Latest / HBCWestminster / 4.25.21 Luke 14:1-11 Pastor Danny Gardner

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4.25.21 Luke 14:1-11 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

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  Well, good morning, church. Thank you to Pastor Sam for leading us in worship. Let's jump right in. If you've got your Bibles, Luke chapter 14. Luke 14 and verses 1 to 11 will be our text this morning. I have titled this morning's passage, Humility is the Best Medicine, and that will make sense why I titled it that in just a moment. Luke chapter 14, verses 1 to 11, and if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, I would ask you to do that now. Allow me to read our text, and then we'll pray and begin. Verse 1 says,
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  When he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, Which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to these things.
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  Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you're invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, Give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you're invited,
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  Go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you'll be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And Lord, I pray that you would bless the hearing and preaching of your word. God, be exalted in our midst, in our lives, in this church and in our homes. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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  Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, certainly there's been a time in your life where you've been knocked down a notch. Certainly there have been times in your life that have put you in your place, we might say, that has shown you for who you truly are, maybe just plain humiliated you. I am the king of being humiliated. When I was about 35 years old, maybe 10 years ago,
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  went and hiked Mount Whitney. Mount Whitney is 14,000 feet. It's one of the 14ers in California. There are many of them here in Colorado, but one of them is also in California, about 14,500 feet. And I was 35 years old. I had trained for that. I had worked hard, pushed myself and jogging and lifting and eating right and doing all of those things in preparation for what would amount to a 22 mile hike with an elevation gain of about 6,000 miles, 6,000 up and 6,000 miles, 6,000 feet.
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  6,000 feet up and another 6,000 feet back down. And so I knew it was going to be hard. And so I trained, I worked out and all of that. And I accomplished the entire thing in about 12 hours, seven hours. It took me to get up five hours. It took me to get down. I was retelling that story to a young man from our church and I was meeting with him. He was a college age student, was just a physical specimen, a really strong young.
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  man named Josh and Josh was a college quarterback and really, really just in great shape. And I told him, you know, that I had hiked Mount Whitney and he said, Oh, that's great, Pastor Danny. Well, how long did it take you?
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  And I said, it took me 12 hours, seven hours up and five hours down. And he was really impressed. You know, and I was kind of becoming a little bit proud. I mean, he was going on and on about 12 hours. That's great. He says, that's way faster than I did it. It took me 18 hours to hike that thing. And I thought, OK, I'm doing pretty good. You know, here's this 35 year old guy, you know, old and getting out of shape. And, you know, I have had my kids and those types of things. And now this young guy, you know, a college quarterback, he couldn't do it as fast as I could. And I said, oh, that's great job.
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  You know I said you've you've hiked up Mount Whitney, and he said oh yeah, I hiked up at Pastor Danny You know my dad took me for my 10th birthday For my 10th birthday he was 10 years old when he did it he was in the fourth grade It took him 18 hours because he was only this tall You know and I went from being proud of myself to just being deflated in that moment
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  I've often said that God is in the business of humbling, proud men and church. In my life, business is good. Jesus, in Luke chapter 14, is a mere matter of months from his crucifixion, and he's teaching as he travels toward Jerusalem for what will be the final time. And here again, we find Jesus lunching with his enemies.
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  Here again, we find him engaging with the world rather than withdrawing from the world. And here again is a good lesson for us. You know, Jesus in his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17.
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  did not pray that we would be removed from the world, but rather he prayed that we would be protected from the evil one. It has always, church, been the Lord's intention that we, his body, would engage with the world. He wants us to engage and not withdraw, and yet he prays that we would remain unstained by sin. And Jesus himself modeled that behavior even unto the end of his earthly life.
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  Here again in Luke chapter 14 is Christ committed to the truth and giving those who were deceived what they needed to hear the most. He gives them a dose of reality. He gives them a dose of medicine. And here again, we find that Jesus taught that laughter is not the best medicine, but rather humility is the best medicine. If we are to be saved, church, we must be humble.
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  If we are to be saved, then we must see ourselves for who we truly are. How much of our lives, beloved church, have been ruined due to a lack of humility. In marriage counseling, and especially premarital counseling, I will often tell young starry-eyed couples that having a joyous marriage is not actually that difficult. It's not hard to have a great marriage. Simply die to yourself and live for your spouse.
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  That's it. If you will die to yourself and live for your spouse, you'll have a great marriage. You can't ruin that. In fact, I will tell them that every divorce that has ever taken place, indeed, every single fight that has ever happened between a husband and wife is the result of one or the other or more likely both of them being selfish. Imagine how many marriages, how many friendships, how many churches, how many businesses and schools and sports teams have been torn asunder.
