Luke 20 vs 19-47

Luke Chapter 20 Verse 19
•Why? Why chose this path? Here’s some help, that vineyard isn’t yours. Your spouse, your home, your car, your job, your ministry, even you…you are not your own, you’ve been bought with a price…and yet the vineyard has been leased to you.
•Glorify God with your life, tend well to what has been entrusted to you, and even if things seem they are falling apart, they are not. Bear fruit. Live your life to glorify you, you’re gone just as soon as the wind blows…being grinded even by this life. These that harden their hearts fear the people, they are shut down, they have been shut up, they have been publicly humiliated, they are defeated… and yet, this same day there are those being blessed, fed, filled, healed…
Luke Chapter 20 Verse 20
•Maybe not to you, but to me, that is intense. What we just read is extremely intense. High volume. All the sirens, red alert! Why? Because it says here that they pretended to be righteous. That’s scary because I am naturally someone who offers. Friendship, accommodation, trust…and just like some of you, I have been sucker-punch stunned by people that even though I knew they were intensely self-centered, I was hopeful…and it turned out very badly for me. This verse scares me…
•Don’t pretend to be righteous. Be righteous. And that means no pretending. Folks pretend because they don’t want to deal with their real issues. If you deal with your real issues, you’ll be free, man! Don’t pretend to be righteous! Be righteous and that means sometimes telling someone how much of a problem you have with them! Because even in that, you are walking in truth! Ever read Matthew 18?
•Now, you want to do this in order to fix things, to make peace, to enact and restore kindness…speaking the truth in love…if you can’t do that, then don’t tell them how much you hate them in the name of Matthew 18! Go to a counselor, or go to the Lord and work out why you’re so hard-hearted! Ugh!
•But pretending leads only to terrible things. And ultimately pretenders are prisoners. WHY!? And they watch, and they spy, and they gossip, and they look for opportunity to hurt others. You may say, nope…but the truth is you’d protect yourself over protecting them… The righteous don’t do that. Look at the cross….
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 21 – 23
•This is them pretending, trying to seize on His words. If Jesus had answered, “yes, it is lawful for us to pay taxes,” then the people would have turned on Him and stoned Him for being a traitor. If Jesus had answered, “no,” then they would immediately report Him for insurrection to Rome and have Him arrested.
•This is the part that scares me. It’s a trap. This is what pretenders do…they set traps. Here’s the hope though, Jesus navigates it perfectly! SO, while the pretenders scare me, because I know I’ll believe their fake righteousness, I don’t have to harden my own heart…
•What does that mean? I have to have the faith to walk right into the traps of others. There is going to be pain and hurt and sadness when I find out they aren’t and weren’t anything true…more clearly, when I find out that I wasn’t and am not anything to them…there’s going to be pain. BUT, Jesus will navigate me out of the trap perfectly if I can hold to trusting in Him (difficult in distress, for sure).
•But look, the good I did for the pretender, I’m glad for that. The faith I build by walking with Jesus through the whole ordeal, priceless. The pain of being nothing again to someone who I was willing to make important to me…indescribable…but that softens you a bit when you walk with the Lord because all of heaven and earth had to forsake Jesus to carry out His love… it’s an eye-lock personal moment with Jesus.
•And I love this, Jesus says, “Why do you test Me?” The word test is in the present active indicative tense which means literally, the way it is spoken, “Why are you yet testing Me again!?” Don’t you get tired of losing? Has it worked yet? I know the path to destruction, to being ripped off, to missing out, to self-protect is wide and easy and many go that route, but the path that leads to life is narrow and it is hard and few will find it. Which path are you on?
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 24 – 26
•An absolute perfect response. The coin is made in the image of Caesar; Therefore, it belongs to him. It is not its own. So, return the coin to its owner. You however are made in the image of God. Therefore, you belong to Him. You are not your own. So, return to your Creator. That really is the answer for the issue. The issue in the scene and the issue or issues you are in now. I am in now. Return unto God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist God and He will resist you. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
•Check this out. If the Jews had lived out verse 25 in the first place, then they wouldn’t have been under Roman rule! Can you hear that!? The whole situation they are in, oppressed, controlled, restrained, taxed and frustrated…is because they reached out to Rome, mixed with Rome, and were eventually taken over by Rome…
Luke Chapter 20 Verse 27
•The Sadducees where an odd bunch. Religious leaders, members of the Sanhedrin, and yet they were not spiritual at all. They only accepted the first five books of Moses and they did not believe in immortality, spirits or angels. They believed that this life was all that there was and that’s why they were sad, you see! HA!
