Introduction
It’s been almost a month since we were studying Luke’s gospel together. Since then we’ve had Easter and I was on holiday and then last week we had the PW service. So, it’s been a while, but now we’re back in Luke. And I’ve said before that we’re going through it at a brisk pace, taking a chapter at a time. The last time we spent our time on Luke 11, which was about prayer and opposition. And I said those two topics are related, because the way we cope with opposition in the Christian life is by turning to God in prayer and by seeking from him the help we need. And God our Heavenly Father loves us and cares for us. There’s nothing he won’t do for us. And so, when we ask God for help, he will give it to us. When we seek what we need from him, we will find it. When we knock at his door, the door will be opened. And so, we’re to ask, seek and knock, because God our Father is willing to give good gifts to his children. And chief among his good gifts is the Holy Spirit, who helps us to stand firm against satan’s wicked schemes and to stand firm in the faith even when an unbelieving world opposes us.
And the rest of chapter 11 was about the opposition the Lord faced and which his people can expect to face. But when opposition comes, we can always turn to the Lord in prayer to seek his help.
Although we’ve been going through Luke’s gospel chapter by chapter, we’re only going to study verses 1 to 34 of chapter 12 this evening. And next time I think we’ll study from verse 35 to verse 9 of chapter 11. And what is today’s passage about? It begins with the Lord warning his disciples about the Pharisees. And then he goes on to tell them who they’re to fear. So, they’re not to fear the Pharisees and others like them who may oppose them in this life. Instead they’re to fear God. And then someone interrupted the Lord. This person wanted the Lord to intervene on his behalf in a dispute over the family inheritance. And the Lord responded by telling the parable of the rich fool, who thought his life was secure and he had nothing to worry about because he was rich. But his wealth did not make his life secure, because that very night he died. And the passage ends with the Lord telling his disciples not to worry: don’t worry about what you’ll eat or about what you’re wear or about anything else.
And so, what is the passage about? It’s about fear and worry, isn’t it? Those who fear the Lord — with the right kind of fear — need not worry about anything.
Verses 1 to 12
Let’s start with verses 1 to 12. By now, a crowd of many thousands of people had gathered to hear the Lord Jesus. But in the following verses, the Lord addressed his disciples in particular. And he told them to be on their guard or to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees. He’s not really talking about yeast, but he’s using the image of yeast to refer to their hypocrisy which can spread through society just as yeast spreads through some dough. And when the Lord refers to their hypocrisy, he means that they present them as godly people and as faithful interpreters of God’s will as revealed in the Scriptures. And they want people to be like them and to do what they do. And their influence among the people was growing all the time and people were listening to them and they were being taking in by the Pharisees and by the things they said.
But in the previous chapter, the Lord had pronounced a number of woes on the Pharisees, because they weren’t what they thought they were and they were really only interested in outward conformity to God’s law and in keeping up the right appearance so that people would be impressed with them. They wanted people to praise them for their devotion to God’s law. But if the people could see into their hearts, they’d see that their hearts were a house of horrors, filled with all kinds of greed and wickedness. In other words, they were hypocrites and no one should try to emulate them.
And then the Lord went on to say in verse 2 that there is nothing hidden which will not be made known. And what they — the disciples — have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight; and what they have whispered will be proclaimed from the roofs. It’s likely that what the Lord means is that the disciples are to proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ and make it known to the world. The Pharisees and others like them may well oppose them and persecute them. But instead of keeping the message to themselves, they were to broadcast it to the world. So, don’t let a fear of the Pharisees prevent you from preaching the good news of salvation.
And so, don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body, but who can do no more than that. That’s in verse 4. He’s referring to their persecutors. Their persecutors can kill the body. But that’s all they can do, because they can’t kill your soul. We believe that after we die, our souls do not die or decay, but they return to the Lord who made us. The souls of believers are made perfect in the presence of the Lord and they then wait for their resurrection of their bodies so that they will be with the Lord in body and soul for ever and for ever. And so, for the believer, death is not the end, but it’s the doorway into God’s presence. And being with the Lord in the life to come is far, far, far better than anything we can experience in this life. And so, in a sense, those who kill us are not really hurting us, because all they’re doing is opening the doorway for us into the presence of the Lord. And so, we need not fear them.