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  How much of the kingdom's advance has been dismantled or hindered because of our pride. We think we are better than we are. The crux of the passage this morning is really verse 11.
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  Verse 11, where Jesus says, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And here he explicitly states that humility is coming to all men. Every single man and woman will be humbled, no matter their station.
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  Either by willing acceptance, they will humble themselves, or by way of force, humility will be placed and forced upon them. And at some point, every man and woman will have to face the fact that they are not God, that there exists a being that is higher than they are. We are a people, church, prone to look down.
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  down on others. And Jesus' axiom here in verse 11 is a reminder to look up and to see God for who he is and ourselves for who we are. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 5 when the apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth and he says, for what we proclaim is not ourselves. We don't preach ourselves. We preach instead Jesus Christ.
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  What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. In other words, he says, what we are are servants for you. We are servants of Christ. And church, may I just ask, do you view yourself this way? As a servant whose one goal is to serve.
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  Or do you, the way that the Pharisees that Jesus had lunch with in our passage this morning, do you view yourself higher than you ought to? Do you have a swollen and bloated, it's kind of gross, but this bloated view of yourself? As we'll see in our passage this morning, those who are swollen by pride cannot be.
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  saved because they simply cannot fit through the narrow gate. You remember just a couple of weeks ago when Pastor Sam said, and he was teaching on the narrow gate, Jesus said, strive, fight, contend, agonize to enter through the narrow gate. Those bloated by pride cannot be saved because they simply don't fit through the narrow gate. The narrow gate is this small. And only when you see yourself for who you truly are, can you fit.
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  And so let's go through it. Our passage this morning just has two, two points this morning. And the first found in verses one to six, Jesus gives a lesson in healing, a lesson in healing, but really it's a lesson in doing what's right. Notice verse one, one Sabbath. Again, we are back to the Sabbath. When Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully and behold, there was a man.
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  Now you'll recall that I introduced the concept of mirror healings just a few months back. Mirror healings, as they're often described, are those miracles repeated by Christ in order to reinforce a spiritual truth. A repeated miracle where Jesus would purposefully do the same miracle in the same manner.
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  in order to reinforce a spiritual truth mirror miracles or mirror or repeated miracles were used by jesus as a spiritual check for the pharisees and religious leaders to see if their hearts and heads had progressed it's like and i said this a few months back they became the standardized testing of christ's ministry like
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  iowa testing for christ's opponents it's like he just goes through it every couple of months he just jiggles the door handles of their hearts to see if they would open and most of the time they did not you can imagine jesus just going about his business checking to see if the door is unlocked what about this time is it unlocked nope still locked what about this time is it unlocked nope still locked they still don't want me to come in and healing on the sabbath in full view of those who believed that practice to be sin is certainly one of those repeated mirror
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  You see it throughout the earthly ministry of Christ. Multiple times he will go into the synagogue on the Sabbath, heal somebody in full view of them all, and be rejected by them because of it. You'll recall just a few weeks ago the healing of the disfigured and demon-oppressed woman in the synagogue. So filled with themselves were those uber-religious synagogue leaders that they couldn't even see.
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  the woman who was in need. They had neglected her. And not only did we find in chapter 13 that Christ saw her, but his heart broke over her condition and he was moved to miraculous action. And this morning we find the same.
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  By using in verse 2 the word behold Luke again is narrowing our focus The synagogue would have been crowded and he on that Sabbath day as he leaves from the synagogue. I'm sorry He goes to the Pharisees house. This would have been a bustle of activity and yet Luke draws our attention He narrows our focus on to one man Luke the physician draws our attention again to the man who would otherwise have been overlooked
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  The pride of the Pharisees kept them from even seeing him, and Jesus, we find, not only saw the man, but was moved to compassionate healing again, and again, the Pharisees did not get the message. Daryl Bach has astutely said, sin is blinding, and a hard heart is tough to break. Despite numerous opportunities, the leadership failed to see what God is doing, and church
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  God forbid that Hyland would ever fail to see what God is doing because of the hardness of our own hearts. We are quick at times to blame our spiritual failures on others, to blame our spiritual lethargy or inadequacy or our spiritual unawareness on other people. That's my wife's fault, I've heard people say. Well, she's a bully.
