READ: Luke 6:46-49
We’re going to come straight to the subject matter of these verses this evening. I have no introduction, except to say that:
- in verse 46 - Jesus ASKS A DAMNING QUESTION
- in verse 47 - Jesus CALLS FOR DECISIVE ACTION
- in verse 48 - Jesus GIVES A DRAMATIC ILLUSTRATION
And it is these three thoughts to which I want to draw your attention. Firstly, then, in verse 46 we see ...
1. JESUS ASKS A DAMNING QUESTION
[Read verse 46]
The great issue that Jesus confronts us with here is HIS LORDSHIP in our lives.
Jesus has just finished delivering the greatest sermon in history - His famous “Sermon on the Mount”. He’s talked to the great crowd before Him about the Kingdom of God and how to inherit it; about the weightiest matters of time and eternity; the profoundest truths, yet always in the simplest of words and ideas. But He is acutely aware of those in His audience who are “onlookers” - “observers”. Oh, they nodded their heads in agreement, they even said “Amen!” in appropriate places - if you asked them what they believed they would most likely answer “We follow the great Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth”. BUT FOR ALL OF THAT, Jesus teaching (which they enjoyed) had no radical impact on their lives.
Jesus knows the frustration that many preachers experience most Sundays ... looking out on a group of nodding believers who say “Amen!”, and thank him at the door, but then never DO anything with the truths they’ve been presented.
Jesus knows that frustration not only on Sundays, but every day of the week in fact, as dutiful Christians open their Bibles and read the portion suggested by their daily reading guide, say “Thank you Lord”, close their Bibles and head off to work - forgetting all that they’ve read by the time they reach the front gate.
And so, as Jesus ends His great sermon, He closes with “the appeal” ... “(W)hy do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do the things which I say?”
If Jesus IS Lord of our lives, there must be obedience to what He has to say!
This passage corresponds with MATTHEW 7:21-23. Matthew records Jesus’ words this way ...
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Three (3) things immediately strike me about these poor people who are going to stand bewildered before Christ - found wanting in the Day of Judgment:
A) They cry ‘Lord, Lord’. These are obviously ones who thought they were alright. They know the “lingo”. They’ve called themselves His followers. (Remember the parable Jesus told of the 10 virgins - 5 wise and 5 foolish - the foolish virgins returned from trimming their lamps to find they had missed the bridegroom’s arrival, and they pounded upon the door and cried “Lord, Lord”. They too thought they were going to be at the wedding, but they weren’t ready - they weren’t watching when He came.)
B) There are ‘MANY’ of them. Jesus says: “MANY will say to Me”. (The word here in Greek is “polloi” - the same word used to describe the multitudes that flocked to hear Jesus. “MANY (multitudes) will say to Me ‘Lord, Lord’.”) FRIGHTENING!
C) Note their claims:
i) We’ve prophesied in Your Name!
ii) We’ve cast out demons in Your Name!
iii) We’ve done wonders in Your Name!
These are all good things - but they are “SIDE ISSUES”, every one! (Jesus says the real and central issue is: “I never knew you!”) So many in the Church today are becoming taken up with “side issues” - giving them more priority than the Scriptures do. And of all the side issues stealing the limelight in the Church today, these three that Jesus mentions figure very prominently! There’s never been such a clamouring after directive PROPHECY like there is in the Church today. (Praise God for His prophetic gifts at work in the Church, but God forbid that we should seek after them in the place of the plain teaching of Scripture! God’s Word is our guide, and prophecy should confirm what God is already showing us.) There’s never been such a clamouring after DELIVERANCE MINISTRY like there is in the Church today. There’s been such a clamouring after SIGNS & WONDERS in general like there is ion the Church today.
Friends, we need to be careful not to put so great an emphasis on one part of Scripture that we become all involved with some side issue that takes our attention away from simply following Jesus.
Jesus said: “These signs shall FOLLOW them that believe ...”, but He also said (in Matthew 12:39) that “an evil and adulterous generation SEEKS after a sign”. Church, we don’t follow after signs and wonders - THEY FOLLOW US - WE FOLLOW JESUS!
And listen, what we must understand from Matthew 7:21-23 is that miracles do NOT necessarily mean that God approves of the person who performs them! Did you realise that? Deuteronomy 13:1-5 reveals that God may actually allow miracles to test His people to see whether they really love the Lord with all their heart and soul (or whether they’ll clamour after anyone who seems to have power!).
