Embracing the New While Cherishing the Past
Luke 16:14-18
©Copyright October 17, 2010 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche
SERIES: Walking with Jesus
Most people love
new things. We love the new car smell and we like the way we look in new
clothes. We love the challenge of a new job, we look forward to seeing new
television shows, and you may even stand in line to get the new books of your
favorite authors. Even in the church you will see a bump in attendance when
there is a new building. Others are drawn to a church for the new music and new
styles of worship.
There is a common
danger on concluding that the new is always better than the old. We toss aside
some things, people, marriages, and ideas simply because they are old. However,
if you have lived for any length of time you know that some of the old
(classic) cars have an appeal that surpasses that of a new vehicle. Old
furniture (antiques) are often built with greater
quality than mass produced furniture. Classic (old) books are often far
superior to the shallow drivel that often shows up in bookstores today.
This morning we
are going to look at a brief passage that gives interpreters fits. These few
verses seem out of place between the story of the Shrewd Manager and the Rich
Man and Lazarus. However, we have learned from experience over the years that this text, like every other text we have studied, is here for a reason
and given to us by God to help us grow in discipleship.
Something New and Exhilarating
Luke 16:16-18 follows the story of the shrewd manager. In that story
Jesus taught us that we should live now in light of Heaven and part of that was
using our worldly wealth and resources to invest in
eternity.
Then Jesus seems
to shift gears very suddenly, like someone who decides to turn right from the
left lane of traffic. These religious
leaders felt smug and self-righteous. They believed they did not need Jesus.
Jesus wanted them to understand God’s true plan and purpose.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being
preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
The Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament)
was proclaimed until John the Baptist. The message of the Old Testament was
pretty simple: live a holy life (do what God says), repent of sin, offer your
sacrifices, and pray for God to be merciful to you. The Old Testament way of
salvation was still through faith (in the Promise of a Messiah) but the people
were left somewhat uncertain of their status before God.
With the coming of John the Baptist a new page
is turned. John announced the coming of the one who
had been promised: the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus is
that Lamb. He revealed His authority in the way He taught, the miracles He
performed, and the forgiveness He promised. He paid the penalty of our sin
through His death in our place. Jesus invited people to trust and follow Him
and promised forgiveness, new life, and life even beyond the grave.
As a result, Jesus observed, those who before felt alienated and
excluded clamored to enter this new Kingdom offered by Christ. Picture a big
crowd that is pushing to get into a concert or to get the hot Christmas present
of the year for their child or the crowd at an “after Christmas sale”. People
stand in line and rush in when the doors are open completely unaware of those
around them (often with tragic results). All they can see is the benefit that
is ahead.
The common people saw the blessing of what Jesus was offering. The
Scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus and resisted his message. Go back to
verse 15 and you see that Jesus said “you are the ones who justify
yourselves in the eyes of men.” The religious leaders believed they deserved
God’s blessing. They felt they had earned Heaven. They didn’t need a Savior.
There are many of these kinds of people today. There is a large segment
of our population who believe they can earn salvation; they “justify
themselves”. If you ask the majority of people today if they believe they will
go to Heaven when they die, they would tell you that they believe they will. If
you ask them why they believe this they say: “Because I have lived a pretty
good life”. For many, part of the way they “justify themselves is by going to
church.
What people don’t understand is that God has not called us to be
“better than average”, He calls us to be Holy as He is Holy. We are not free to
change His standards (even if the civil courts declare our sin to be “legal” or
if we were “having a bad day”). The standard is absolute and unchanging. The
only way for a person to feel they have earned salvation and eternal life is to
either lower God’s standard (thus minimizing our transgression), or vastly
inflate their own goodness.
We’ve had a picture of the gospel message this week. Think of sinful
human beings (that’s all of us) like the miners of Chile who were trapped in
the coal mine. They could do nothing to get themselves out of the mine; they
were totally dependent on their rescuers who provided the means of escape in
the form of a tight little car that brought them to the surface. In a sense, as
those miners waited for a drill to bore a hole to their location they were like
those in the Old Testament. They had hope, but all they could do was wait for their rescuer. The arrival of the “car” is similar
to the coming of Jesus. Jesus provides our means of escape from the penalty and
life of sin by giving His life as a payment for our sin. Instead of having to
get into a tube, we are asked to trust Him, to bet our future on Him.