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  It's my husband's fault. He's critical of me. It's the church's fault. They should have pursued me harder. We learn in our passage that if we're not seeing what God is doing, it's no one else's fault but our own. Go back to verse one and notice there's a phrase I want to point out. It says that he was at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. And it says at the end of verse one, they were watching him carefully. They were watching him carefully. In other words, they were studying Jesus, but not the way we study him.
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  We carefully watch Jesus in order to become like Jesus, but they carefully watch Jesus in order to ensnare him. In fact, many commentators, in fact, most commentators seem to agree that the presence of the dropsicle man, I think that's how you would say that, the man with dropsy, was prearranged. Most agree.
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  that these Pharisees intentionally arranged matters so that this man would be in the dining room next to Jesus on the Sabbath in order to confirm again that Jesus would contravene their religious law so that they again could justify their rejection of him. And again, Jesus did what was right regardless of the consequences. Do you see that? He does what is right.
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  regardless of the consequences. You know, in light of this week's verdict regarding Officer Chauvin and the death of George Floyd, one man, a young man from our church, who himself is on his way to becoming a sheriff's deputy, was talking to me about what a crazy time it is to be in law enforcement.
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  He said that he has struggled, not with the idea of being killed in the line of duty, but rather, he said, my greatest fear is that I will be doing my job and be imprisoned for it. Oh, I told him the same thing that I will tell all of you. Do what is right. Do what is right. And then trust the Lord.
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  for the consequences. I told him if one day he finds himself in jail for doing what is right, I told him this, I said that I will likely be his cellmate.
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  Because I'm just committed to do what is right. We're just going to do what is right. We are going to preach the truth. We are going to act according to God's word, regardless of the consequences. And I texted him. I said, listen, if you are in jail for doing what is right, I likely on that day will be your cellmate. To which he replied, then I call top bunk. I call top bunk. It does bring up an interesting question though. Can we honestly do what is right?
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  and then trust God with the fallout. Can we really honestly do that? Can we become imprisoned for doing what is right and then in that moment still trust in the sovereignty of God? And I would argue, yes, we can. Turn in your Bibles with me if you would. I'd like you to see it in your own scripture, but turn in your Bibles to the right to Philippians, the book of Philippians and chapter one.
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  Verse 12. Now you find that the Apostle Paul is in a jail. He's in a Roman jail. He is chained to a Roman guard, which was standard practice. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But he's imprisoned and he's writing a letter to the church at Philippi. And look at chapter 1 and verse 12. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me, his imprisonment, has really served to advance the gospel. You're like, how could that happen? What do you mean? Going to jail has served to advance the gospel? How could that be true?
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  look at verse 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for christ standard roman practice at the time of the apostle paul was to chain a prisoner to a guard in order to ensure that the prisoner could not escape
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  Paul viewed his imprisonment as an opportunity to preach the good news He literally had in his mind a captive audience. This guy can't even get away. He's chained to me
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  The guard couldn't leave and so persuasive was Paul in his preaching that the entire Imperial Guard as there were shift changes and all of that other stuff as they each took their turns now being chained to this man to the Apostle Paul the entire Imperial Guard heard about Jesus and the question I have is who was chained to whom Who was chained to whom was Paul chained to them or were they chained to Paul?
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  Paul was being imprisoned for preaching the gospel and as his reward or punishment, but really as his reward, what the Romans did was just gave him a captive audience. And I would ask church, who has the Lord chained you to? Who has the Lord chained you to? Who has he strategically placed in your life that cannot get away? A family member, a roommate, an office mate, a neighbor.
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  People that the Lord in his sovereignty and kindness and grace has placed in your path that cannot get away. And so now you have an opportunity to persuade them to the gospel. Church, can we trust the Lord that if we do the right thing and end up in jail for it, can we trust the Lord in that moment? Yes, he will place in our path, just like he did for the apostle Paul. He will place in our path people who need to be persuaded of the truth.
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  Go back to chapter 14 of Luke and look at verse 2. It says, Now again, we pick up a theme. Dropsy was a condition where one would retain bodily fluids. They would literally begin to swell. Their bodies would begin to bloat. It was extremely painful. Ancient rabbis believed that dropsy, along with a whole host of other ailments, dropsy was a direct judgment from God because
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  of sin and so a man with dropsy in their minds was not only disfigured but was cursed and that's important to note he was cursed by god and so kindness extended to a man who had dropsy was kindness extended to a man who'd been cursed to do so was to share in that curse and therein lies the theme how many times have we seen christ
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  cutting against the social norms of his day, doing what was culturally unacceptable in order to show the love and compassion of the heavenly father church. We can never go wrong if we are obeying God and serving people. And that's exactly what Jesus did. Pick up in verse three. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? So he asks a question.