Don’t look to signs and wonders as a proof of any ministry or preacher or prophet or whatever:
* God used wicked Balaam (Numbers 23).
* God even used Balaam’s donkey!
* The vile high priest Caiaphas was used by God to prophesy that Jesus would die for all the people (John 11:51-52). You wouldn’t have wanted to follow him!
* The wicked magicians of Pharaoh’s court in Egypt duplicated many of the miracles Moses commanded.
* The evil sons of Sceva in Acts 19 cast out demons!
DON’T BE DECEIVED; watch your life and what you believe closely.
So, there will be many who will cry “Lord, Lord”. But His reply to them will be, “I never knew you; depart from Me, YOU WHO PRACTISE LAWLESSNESS!”
“Lawlessness?” That’s right - they are indicted with “lawlessness”! People who claim Him as “Lord, Lord”. People who prophecy, and cast out demons, and do wonders! Lawless? YES - come back to the verse we began with: Luke 6:46. [READ with emphasis on “I”.]
Friends, what a tragedy for any person to have in their hands the teaching of Jesus - the living Word of God - but then to lay aside it’s instruction to follow after side issues ... MAJORING ON MINORS ... and neglect the basics of growing in a relationship with Jesus. Following Him.
“Can that really happen?” Oh, yes my friends it does happen.
To do what Jesus commanded will take all of your attention and energy - the whole of the rest of your life. What is the glory of the new covenant? Jeremiah 31:33 ... “I will put MY law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” God leading His people in an unerring walk of true discipleship. Not glamorous, not trendy directions; not some “new” way. ANCIENT PATHS - rugged and hard at times - but safe, tried and true.
We see then, that Jesus asks a damning question: “(W)hy do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do the things which I say?”
Secondly, in verse 47:
2. JESUS CALLS FOR DECISIVE ACTION
[Read verse 47]
Here we read of the kind of action that Jesus is calling for from each of us who would own Him as Lord. “Whoever ...
a) “COMES TO ME”
Here is the first step. But it’s a continual step also. Every person must come to HIM for themselves; but then we have to keep coming back to Him every day. Keeping HIM as our focus; trusting in Him alone as Saviour and Lord.
Not coming to every voice taking the airwaves at the moment - the latest Christian “guru” on video or cassette tape - not the latest book doing the rounds! “WHOEVER COMES TO ME”, Jesus said.
Turn with me to John 10:4-5. Here’s a beautiful picture that gives me great encouragement [READ].
I’ve had folks come to me at times saying: “I heard this preacher on video say such and such”, or “I read in this book so and so, AND IT DOESN’T SOUND RIGHT!” And I rejoice, because it’s exactly what Jesus said ... “My sheep know MY voice - they can pick the voice of a stranger.”
But unfortunately Christians DO still get deceived; believers get side-tracked. We’ve got to be on our guard at all times. Tell me, which are the sheep that get picked off by prowling enemies ... wolves? It’s the ones on the fringes. The ones furthest from the Shepherd. My prescription to you is KEEP AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO JESUS. Get right in by His side; get in the centre of the flock (the local church) as much and as often as you can; and get to know His voice clearly.
This leads us to the second action Jesus wants us to take. “Whoever comes to Me and ...”
b) “HEARS MY SAYINGS”
The second thing is that we must be hearing what JESUS has to say. Where do we find His sayings? In the Word of God! The Scriptures are absolutely primary and fundamental. We need to be constantly in the Word of God.
Be careful NOT to be just reading what others have written ABOUT the Scriptures. I’m firmly convinced that your main reading as a Christian ought to be the Bible! Everything else must be secondary. It is the number one way God will minister into your life. In fact I’ll go so far as to say that MOST of all that God will ever say to you will be out of His Word!
If you’re not in the Word you won’t hear His voice, BECAUSE He will not substitute His Word with something else for the benefit of the busy! (Part of the reason for the phenomenal growth of the Christian book industry over the past 15-20 years has been because of the times in which we live - A FAST FOOD GENERATION who don’t have time to find answers in the Word for themselves and so they say “Summarise it for me ... give us five steps to effective prayer ... show us ten steps to improve our marriage.”)
Every now and again I meet some Christian who doesn’t read the Bible very much, but tell me they love to sit in silence and wait for God to speak to them. I’ve got to be honest - that frightens me. You sit there long enough (without God’s Word) and you’ll hear voices alright, but I’m not sure it’ll be God’s!