But the one people should fear is the Lord, because he’s the one who has the power to throw a person into hell. That’s what the Lord says in verse 5. And that’s because while the souls of believers are made perfect in the presence of the Lord and await the resurrection of their bodies, the souls of unbelievers are thrown into hell, where they will remain in torments and utter darkness to await the resurrection of their bodies. And after the resurrection of their bodies, they will suffer God’s punishment on them in body and soul for ever and for ever.
I was reading a book recently on assisted dying, because the Scottish parliament is considering whether or not to permit it. And one of the points the author made is that people who are suffering in this life assume that death will be better for them than life. They assume that death will lead to nothingness. But they’re dead wrong, aren’t they? They’re dead wrong, because death does not lead to nothingness. For the unbeliever, death leads to everlasting torment and pain.
And so, who should we fear? Not those who can take away our life in this world. We’re to fear God. And that means we’re to revere him and stand in awe of him and we’re to obey him, because he’s the Lord God Almighty who lives and who reigns for ever and for ever. And even though he’s our loving heavenly Father, we’re still to revere him and stand in awe of him and we’re to obey him, because while he’s our Father, he’s also our Father who is in heaven and who is highly exalted and we’re to bow before him in reverence and with awe.
And then the Lord refers to the price of sparrows in verse 6. Why’s he referring to the price of sparrows? He’s saying that they’re worthless to us. You can get five sparrows for only two pennies. But while they’re worthless to us, God knows all about them, because they’re of value to him. And God knows all about us, because we’re even more valuable to God than a sparrow is. And he knows all about us: he even knows the number of hairs on our head. And therefore, his people can count on him to help us when we face opposition from an unbelieving world. We can count on him, because he knows what we’re suffering and he cares about us. So, here’s another reason not to fear those who can kill the body, because if God is prepared to help sparrows, then he’s going to help us too, isn’t he?
And if we acknowledge the Lord Jesus before men, then he will acknowledge us when we stand before God and his angels in heaven for the judgment. But if we disown him before men, then he will disown us when we stand before God and his angels in heaven. He’ll say, ‘I never knew you.’ So, to save our life in this world, we may be tempted to give up the faith. But what does that gain us? It might gain us a longer life in this world. But if we give up our faith in the Saviour, then there’s nothing for us in the life to come apart from God’s condemnation and eternal punishment. So, don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body, but be afraid of the one who can cast us into hell.
And whoever speaks a word against the Lord Jesus will be forgiven. Do you see that in verse 10? And that’s good news, isn’t it? Have you ever denied the Saviour because of fear? Have you ever denied knowing him because you were afraid of what people may say or do to you? Denying him is a terrible thing to do, of course. But whoever repents and seeks God’s forgiveness will be forgiven, because Christ has already paid for all our sins and shortcomings with his life. And so, that’s the reassurance we need, isn’t it? But here’s another warning: whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Mark, in his gospel, explains for us that the Lord said this because some of the were saying about him that he has an evil spirit. So, instead of believing that the Lord Jesus cast out demons and he healed the sick by the power of the Holy Spirit, they believed he was from satan. They saw what the Holy Spirit was doing through him and they said it wasn’t the Holy Spirit, but satan. And so, because of their unbelief, they rejected the only Saviour of the world. And whoever rejects the only Saviour of the world cannot be saved. They cannot be forgiven, so long as they continue to reject him.