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  Verse 4, but they remained silent. He took him and healed him and sent him on his way. So he asks a question, he heals the man, sends him away, and then in verse 5 he asks another question. And he said to them, which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? And so he asks two penetrating questions in order to bookend the healing. The first one is this, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Church, nothing.
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  Nothing, nothing, nothing in the law prohibited the healing of an injured man on the Sabbath. That was a made-up rule that they were following. Remember, the Sabbath was meant to be a blessing to mankind and not a burden. And what a blessing the man with dropsy received this Sabbath day. He was blessed by God the way that the Lord intended.
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  Notice Christ's second question, which of you would not help your son or your ox? And Christ showed again the pettiness of the Pharisees' hearts. They had lowered this suffering man to a position lower than that.
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  of an animal and verse 6 says they could not reply to these things why because there was nothing to say he asked the right questions they had no response that's first there's a lesson in healing really it's a lesson in doing the right thing and trusting god with the consequences but notice second christ offers a lesson also in humility a lesson in humility look at verse 7 now he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor
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  They chose the places of honor in this moment of awkward silence, right? They have no reply. That moment of awkward silence is finally broken when Christ saw that the Pharisees promoted themselves in their selection of seats.
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  Now, a typical table in Jesus' day would have been arranged in a U shape and placed in the middle of the room. The head of the table, what would have been like the top of the bell, the head of the table, the head of the U, was reserved for the host. On either side of him, his right and his left, would have been the two most prominent guests. Then, wrapping around and going down the sides of the table would be seated all of the remaining guests.
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  And so when guests would arrive, there would typically be a scramble for the best seats, the seats of honor, the seats closest to the head. Remember the week before his crucifixion, when two of his own apostles, James and John, come to him, they seek the best seats in the kingdom. Do you remember this? Allow one of us, they asked, to sit at your right hand and the other at your left in the kingdom. They were scrambling for the best seats. It's like they were calling shotgun on heaven.
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  And so Christ finally breaks the silence. There's a moment of awkward silence. There's a pause and so Christ breaks the silence by telling a parable parables Will really mark the next three chapters of Luke some of those parables will seem relatively obscure Some of them you will be very familiar with like the parable of the prodigal son. That's coming
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  But Jesus used parables to illustrate spiritual truths, and notice this morning's parable is not at all difficult to understand. Pick up in verse 8. When you're invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor.
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  Let someone more distinguished than you be invited by him. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this person. And then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. You see what he's saying? Don't take the best seat because at some point, somebody more important than you might show up. And now the host is going to come to you and say, hey man, scooch down, scooch down, slide down to a lower seat. My buddy is here. I saved this seat for him. How embarrassing would that be? Verse 10, but when you're invited, go and sit in the lowest place.
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  So that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you'll be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. Instead, he says, of choosing one of those two places of honor. Instead, he said, choose the lowest places so that when the host, your friend, sees you, he'll say, you don't deserve to be down here. I saved a place for you up here next to me. Come sit next to me. And in front of everyone, you will be honored. Really simple, church. Don't assume you're the best person in the room.
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  Don't assume you're more important than other people in the room. Ever. Just never make that assumption that you're more important than other people. Listen to Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
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  Listen again, Romans chapter 12 and verse 3. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. That's what Jesus is saying here in the parable. And he concludes with a really poignant statement in verse 11. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. God, we find, is the host.
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  of the parable and is seated at the head of the table and god has the power to both humble the proud and to exalt the humble and it was christ himself who promised that salvation would only come to the humble in matthew chapter 5 when he said in verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth and it turns out
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  that the bloated man, the man with dropsy in our passage was not the man with the problem. Did you catch that? It was instead the Pharisees who were bloated with their own pride. They suffered from what we might call spiritual dropsy. And because of their pride, they left without being healed. They left without receiving humility, which really is the best medicine. Those
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  bloated by pride cannot be saved because they simply can't fit through the narrow gate. And so, church, may I challenge us to embrace humility. There is nothing more important than seeing ourselves for who we truly are. And we are, according to 2 Corinthians 4, like we said at the beginning of the sermon, we are nothing more, nothing more than servants.
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  for Jesus' sake. And we can never go wrong if we are obeying God and loving people. And if we are one day punished for that, then we can in that moment even trust our Heavenly Father entirely that he will chain to us someone who needs to be persuaded of the truth. And Lord, make us a humble people. May we preach you and then just offer ourselves as servants.
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  God, thank you for your love and grace and mercy toward us. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.