Luke 17:1-10 "Faithful not Phonies" (Bexley North 10am)

Amy and Jen for reading. Well, as Rob said, we've got a Q and A after the sermon, so do jot down any questions you have, and I can try and say something helpful about them. But as we come and we hear from God's word, look at it together, why don't I pray and ask for his help in that? Please pray with me. Well, Heavenly Father, thank you for speaking to us in your scriptures.

Help us now to learn from your Word and to grow as disciples of Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.

Well, our passage today, which we just had read from Luke 17 on first read, it kind of comes across as a series of almost unrelated little teachings from Jesus. But I think as you dig a bit deeper, you kind of see what Jesus is trying to do. He's been addressing the Pharisees in the prior chapters. He's been telling them of God's deep care for his people. Remember, he tells the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son, the prodigal son.

And we learn that God's heart really, really bleeds for his people, for his lost people. He longs to bring them in. But the Pharisees who were appointed as the religious leaders who were supposed to be doing this to be caring for the people, they have instead been using the people for their own gain. As Jesus exposes the Pharisees, they were more concerned about getting rich than they were for providing for God's sheep. And so chapter 16, immediately before it ends with a warning to the Pharisees and to all at the cost of getting rich in this life.

Instead of caring for God's people, ultimately God will not accept them into heaven. And so our passage today begins 17, verse 1. He said to his disciples, so we can see there's a change. Now he has been talking about the Pharisees. Now he is giving teaching to his disciples.

Our passage today, it's to Jesus's followers. And it's kind of a what not to do. You know, he's been talking about the Pharisees don't do that. And now he says, this is what we should be doing instead. And so we've got these four teachings, and they're kind of like four contrasts, essentially, how to not be like the Pharisees.

And so I've called it how to be Faithful, not Phonies. So let's learn from Jesus words in these verses. I've got a few points you can follow along in the outline. Firstly, we are to help, not hinder, which should be obvious, help not Hinder. You can see it there in verses one and two.

Jesus says verse one of chapter 17, he said to his disciples, offenses will certainly come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

So you see here Jesus is saying, it's kind of inevitable, isn't it, that at church, people in church will do wrong, will offend. When someone points out that the church has done wrong, you can say, well, Jesus said that would happen and that it's not a good thing. We have to take it very seriously immediately. On view here, as we said, is the way that the Pharisees raised, rather than leading people to God's grace, have been enriching themselves. They have been hindering.

They were like the ministers or priests today in that they organized and they shaped the religious practices of the people. Back then, in Jesus's day, they were part of the group that ran it all. And yet, sadly, since then, there have been many other religious leaders who, like them, have led people astray. Rather than loving and caring and leading people into God's grace in Christ, they've offended them, they've done wrong by them. Religion has often become about the leader's own power, about their own significance and money, rather than leading people to God's gospel salvation.

But beyond the leaders and their wrongdoing and offending even the individuals and members in a church, this is the warning to us all, isn't it? In any church, there will be people that mean well but actually hinder. But there will also be people who don't really mean well, who are being selfish, who care more about themselves than caring for the other followers of Jesus and seeing their faith strengthen and grow. And so it's kind of. It's interesting to hear these words from Jesus, isn't it, that he's kind of saying church is going to be hard.

Sometimes there will be these difficult things. If you've been at a church and you've been disappointed by some of the leaders or people there, if they've been doing wrong, well, know that Jesus says it's kind of inevitable. It was certain to happen, but that to reject Jesus because of these people is a huge mistake. To reject Jesus church everywhere because of the wrongdoing of some is to cut yourself off from Jesus. If you leave your church congregation to find another one, every time they let you down, you'll spend your life hopping from one to the next.

And of course, Scripture's got much to say on all of this. But the place to start is that though offenses are certain, Jesus says, make sure that you are not the one causing them. The place to start is not looking at all the other people, but it's to start with yourself. And that's what Jesus says next. We see that just because offenses are inevitable, it doesn't mean they're excusable.

Rather the opposite. God is really angry with people that lead his followers astray. Jesus continues there in verse two. So he said in verse one, Offences will come, verse two. But woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone was hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of those little ones to stumble. These are serious words. God is really angry with people that lead his people astray. And he kind of paints a visual picture, doesn't he, of just how bad it is. So a millstone, at that time they had these huge millstones.

Often they were huge. Often they would weigh around a ton, maybe the weight of a small car, and they'd kind of hook a donkey up to it and it would kind of walk around and it would crush the grain into dust so they could use it. And Jesus here paints this awful picture, doesn't he? How bad is it for someone who leads someone away from God? Better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck.

Better that than to what God will do to you if you hinder through your selfishness, if you hinder someone from growing in their gospel faith. That's how important it is that we help each other grow as Jesus followers. If you've ever torn your hair out or in frustration or wondered, how can God allow bad church leaders? Well, part of the answer is that he is going to judge them ever so severely. He sees it and he is outraged.

