well, with all of these things, again, as you move through the fourth chapter of Luke, as I say, it’s very easy for us to be sidetracked.

But this chapter really has a single focus. It is a focus that is found in Jesus. himself. In Jesus himself, and the significance of the word in relationship to him. First of all, with regard to Jesus, this chapter is consistent with what Luke has been developing thus far in his So far, he has been interested in presenting to you, Jesus, that unique figure. Yes, one who is experiencing common things. Things in common with the rest of humanity. But yet, in the midst of all of that, he is an utterly unique individual. So unique that he is solitary. He stands alone. I think that you can grasp this understanding, then, the opening of the Gospel of Luke, its progression through Jesus’ baptism by John into the temptation. Yes, we see things here that are in common, experienced commonly by us all. We are all born.

There is this unique birth, this one who is born as no one else, and he even is contrasted with one like John the Baptist. We think of the uniqueness of the birth of John the Baptist, but Jesus, his birth, is so extraordinary that it is set off over against the birth of John the Baptist. is virgin-born, joined then to humanity in common in that all are born yet unique, unique, utterly unique, this one virgin-born. The great heroes of the Old Testament, their births, we first recited We think about the birth of Isaac and the miracle involved. We think about the birth of Samuel and the miracle involved, and others. But in the midst of this common experience of birth, there is that birth that is utterly unique, the birth of Christ. Not just another Old Testament hero, not just another Old Testament figure, heroic in stature, but one utterly unique. Notice also what is said about Jesus in the twenty-first verse of the third chapter. this dealing with the baptism of Jesus by John. Notice the way in which Luke puts the case.

Now, it came about that when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was baptized. You see how he puts it It came about when all the people were baptized, as if the entire ministry of John is complete. Everybody else has been baptized. Then, after everybody else had been baptized, Jesus comes and he is baptized. Baptism is a common experience, truly, but Jesus baptized in a way in which it sets him off, distinguishes him, in which his uniqueness comes to expression.

We think of the temptation, too. Yes, temptation is the common experience of humanity and all of God’s children, but the address of Satan to this one is, if you are the son of God, the uniqueness, then, of the temptation as it pertains to Christ. And I might say, you see, the uniqueness of that temptation is brought out as you go down through those temptations and you realize the objective of Satan is to get Christ to forego the cross, that which was his unique, distinct calling as the Son of God. I think the point is made clearly.

Jesus, then, at the center of things for Luke, as that unique and solitary figure, that one who virtually stands alone, so long does he stand at this point in Luke’s gospel that the disciples as a group. Now, I know that Simon is mentioned in verse thirty eight and his mother-in-law brought into the picture in chapter four, but the disciples as a group are not introduced to us until the fifth chapter. So these first four chapters have been for the purpose of setting Fourth, Christ as that solitary, unique figure, that one distinguished by God, different from all others. But Jesus in his uniqueness now, as we read into the fourth chapter. It’s considered from a particular point of view. For it isn’t simply his person that concerns Luke now.

It is his person in relationship to the word, and once more we will see as we move through the fourth chapter. that there are the common experiences of God’s people with the Word, but yet, while Jesus is dealing with the Word, he is set out uniquely as that one to whom the Word belongs, that one in whose power is the Word, that one whose Word is nothing less than the Word of God.

You see how Jesus responds to Satan. First of all, he answers the devil, the temptations that are thrown at him by Satan, with the word, with scripture. That word, which is called later on by Paul in Ephesians 6, 17, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And you note what Jesus is doing.

It is Jesus that seemingly has total recall and makes no mistakes about the He has an infallibility about him in terms of the circumstances that he faces, and he not only infallibly interprets the circumstance, he infallibly applies the scriptures, the appropriate scriptures, to the case, to the situation at hand. that one who has this intimate relationship to the word.

We would hope that we would all respond to temptation from the word of God. But we, in our sin, fail oftentimes to remember the word, oftentimes to apply the word properly, oftentimes failing to cite the proper scripture in the appropriate situation. But Jesus never failed. And our hope for meeting temptation, for facing that temptation with the Word of God, is found in the infallibility of the Christ to whom the Word belongs.