Those who have had stained lives, those who had been tossed aside by
the world, those who are caught in the grip of their own addictions, those who
are tired of pretending they are something they know they are not . . . these
people were/are coming to Christ for salvation and new life. It is the only way
out.
Something Old and Stabilizing
When the message of grace is proclaimed it is often misunderstood. Some
believe grace means that the Old Testament Laws are now irrelevant. They would
say we are not only delivered from the curse or penalty of the Law (for sin),
but they believe we are freed from the Law entirely. Jesus corrected this
notion,
17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least
stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
There is a group of believers today who call
themselves “Red Letter Christians”. They put most of their focus on the words
of Jesus in the Gospels (which are often printed in red). They would say that because Jesus graciously
received tax-collectors and sinners He would welcome homosexuals, substance
abusers, and people living immorally today.
They conclude that we should no longer call such behaviors wrong or
worse, sinful because it is unloving.
Jesus certainly did receive all kinds of
broken people and He does the same today. HOWEVER, Jesus never told these
people that what they were doing was “OK”. He told the woman caught in adultery
to “go and sin no more”. He told the tax-collectors to begin to live honest
lives. Jesus did not replace the Old Testament law, He fulfilled it!
We no longer need to offer the sacrifices and
offerings prescribed in the Old Testament (because the perfect sacrifice of
Jesus has been made on our behalf), but the moral Law is unchanged because
God’s character has not changed. We cannot and will not be saved by keeping
that law (because we can’t do so), but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t still
the behavior that God wants for us and the behavior that is best for us.
So to those who ask, “Why should I read the
Old Testament?” we answer,
If you read and understand the Old Testament,
the New Testament can be understood in a new and deeper way. The Bible is God’s
revealed truth. Reading and understanding the Bible in its totality is
essential.
Think about the Bible as a unit.
The Bible in its entirety is God’s unchanging revelation of His heart
and His expectations. We are to live by these standards not only because God
says so (which should be reason enough) but we should live this way because it
honors God, it is the proper response to grace, and it is the best way to live.
The Psalmist said,
How can a young man keep
his way pure? By living according to your word’ Psalm (119:9)
Several times Jesus told us that those who have His commands and keep
them are the ones who truly love Him.
An Illustration
Jesus concludes with verse 18
18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries
another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman
commits adultery.
Again, it feels like we’ve taken a sudden
turn. Why does Jesus talk about divorce here? It is because He is illustrating
the unchanging nature of God’s law. If you look at Matthew 5:18,19 we see a parallel account. Jesus said,
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth
disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of
these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in
the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.
What follows in
Matthew are six illustrations of how the Law not only still applies, but is actually
expanded by Jesus. Each illustration begins with the words “You have heard that
it was said, but I say to you . . . “. He then illustrates using murder,
adultery, divorce, the taking of oaths, the Old Testament principle of “an eye
for an eye” and the command to love our neighbor. These illustrations show that
Jesus does not negate these laws but shows they continue to apply. This is the
same thing we see in Luke but there is only one illustration; that of divorce.
Many of the
Pharisees of the day had developed ways to get an easy divorce. A man could
divorce his wife for almost any reason. They may have been following the civil
law but Jesus pointed out that they were violating God’s Law. God’s design is
for marriage to be a commitment between a man and a woman that lasts a
lifetime. He expects us to fulfill the promises we make on our wedding day. Grace
does not eliminate the need for obedience.
We know that
divorce sometimes happens. People who go through a divorce are often haunted by
words like these. Is Jesus condemning remarriage in every case? Two things to
notice: First, the Greek construction of the passage may indicate that Jesus is
referring to someone who is getting divorced so they can marry someone else.