But when the disciples are brought before synagogues or rulers or authorities and when they’re put under trial because of their faith, they should not worry about what they will say. Why not? Because the Holy Spirit will teach them what they need to say. And so, there’s a promise of help from the Lord. And notice, that he’s not saying that the Holy Spirit will enable the Lord’s disciples to win the case and win their release. Instead, the Holy Spirit will teach them how to proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ in the face of opposition. As one of the commentators says, when, in the book of Acts, Peter and John and Stephen and Paul were arrested and put under trial, their defences are sermons, not speeches. And when an unbelieving world is against us, when we’re under pressure to give up our faith and to renounce the Saviour, when we’re under pressure to conform to the people around us, we can look to our Heavenly Father who loves us and to Christ our King who protects us to give us the help of the Spirit to stand firm in the faith and to testify to what is true.
Verses 13 to 21
And this takes us to the parable of the rich fool in verses 13 to 21. And since the passage before the parable is about what we should fear and since the passage after the parable is about worry, then that suggests to us that the parable is also about fear and worry too.
The Lord tells this parable in answer to a request from someone in the crowd. Someone in the crowd said to him: ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Now, if there’s one thing that can divide a family and tear it apart, it’s an inheritance. And that’s seems to be the case here. Presumably there were two brothers. One got everything. The other got nothing. And the one who got nothing is upset about it. Why would he be upset? There may be lots of reasons, but perhaps he was counting on it. Perhaps he had been counting on it for years. Perhaps life was hard for him. Perhaps he found it hard to pay his bills. Perhaps he found it hard to make ends meet and every week he was a bit short. And so, perhaps for years and years, as he saw his father become older and frailer, he was thinking that the day will soon come when he will receive part of his father’s estate. And when that day comes, then great! All his financial worries will be over. He can pay off his debts. And he can put a little away. And he can make a fresh start. Everything will be great once he gets his share of the inheritance.
But then disaster! For whatever reason, the father left it all to his brother. And he gets nothing. What’s he going to do? His plan to clear his debts and to start again has come to nothing. Disaster.
And so, perhaps he can persuade the Lord Jesus to help him out. But the Lord Jesus refuses to get involved. Though he is the Lord of all, the Eternal Son of God, who will one day judge the living and the dead, nevertheless he tells the man that he has not been sent to do this kind of work. ‘Who appointed me to judge in these matters?’ the Lord asks in verse 14. In other words: This is not my work.
However, the Lord follows this up with a warning to us to guard against all kinds of greed. Was the brother who spoke to him being greedy? Perhaps he was, but very often what lies behind greed is worry. So, we worry how we will cope. We worry how we will make ends meet. We worry whether we will have enough. And so, we want more and more and more for ourselves, and we’re unwilling to give any of it away, because we’re worried we won’t have enough. Because we’re worried, we become greedy. But the Lord warns us about being greedy. And he tells the parable of the rich fool.
And in the parable we’re introduced to a rich man who gets even richer. His land produced a good crop, we’re told in verse 16. And, in fact, it was so good, he doesn’t know what to do with it all. He had nowhere to store all of his crops. So, he thinks about it and comes up with the perfect solution: he decides to tear down the barns he already has and to rebuild them, but bigger than before. And the result is that, since he has plenty stored up for the future, he can retire early and take it easy. He can spend the rest of his days, eating and drinking and being merry, because he has no need to work again. He doesn’t have to worry about hiring people to work the land. He doesn’t have to worry about getting the seed planted at the right time. He doesn’t have to worry about the weather. He doesn’t have to worry about getting the harvest in. He doesn’t have to worry about rising costs. He’s got enough stored up for the rest of his life.
Now, I’ve heard sermons on this passage and usually the preacher attacks the rich man and criticises him for what he said and for what he was planning to do. However, I suspect that lots of people listening to the Lord Jesus would be thinking: ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be like him!’ ‘Wouldn’t it be great not to have to worry about anything ever again.’ And perhaps we do it yourselves from time to time when we hear about people who experience the same good fortune. We hear about people who come into a fortune. And they can pay off their mortgage and buy homes for all their children; and take it easy. And we think about what a difference it would make to our lives if that happened to us. Or I remember reading about Steve Wozniack who formed Apple with Steve Jobs. And overnight he became a millionaire. And he had so much money, he didn’t know what to do with it all. And his father would find uncashed cheques for thousands of dollars in his Porsche. He had so much money, he didn’t worry about lodging these cheques; and they just lay about his car.