Now, this Christ, this Son of God, this One called Jesus, is also that One who appears in such a unique way, and setting in his hometown of Nazareth, in the synagogue. He then, quoting prophecy, and once more, going beyond anything that we might well imagine out of that beginning account of his encounter with Satan, going far beyond that, actually taking those scriptures from the Old Testament, not simply applying them to the situation, but applying them to himself. He is saying that the expectation of the prophet was really an expectation that centered in him. Why, there is a day coming when one will arise who says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me. He has sent me. He has sent me to set free the captives. He has sent me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And then down in verse 21 of that fourth chapter, Jesus says boldly, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Why, there are many who are tempted, and there are many who preach, but none have dealt with temptation like this, and none have preached as this one. And so it is that preaching and teaching gain a predominance in this chapter. The teaching is mentioned in verse fifteen, verse thirty-one, verse thirty-two. The preaching is referred to in verse forty-three and forty-four.

And with what authority does it come? It is a unique authority. You note verse thirty-two. The response of those in Capernaum. They were continually in a teaching for his word was with authority. You remember how that sentiment is filled out in Matthew’s Gospel at the end of Matthew seven, where it says that the multitude were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one having authority, not as one of the scribes and Pharisees. the unique authority that sets him off over against all others who are teaching and preaching. You’ll note verse thirty-six.

After he has healed the demon-possessed man, the amazement comes upon all. They began to discuss with one another, saying, What is this word or this message? With what authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. the uniqueness of the authority of this one, vaguely perceived by those who heard, yet he is utterly unique. What of his power over disease and demons?

A special word is used with regard to his healing ministry here in verses 35 and 39 and 41. That special word is rebuke. He rebukes the disease, he rebukes the demons. Others might pray, others might beseech, others might intercede, but this one rebukes.

Jesus, then, and the Word, his relationship to it, yes, in his experience He is touching us in that we, too, are related to the word and have contact with it. But yet in his relationship to that word, he is utterly unique, and there is a unique authority and a unique ability with regard to it.

But as I said, There’s something even more amazing here about his relationship to the word. You know, the beginning of the fifth chapter. That’s why I read that first verse of the fifth chapter. Now it came about that while the multitude was prepping around him and listening to the word of God. Now you could say that that reference to the Word of God there has in mind the fact that Jesus is quoting Scripture or preaching upon it, or that preaching in some way is equal to the Word of God. Or you can conclude from that that what is intended is to equate the Word of Jesus with the Word of God, and that is exactly what I believe is intended by the writer of this gospel. And there’s a reason why I think that that is why.

I think that is what Luke intended. Note the fourth chapter, the fourth verse. This is the account of the first temptation. Jesus said here, in answer to Satan, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. Now, you might think that that is a bit strange. In fact, that quote of Jesus at that point is incomplete.

You know how the rest of that scripture which he is quoting, Deuteronomy 8.3, continues. It doesn’t simply say, man shall not live on bread alone.

It goes on to say, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. But Luke, in recounting the story of this temptation, omits those words at this point. Now, if you go back to Matthew chapter four, verse four, you note that Matthew does not make that omission. There you read, But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. There the complete quotation appears, but not so in Luke. Not in Luke 4 verse 4.

Now you might think that you’re losing something. that something has been left out, and sadly so, until you get down to the twenty second verse of this chapter. For here you read, and all were speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words, and if you have a new American standard you can read in the margin, how the Greek is to be translated literally at this point. all were speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words that were proceeding out of his mouth. There’s the rest of the quote. You see what was done.

He is deliberately left off the end of Deuteronomy eight three in the fourth verse of the fourth chapter, so that he can allude to it in the twenty second But here he applies it to the word of Jesus. Equating the word of Jesus with the word of God, and that is why I am contending that when you get to the first verse of the fifth chapter and Luke says that the people were listening to the word of God when they were listening to the preaching of Jesus, he means nothing less than that.

They are listening to the word of God. The word of Jesus is. the Word of God. There are many preachers. The Church has a plethora of preachers. But when he is preaching, is it as so many have sadly concluded an equation with the Word of God, as if that one who stands before you declares to you infallibly the will of God. No, you see, preaching is a witness. It is a witness to the Word of God. It is a witness to that one who speaks and preaches and teaches the Word of God. It is a witness to Jesus Christ, who is the veritable Word of God Himself.

Why would it be that Luke would wait until the fifth chapter to introduce the disciples to you? What possible purpose could he have? He doesn’t want the church to make any mistake. You see, the foundation stone is Christ. It’s not Peter, it’s not any other apostle, it’s Christ. It’s not their word, it’s His word.