•But here’s the oddest part of this bunch and this scene. These are they that deny that there is a resurrection, and yet who is with Jesus? Lazarus! Crazy! Right in front of them and yet they continue in their hardened ways! Their turn to try and trap Jesus… Trapped people try to trap people…it stinketh. Freed people try to free people…
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 28 – 33
•This is the most ridiculous of questions for several reasons. First, it’s hardly feasible and second, they don’t even believe in the resurrection. Here’s what blows me away. Why didn’t Jesus throw dirt in their eyes? I mean, my face would have at least condemned them. But not the Lord. He has very little time left and yet in His grace, He responds and He does so with care, and poise.
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 34 – 36
•Jesus’ answer gives us information about the age to come. Life in the resurrection does not merely continue this order but is an entirely different order and way of life. What will it be like? Not sure. Different. No more sin and death. Unfortunately, no more marriage…and since that is so extremely wonderful, there must be something wildly amazing in store for us!
•Family relationships will still be known. We know that from Luke 16 as the rich man Jesus described who was dead was aware of his brothers. But for those that have had a spouse go on to be with the Lord ahead of them, and now you are remarried, perhaps this is something you’ve wondered but you can be confident that there will be no jealousy or weirdness in heaven…
•Interesting how Jesus separates that “age” and “the resurrection.” You see, saved or not, all of us made in the image of God with the breath of life within us are eternal beings. And so, heaven or hell…both are forever…one is considered the resurrection because you continue to live on for eternity in heaven while the other is considered not the resurrection since those that go to hell die a second death…and yet are still eternal in death.
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 37 – 38
•Awesome grace flowing from Jesus in these statements because He is using the Torah, which is the only text accepted by the Sadducees, to give proof of the resurrection. But even more awesome and hope-filled is what He says here. My father died before Link was born, before Madison took up the drums, before this church was started…he’s missed so much and that hurts…but I know I will sit with him at the shore of a sea of glass and tell him all the things one day soon…because of what Jesus says here….
•By this time, Abraham had been dead for 1,800 years. And yet he is not dead, but alive. Isaac and Jacob had been dead for 1,700 years. And yet they live! Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live!” This is the hope that we have in Jesus. Not just for ourselves but for those that we love and miss so very much! Proven factual and real and trustworthy and legit by Jesus’ resurrection Himself.
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 39 – 40
•Some were persuaded and came to faith. The others were shut up. Sheep and goats. The separation in these sentences here are the same as it is today and will be in the final judgment. Which side of the statement are you on?
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 41 – 44
•A plea from Jesus for those that are listening to open their hearts and minds and be ok with not being right about everything. There is still something to learn and more to understand perhaps about the Messiah. For example, quoting from Psalm 110, how is it that the Messiah would be both Son to and Lord of King David? Unspeakable, inconceivable! But John would later write of Jesus in Revelation 22:16, that He is both the root and the offspring of David.
•John! An uneducated, unknown, failed fisherman was able to grasp, understand, comprehend and know more than the book-worm religious elite! Why? The best teacher of all was his guide? Jesus…sure…but in truth…humility!
Luke Chapter 20 Verses 45 – 47
•Interesting description given by Jesus. Long robes means no work. They considered themselves so great and yet they watched others do all the work. It never fails. The folks that become the most dis-satisfied are the ones not in the fight for souls. Self-centeredness is just natural in that circumstance. The folks not giving to the ministry…reserving their treasures for their own long robes…no investment. These are the ones most susceptible to pride in the body of Christ and against the body of Christ…
•They loved greetings which means they demanded and thrived off of the recognition they got from others. No results, just pomp. They took the best seats. They didn’t serve those around them. They devour widow’s houses. They take advantage of the life-issues of others. Pretention filled prayers… they pray for themselves and not for the Lord. Jesus says here, they have a greater condemnation. Bruh, why?
•Same hell awaits anyone that doesn’t receive Christ, but in addition, they miss out on this life too… Living for yourself rips you completely off! It is the opposite of humility and humility is the well spring of joy.
•Do you want everything that the Lord has for you? Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. Do the hard things. Take the narrow path. I know, it seems like that will be the path of pain…a little insight…it will. But from humility and fellowship with Jesus comes the life that He had even within Himself. The life that defeats every form and every power of death…and every enemy that comes against you with stupid accusation and questions…just like in these scenes.