We hear about people like that and very often we think: ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be like them and never have to worry about money ever again.’ And so, the people in the crowd, listening to the Lord Jesus, may well have thought that this rich man in the Lord’s story was so very lucky. He was set up for life. He could eat and drink and be merry, and take it easy and enjoy life and never have to worry again, because he had enough money to last him for the rest of his life.
But here’s the thing: Was the rich man’s life any more secure than any other person’s life? Well no, because that very night he died. He had all the money you could ever want. And yet, his money didn’t give him the security we think it gives us. We think money gives us security so we don’t have to worry. But having lots of money didn’t make this man’s life any more secure. Money doesn’t really give us security. And that’s why the man was a fool: he was a fool because he thought that his life was secure because he had money.
So, how does the Lord conclude the parable? Firstly, there’s a warning in verse 21: ‘This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself and is not rich towards God.’ We store up things for ourselves because we want the security it offers. We think that if we have enough, we’ll be safe and our future will be safe and we don’t need to worry. But the Lord warns us not to be like that. Instead we’re to be rich towards God.
That’s a curious expression which is hard to understand, but if the Lord is warning us against storing up things for ourselves, then the opposite must be giving things away for God. In order words, using what we have for God’s glory. And we use what we have for God’s glory when we use it for the good of others. The rich fool was only thinking of himself. Look how he kept saying ‘I’. What shall I do? This is what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns. I’ll store my grain and my goods. I’ll say to myself: Take it easy. He’s only thinking of himself when the Lord’s people are meant to think about God’s glory and the good of our neighbour. So, that’s the first way the Lord concludes the parable.
But then, the second way he concludes the parable is with everything he says in the next section from verse 22 to verse 34.
Verses 22 to 34
‘Therefore, I tell you,’ he says in verse 22, ‘do not worry….’ Worry makes us greedy, because worry makes us hold on to what we have. It makes us hold on to what we have, because we think having stuff makes our life secure. But having stuff doesn’t make our life secure. Having possessions and money doesn’t make our life secure. What makes our life secure? God makes our life secure. Our life is in his hands. He determined the day of our birth and he determines the day of our death and he determines everything in between. It’s all in his hands. And if he’s our heavenly Father — and he becomes our heavenly Father whenever we trust in the Lord Jesus, because whoever trusts in him is adopted into God’s family — so if he’s our heavenly Father, then we don’t need to worry about anything at all, because our loving heavenly Father will take care of us.
So, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Don’t worry about food and clothes, because life is more than food and clothes. That is to say, there’s more to life than food and clothes; and there are more important things in your life than these basic things. So, don’t worry about these things as if these are the most important things.
And look at the birds of the air. They don’t sow or reap. They don’t go out to work in the morning and they don’t have storerooms or barns like the rich man in the parable. And yet, God feeds them. He takes care of them. He provides for them every day. And you’re much more valuable to God than the birds are. And so, if he takes care of the birds, you can count on him to take care of you. So, do not worry.
And, of course, there’s no point in worrying. There’s no point in worrying, because it doesn’t do any good. Will worrying add an extra hour to your life? Will worrying extend the length of your life? It won’t. So, if worry can’t do that, what’s the point in worrying? What good does it do to you or to anyone else?
And then the Lord directs our attention to the flowers of the field. Look at them! They don’t labour or spin. They don’t go out to work in the morning. But not even King Solomon in all his royal splendour was dressed like one of the flowers of the field. God makes the flowers look beautiful, doesn’t he? That’s why we send them to one another, because we know that some flowers will brighten up a person’s life because they look beautiful. And if God is prepared to make flowers beautiful, even though they don’t last long, how much more likely is he to take care of you and to make sure you have what you need for clothes. If he clothes flowers which are here today and gone tomorrow, then won’t he also clothe you?