And that is what’s so utterly important. Before any other issue or matter is considered, that must be set in ground. The uniqueness, the utter uniqueness of the Son of God, Jesus, and His Word, and you must live by it. Oh, you see, if Israel in the Old Testament was told that they must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, the New Testament Church now is told, you must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth. of Jesus. That is what has authority. That is what has power. That is what brings healing. That is what brings comfort, direction, clarity, That’s what brings life. The word of Jesus. Are you tempted? Do you struggle over modern day prophets? Are you questioning sickness, disease, distress?

The church in any age finds her help in Jesus and his word. Amen. Our Father, may we not forget the cornerstone. Oh, there may be things that come along, experiences in our lives, things that become even patterns for our lives, that push, shove aside the true consideration. It may well be the temptations that assault us It may well be that prophets’ claims may well be disease, may be distressing circumstances that appear almost demonic in our midst. But O Lord, in the midst of it all, may we be drawn to Jesus and to that one who has the authority over the Word, that one whose authority is expressed in the word, that one whose word is the word of God. May we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. Here, the foundation of our existence, the foundation of the life of the Church, the foundation of every believer, those who call upon him.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

October 18, 1987
Luke’s History: Suffering Before Glory

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 3, 1976.

About this sermon

Luke writes history as a believer, and that makes him an honest historian, not a weaker one. Across Luke and Acts suffering always comes before glory, never the reverse. Barren Elizabeth and the virgin Mary bear children because nothing is impossible with God, who brings real glory out of real humiliation through his grace, not human strength. Theophilus, waiting in the second-generation church while glory seems delayed, stands for every reader who needs that same assurance.

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Sermon transcript

Looking at Luke 1 this morning, I would like to read as a text the first four verses, and then also verse 37 once more. As much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished or fulfilled among us, Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word have handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, Most Excellent Theophilus, so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. the angel Gabriel said to Mary, for nothing will be impossible with God. There is no strength in the flesh, there is strength in the Spirit, however, and in the power of the Spirit, the apostles of the Lord have proclaimed the truth. and shown to us that there is to be no boast in the flesh, there is only to be glorying in the cross of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of that cross to the salvation of sinners. We ask this day, our Lord, that we would understand, that we would not move away from the truth, and when the heat of the word becomes intense, May we be intent ourselves in bearing that heat so as to know the truth about ourselves and our God. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I’ve debated in my mind what gospel to pick, but I recognize that since I have been here with you, I have not preached on a gospel in its entirety. I am familiar and have preached through Matthew in my former pastorate. I preached through John in that pastorate as well, but Luke’s gospel I always shied away from. I was frightened by the gospel of Luke. I don’t know why that is, maybe because it’s the longest, but at any rate, I have decided at this time to tackle the gospel of Luke and to preach on that gospel for our benefit.

Luke is unique, as are all the gospel writers, and he is deserving of some preliminary remarks this morning before we jump into the angel visits, the visits of Gabriel. Luke comes to us as an historian, as a biographer, if you will, of Jesus, but not in an ordinary sense.

Yes, he tells us that he is here to write to us in order those things that have been fulfilled among us. He is concerned with historical sequence and order. He is not an eyewitness himself. He is one who has had things handed down to him by those who knew Jesus Christ and who walked with him. But he is one who has committed himself to careful investigation, investigating those things that have taken place from the very beginning.

He tells us this in verses 2 and 3 as he opens up this first chapter. He is one who is using secondary sources. Many have undertaken to compile an account, he says, as he opens up his gospel, and certainly Luke is aware of these records and has read them himself. But he is also one who is using primary sources. He is using the witness of those who saw Jesus Christ, eyewitnesses. He is using those who were originally the servants of the word for his gospel record.

He is also, as an historian, one who is committed to the truth. He is interested that this individual, if we can say he is an individual, Theopolis, He is interested that this person, or that we, be aware of the exact nature of those things that we have been taught. is not just an historian, and I might say historians in general might learn a great deal from this man and his approach to history. For Luke does not merely write as one who is merely interested in the sequence of events, dates, numbers, etc. Luke writes as a believer. he comes to his data, not impartially, but prejudiced. This man is biased. Here he is, right in the Word of God, right within the context of the Scriptures, a biased, a prejudicial individual, and prejudicial to the viewpoint of faith.