Here is the positive side to what I’m saying ... God has been so gracious to put His Word in our hands; why would we feel we NEED anything else?! Get into His Word.
Jesus said: “Whoever comes to ME, and hears MY sayings ...” THIS LEADS ON TO the third part of this decisive action Jesus calls us to take:
c) “DOES THEM”
There must be a response to Jesus’ words. OBEDIENCE. What is the key requirement of Christian discipleship; knowledge? ability? ministry gifting? vision? anointing? NO! None of these very good things. Absolutely central is OBEDIENCE. All these other things flow when we are being obedient!
All the talk, and all the good intentions, in the world are no substitute for one moment of OBEDIENCE. Great knowledge is no substitute. So-called “spirituality” is no substitute. In fact, there IS no true spirituality without simple obedience. Living the life that Jesus laid down for us to live; following His footsteps and obeying His commands.
Jesus says, “Come to ME, hear MY sayings, and DO them”.
And so we come to the third and final point:
3. JESUS GIVES A DRAMATIC ILLUSTRATION
[Read verse 47-49]
Jesus loved to teach in pictures, didn’t He? And I’m so glad, because He was a master at it. Some of Jesus’ pictures can make an impression on our hearts forever. This is one such picture. Jesus contrasts for us the picture of a house with solid rock foundations with a house built upon no foundations but the shifting sands.
This picture has occupied a place in my heart from a very early age. I’ve read it in the Scriptures many times, I’ve heard it preached about over and over, and I remember singing songs about it in Sunday School. But it became even more real to me a couple of years back when we were involved in construction of a new church building in our previous pastorate. I learnt a lot about foundations down on that building site. We were building something that we wanted to last (and that the Council insisted MUST last) - and so the foundations HAD to be solid! [Describe the process of laying foundations - hardships, etc]
Laying foundations correctly is a tough, long, hard, at times exacting - BUT ESSENTIAL process. There can be no shortcuts!
And Jesus challenges His followers here to lay their lives only upon such bedrock foundations - namely the foundations of His Word. “If you come to ME, and hear MY sayings, and put them into practise, YOU ARE LIKE A MAN BUILDING A HOUSE UPON DEEPLY DUG FOUNDATIONS ON BEDROCK.”
And you can’t afford to “skimp” on these foundations for your life. there is simply NO substitute for obedience to the great priorities of the Bible. Whilst others may be going after side issues (majoring on minors), WE HAVE NEED AGAIN TO COME BACK AND GET THE FOUNDATIONS RIGHT. What ARE the great priorities of God’s Word?
Well, here are some that are found on page after page ...
* HOLINESS
* AVID DAILY READING OF GOD’S WORD
* PRAYER
* FELLOWSHIP WITH THE BODY
* WINNING THE LOST BY SIMPLE WITNESS
Let me do a little test here. How many of you feel that you’ve got these basic things completely stitched up; no more growth needed? I would suggest that most honest Christians would say NO we haven’t arrived yet even with these basic things. So WHY on earth would we go up side streets when there’s so much work to be done on the fundamentals?
Jesus said that the foundations determine how the house will stand. To the casual observer, both the house on the rock and the the house on the sand look alike - both may be impressive in their own way - BUT IT IS THE STORM THAT REVEALS THE GREAT DIFFERENCE! Jesus said when the storm came and beat upon the house on the rock it stood firm. But when the storm came to the house built quickly upon the sand - it fell in a heap.
What are the “storms” Jesus speaks of referring to? What storms must we face? ...
a) There are the storms of life. You know what I mean - you may have experienced some of them already. The things that life can throw at you; the persecutions you face because of your stand for Christ. The simple disappointments and hardships. IF THE FOUNDATION ISN’T RIGHT the house won’t stand. I have known many - even preachers - who did not lay the foundations properly, and when the storm came everything came tumbling down around them.
b) There is the storm of final judgment. For the believer it happens at the Judgment Seat of Christ (the “bema-seat”) Some BIG buildings will come crashing down on THAT day; rest assured! (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
Friend, make sure that your foundations are being laid squarely and solidly upon Jesus Christ and His Word. Pay great attention to detail. Leave no stone unturned in examining your life to see if there be anything that is not as it should be in accordance with God’s Word, and you will be like the WISE man building upon the Rock.
I’ll finish this evening with that picture given to us by Jesus - so vivid in it’s description. And may God help us to be HEARERS and DOERS of His Word, and His Word alone.
Amen!