And the Lord continues: don’t set your heart on what you will eat or drink. That is, don’t worry about those things. The pagans worry about such things. Unbelievers worry about what they’ll eat or drink. They will worry about those things, because they don’t know God the way we know God. They don’t know God as their loving heavenly Father. But that’s what God is to us and to every believer. For the sake of Christ, God has become our heavenly Father who loves us and who cares for us. And he knows what we need. He knows we need food and drink to survive. And so, we can leave it to him to provide us with what we need. And if he doesn’t give us what we need, then there’s a good reason for it; and he’ll also help us to cope with adversity.
And since we don’t have to worry about what we’ll eat and drink, then that means we can focus our thoughts and attention and energy on something else which is far more important. We can focus on God’s kingdom. That is to say, we can focus on serving God our King. Instead of worrying about what we’re going to eat and drink, we can think about how to serve God in the world. What does he want me to do? Who does he want me to serve? Think about those things and God will take care of the rest.
And so, the Lord tells us in verse 32: ‘Don’t be afraid.’ He calls his people his little flock. A little flock has reason to be afraid if the shepherd isn’t nearby. But if the shepherd is with them, there’s no reason to be afraid. When the shepherd is there, he’ll provide the sheep with all that they need: green pastures for food, still waters for drink, right paths to walk along, protection from danger. And we are Christ’s little flock. Since we’re little, we are weak and vulnerable. But that doesn’t matter, because our Shepherd is good and strong and faithful.
And the Lord says that God our Father has been pleased to give us his kingdom. So, we don’t need lots of money and possessions in order to buy it from him. He’s given it to us for free. Life in his kingdom is free for us, because Christ has purchased it for us by his death on the cross. And so, because of him, it’s free for us. We don’t need money or silver or gold to buy it. We don’t need wealth to enter it. God our Father gives it to us.
And what does our King want us to do? How do we serve him? Well, he wants us to be generous, doesn’t he? The Lord says we’re to sell our possessions. Now, the Lord does not forbid his people from having possessions. He doesn’t mean we should all sell everything we have and become poor. What he’s saying is that we should be willing to part with what we own in order to help others. If we need to sell some of our stuff, then we should do so, because it’s his will for us that we should be generous instead of greedy.
And remember: behind greed, there’s worry. But once we’re convinced that there’s no need to worry, because God will help us, then we don’t need to be greedy and to cling on to what we have. Instead we can be generous, because God our Heavenly Father will provide.
And so, provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. Things on earth wear out, but heavenly things do not wear out. And so, he’s saying to us that we should store up wealth for ourselves in heaven and not on earth. Heavenly treasure will never be exhausted. And no thief will be able to break into heaven to steal our treasure away and no moths will destroy our heavenly treasure. And what is heavenly treasure? He’s referring to our heavenly reward, which God gives to those who are generous here on earth. Like all of God’s rewards, he’s not obligated to give it to us. He doesn’t have to give it to us. But it’s one he graciously and freely gives to those who are generous.
And the section ends with the Lord saying that where our treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so, where are we storing up treasure? On earth by keeping all that we have for ourselves? Or in heaven by being generous towards others? Where are we storing up treasure? Well, where we’re storing it reveals something about our heart. It reveals what we love and desire most of all. And so, what do you desire most of all? Earth or heaven? The earth is good. After all, God made it. And after he made it, he declared it to be good, even very good. And God himself loves the world, because he made it and he has promised to renew it when Christ comes again. But while the earth is good, heaven is so much better, because being in heaven means being with our Triune God: God our Father who made us; God the Son who died and was raised to save us; and God the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us and makes us holy. And God has promised that one day we will see him in heaven. We will see him in the face of Christ our Saviour. And when we see him, we’ll be happy for ever. God is the Blessed Trinity. He is eternally happy. And when we see him, we’ll be happy too. God already makes us happy here on earth by filling our lives with good things for us to enjoy and for us to share with others. But he has something far, far better in store for us in his presence, because in his presence we’ll be happy for ever and for ever. And while we wait to enter eternal life, we can trust our heavenly Father to take care of us. And since he is kind and good to us, then we should be kind and good to others.
Sermons and Stuff 