He speaks of his inclusion amongst those who have been affected and have themselves embraced the word of truth. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished or fulfilled among us, he includes himself there. He doesn’t set himself over against this company as some sort of neutral observer. He is involved himself. He has been in contact with the eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, which have handed down to us those things which were accomplished among us. Again, he includes himself. And he himself is committed to that truth which Theophilus, or the lover of God, if you will, is instructed in. He is committed to that truth, and it is from the perspective of that commitment that he runs. Luke is therefore not neutral about the facts. He doesn’t come to them impartially. he comes to them with the eyes of faith as a believer. This doesn’t weaken Luke’s value as a historian, it just makes him an honest one.

Are you so naive to think that when you were going to school and had to wade through those history books that the authors of those books were only giving you the bare facts, apart from any faith commitment on their part? Not so. Not so. They had a condition of heart as surely as Luke did, did they not? And when they decided to cast aspersions on these foolish, pious Christians who are vestiges of primitivism in our day and age, do they make such statements? apart from some kind of commitment of heart on their part? No, of course not.

Luke is an honest historian. And oh, that we had historians who were honest amongst us. who at the very outset were going to tell us about the condition of their hearts, about their presuppositions, their axioms for scholarship, their axes to grind. It’s only after we’ve waded through page after page, chapter after chapter, that the perspective of the author begins to dawn upon us. That his own heart commitment begins to make itself apparent. That we know whether, yes, we have a heart commitment like his or not. But here, in the Gospel, an honest historian tells us his heart commitment at the beginning.

He acknowledges it. I’m prejudiced. I’m prejudiced for the gospel, and I’m biased for the truth that has come out of heaven. Upon that I take my leave. I might even say that here are the foundations of any responsible scholarship and historical inquiry.

Luke, the historian, Luke, the honest historian, the believer. who comes with a heart of faith to the material that is before him. But Luke is more than that. Luke is a preacher, and as a preacher, a theologian, or if you will, he is an interpreter of the facts, and that by the work of the Holy Spirit within him.

So that when he comes to deal with these facts, yes, he comes to them with the heart of faith, but by the ministration of the Holy Spirit in him, for God is at work in him, he works with those facts in order that those facts might render a certain tone and produce a certain talent. so that we might gain a certain perspective on the truth of Jesus Christ, and see things from that vantage point, because indeed, that’s precisely what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. To fill out our understanding of this Christ, not just seeing him from one perspective, but seeing him from many perspectives. in the light of the fourfold perspective of the gospel, and Luke, therefore, has a certain vantage point, given him of the Holy Spirit, by which we then are to appreciate the Savior. We shouldn’t pass over the minutest detail of the gospel in order to understand the richness of what our God has for us here to grasp.

Luke doesn’t write like Matthew, nor does he write like Mark. And there’s a reason for that. And the reason, if we can grasp it, is for the benefit of your spiritual life. It is for the benefit of your own walk in the light of Christ. Well, what might be this particular vantage point, or the interpretive edge of Luke, the Gospel writer, His facts don’t stand there mutely, they speak a rich message. In order to understand Luke as an interpreter, it might be well for us to try to sort out exactly where he stands in the history of redemption. As he says, he wasn’t an eyewitness. He’s depended on them for much of his information. And it says, if he stands then at a distance from those events, and if you will, he stands in the company of a second-generation church. And the problems of the second generation church are rather complicated.

For here you have this Jesus who has come and proclaimed the gospel of glory. And here I am sitting here in this church somewhere in Asia Minor, and glory isn’t exactly apparent to me. I’ve been given the promise of redemption and salvation, which I take to be universal, and that there’s going to be one day the renewal of the heavens and the earth in the perfect society. All of it promised to me by Jesus Christ, and here I find myself, Jesus gone, the apostles dying out, and what’s happening?” God, maybe, has forgotten, or maybe there was something wrong with that promise at the beginning. Or maybe, I haven’t quite understood what that gospel was, and it is in need of some other kind of interpretation.