This is clearly condemned by the Lord. To divorce your spouse because you have
“fallen in love with someone else” is adultery in God’s eyes even if it is
legal in the eyes of the state.
Second, we need to
remember that this passage isn’t trying to give a comprehensive teaching on
divorce, it is teaching us about the continuing value of the law. As we look in
other places in the Bible one can conclude that those who have been divorced
for Biblical reasons, or were divorced before they were believers, or even
those who have truly repented of their sin, may remarry. Though God hates
divorce (Malachi 2:16), God also shows grace and mercy to those who have been
divorced.
Conclusions
So what should we do with this passage? First, the
passage should lead us to take a look at our hope of salvation. Are you like the
Pharisees? Do you think you have earned Heaven by the “good life” you have
lived? Do you think you deserve Heaven because you go to church? Or are you one
who has run to the open arms of Jesus?
Jesus offers us a
salvation that we cannot earn and do not deserve. He offers us this salvation
not as a wage, but as a gift. To receive the gift we must admit our need and embrace
His promise and the life that He offers. You can become a part of His family
today. However, before you say, “Yes, Lord, I want to be your follower and
receive the grace that You offer”, you need to understand that being part of
His family means that even though you are forgiven your sin, God still expects
you to trust Him enough to live by His rules and follow Him, rather than the
crowd, in the way you live your life. If you will do this you can be part of
His family right now. Call out to Jesus in your own heart. Humbly come to Him
as your Savior and as your King and leader in life.
The second thing
we should do with this text is use it as a reminder that “All Scripture
is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, rebuke, correction and training
in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16) We need to read the whole Bible! It is not
enough to read favorite passages over and over . . . we must see the whole
picture. The Bible is our life manual; our instruction book. Sadly we are
living in a time of growing Biblical illiteracy. A number of years ago already
George Barna discovered these sad facts,
* Fewer than half of all adults can
name the four gospels.
* Many professing Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the
disciples.
* 60 percent of Americans cannot name even five of the Ten Commandments.
* 82 percent of Americans believe "God helps those who help
themselves" is a Bible verse.
* Six out of ten Americans reject the existence of Satan.
* Four out of ten Americans believe that when Jesus Christ was on earth He
committed sins.
* Five out of ten believe that anyone who is generally good or does enough good
things for others during their life will earn a place in Heaven.
* Four out of ten believe that the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are
all different expressions of the same spiritual truths.
* Seven out of ten born again Christians said they do not believe in moral
absolutes.
These
are old statistics and I suspect things have gotten much worse since this
survey. We need to be “people of the Book”. If we do not know what is in the
Bible then we can’t possibly help others. We need to become familiar with both
the Old and New Testaments in the Bible.
So, are
you systematically reading your Bible? Are you reading it with the same kind of
interest you would a love letter from someone you cared about? If not, get
started. If you have never read any of the Bible before start with the Gospel
of Matthew and read to the end of the New Testament. Once you have become
familiar with Jesus, start over at Genesis and read to the end. You might find
a Study Bible helpful because of the helpful notes that are at the bottom of
the page. Set a particular time and place every day when you will read a
chapter or more. Some books are harder to read than others . . . don’t give up.
I
encourage you to get involved in a study group that actually studies the
Scriptures. Join a Bible Study, get involved in a Sunday School
class, listen to Bible teachers on the radio, read books that teach the Bible.
You might even volunteer to teach a Sunday School
class….teachers always learn more than students. The most important thing is to
get started.
There are lots of
great new things in the world. Many of these new things are fun, good, and can
greatly enrich our lives. But something new isn’t always something better. God’s
Word has been around for thousands of years and has changed billions of lives. It
was correct when He gave it to us the first time so even though it can be
retranslated and repackaged, it cannot be improved upon. God’s Word is
unequalled in its ability to give us perspective, roots, wisdom and a life with
God that will continue on through eternity.
New things are
fascinating and can add to life but none of them can do what God alone can do
through His matchless Word.
©Copyright October 17, 2010 Rev. Bruce Goettsche www.unionchurch.com