Problems of the second generation church link us very much with Luke, though do they not? For here we sit, still waiting. Luke is interested in resolving this problem. And the way in which he resolves it is in terms of poverty and then glory. You remember Jesus at the end of Luke’s Gospel, the beautiful story that is told only by Luke, Jesus, after he had been raised from the dead, walking down the road with the two people who didn’t recognize him. They were hardly expecting to see him. And they were troubled, and Jesus asks them what their problem is, and they said, well, we had hoped that this prophet from Nazareth was the Messiah, but now he’s been crucified and he’s dead. And Jesus, says Luke, went on to explain to them how it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer in order to enter into his glory.

Later on, in the book of Acts, Luke wrote Acts as well, the 14th chapter, he’s telling us about Paul and his missionary trip to Lystra. Here he is at Lystra preaching the gospel, and some of the unbelievers rise up, carry him out of the city and stone him.

Paul is certainly asking the question, where is the glory, Lord? If I am being stoned, why do I have to go through this? Well, he makes his way eventually back through Lystra. with one message for them. He tells them in Acts 14 verse 22, through many sufferings we must enter into the kingdom of God. The structure then that Luke wants us to understand is the process from suffering and humiliation to glory and exaltation.

And as it was for the Christ, so it is for us. For we are united to him. The second generation church must be reminded of that fact. that it is from suffering to glory, and glory comes in the time and by the power of God. Now this is not to say that for Luke, glory hasn’t made its appearance in Jesus Christ and His work. That is certainly true, and we can find evidences of that throughout the entire Gospel. In fact, Luke sees Jesus Christ as the second Adam, as the beginning of a new creation, already in process, of which we can become participators, in which we can become participators through faith in him. All of this is well. These things are worked out by Luke, as he tells us the story of the angel of visits.

Here is the angel that stands beside God, closest to that glory, who has come to earth. And to whom does he come? He comes to a man and a woman advanced in age who have never had a child, and in that a symbol of poverty to be sure. It is God in His power, by His might and His grace, who relieves Elizabeth of her reproach. How shall the poverty and the humiliation be overcome by the supernatural power and visitation of God? By His marvelous grace, that’s how. And if the granting of a child to a barren couple, advanced in age, isn’t difficult enough for you, The angel Gabriel then visits a virgin who knows no man, and proclaims to her that by the power of the Holy Spirit she shall conceive and give birth to a child, and that child shall be the very Son of God. to the poverty, to the suffering, to the reproach of God’s people is the marvelous power and work of grace by God Himself, not the inventions of men, not the strength which they have in themselves. How is it possible for Zacharias and Elizabeth to produce a child?

It’s impossible. How is it possible for Mary to give birth to a child without knowing a man? It is not possible. It is impossible with men. But as the angel Gabriel says, for nothing will be impossible with God, and as it has been with them who are poor and suffering as symbols of the humiliation of God’s people, so shall it be for us who are united to them as the poor of the earth, we who have nothing and have no strength in ourselves, must receive of the visitation of God’s power and His grace if we are to be delivered of our humiliation and our suffering, which is our loss because we belong to Christ.

And how timely this message is. You see, the problem that Luke is addressing is not just because people get tired of waiting. Where is the promise that is coming? Things get a little bit trying, and the situations become strange, and life at times becomes unbearable.

It’s because, you know, that Luke opens up his gospel by addressing this individual named Theophilus with a title, Most Excellent Theophilus. Are we to assume then that this man was of high standing in society as a member of the Church? And now being removed from that point in time when the power and the grace of God was so much evident, men like this, who are trained in power and know the ways of the world, are so tempted to bring those ways into the Church and think that by that method they can accomplish the purposes of God. To Theophilus, to the man who is most excellent, to the man who has the title, to the man who has prominence in the world, comes the message of Luke.

Your company is the poor. Don’t you forget that. Your lot has been passed to the poor, to those who have no strength. And it is amongst them, whose company you keep, that God shall manifest His will in the birth of His Son. How we need to be. You see, the poor are our best friends. They were the ones that God came to. And they are the ones that we should go to.

Lord Father, we know that we face a two-fold problem. One, the wait. We pray that we might wait in faith, with bold confidence. But also, Father, we face the problem of prominence, prestige, affluence. arrogance, self-sufficiency, thinking that the Kingdom of God comes by our power and our invention, and by our striving. Remind us in the Gospel of Luke that you came and visited the poor, And our lot has been casted in. Oh, we ask that we would remember this. Because in sharing their humility, in sharing, Father, their suffering, we shall also share their glory.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

May 3, 1976