And we see that clearly in these verses.

Well, we could say lots more on this and what it looks like to be offended, but we do have lots more to get to in our passage, so I'll. I'll leave it there on that one. Do feel free to ask questions in question time or chat more over morning tea. But we'll go into our next little teaching here, which follows on. Actually, what are we to do if our brother or sister does offend us or harm us?

Well, our next teaching says rebuke and forgive, and we see it there in verses three and four. So let me read from verse three. Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

So there's lots to think about there. The word rebuke sounds Very serious. Rebuke sounds very intense or even aggressive. But to rebuke is really just to say something. It's just to communicate.

And certainly in Scripture is to talk gently and generously. You know, don't be passive aggressive about it, but actually talk about it. You know, hey, you might not realize, but you've really hurt me when you did. Whatever. It was more than just telling people how they've made you feel.

To rebuke in Scripture is to try and in love, show someone how they're not living according to God's way.

The question is, when someone is caught in sin, do you care enough about them? Do you love them enough to very gently, very carefully say something?

In all areas of life, it can be hard to know when to say something or when to not say something. You know, often I think about. You know, there's moments in the. When you're in a circle of friends and someone's got really bad boys, do you say something? Are you the right person to say something?

Is it your place to say something? Well, how well do you know them? I don't recommend saying something to complete strangers. It will not end well if you just yell out, you reek.

It's not always the time to say something. Do you love someone enough to tell them that they've got parsley stuck between their teeth?

Well, much more importantly, do you love someone enough to tell them when they're caught in sin? If you see someone in dangerous patterns or habits or addictions or unhealthy relationships, Jesus says, be on guard, be vigilant, because it matters.

The picture in Scripture is not of us being busy bodies and policing each other's lives and gossiping about each other, but we are to love each other so deeply, we are to help each other through this life to the finish line. So it's good and right and necessary that we look out for one another, not just for their appearance, for some parsley or bad bo, but look out for each other's spiritual lives.

One of God's key tools to keep us on track, to correct our course is the brothers and sisters that he puts around us. And so we should rejoice and praise the godliness that we see in each other, but we also must call out the sin that we see.

But it has to be done out of love, doesn't it? It's not a gotcha kind of moment. Has to be done out of love. And this is where, again, you see that Jesus is contrasting with the Pharisees. Because the Pharisees, they didn't love.

They judged, they judged people rather than trying to care for them, rather than forgiving and loving.

I think this is why that, I think, I think it's why we hate parking inspectors. It's hard not to hate parking inspectors. I know that we need them, I know that we need some kind of order on the streets, but it does feel like they're just there to say gotcha. You know, there's no kind of love involved. They just seem to be trying to catch you out and they are vigilant, they are on guard, but there's no love, it's just policing.

Where's the love? Parking inspectors. What I really want from a parking inspector is them to say you can't park here, but then jump in the passenger seat with me and show me where I can park. Actually help me. Parking inspector.

See that would be helping. That would be loving, not just judging. In fact, I'm going to try it next time I see a parking inspector. I'll tell you how it goes.

But coming back to the context where Jesus is speaking into the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day, they're strutting around, they're a little bit high and mighty, tut tutting, wagging their fingers. But they weren't loving the people as we see from what Jesus has been teaching in these chapters. They judged sinners, whereas Jesus went and had lunch with them and looked to tell them of God's love. And so of course we had to be like Jesus, not the Pharisees. When we see someone caught in wrongdoing, you can either stand back and judge them, condemn them and write them off, or you can love them and try and help them.

If someone wrongs us, the gospel hearted response is to gently correct in love and out of humility to forgive. And that's what Jesus goes on to map out, forgiveness.

There's kind of three steps here in verse three and it's worth seeing each of them. They're all very important. He says if your brother sins, rebuke him. And then he says if he repents, forgive him. And each of these three is quite important.

Rebuke and then repentance and then forgiveness. They're all quite important. What do we do when a person causes offense or hinders? What do we do when someone sins against us in a small or large way? Well, we are to forgive them.

But notice, he says we forgive if they repent. Because if someone doesn't repent of their wrongdoing, forgiveness can only ever be partial. And now we're Wading into the complex topic of forgiveness and reconciliation here. But if we are on our part to fully forgive a wrongdoing, but if they haven't repented, then reconciliation, peace in this, cannot fully happen. Forgiveness cannot really fully take place.

To repent is to apologize to the person that you have wronged, but it's also to confess to God the wrongdoing and to ask for God's forgiveness. Forgiveness. To repent is to turn away from the wrongdoing. It's to commit to not doing it again. A prayer of repentance, asking forgiveness when you intend to just go back and do the exact same thing again, it's kind of a lie, isn't it?

It's a falsehood. That's not what repentance is. So Jesus says, if they repent, we are to forgive them. If they don't repent, and we read this elsewhere in the Scriptures, we are still to forgive them on one level. But of course, if they haven't repented, the matter, it's still far from dealt with.

There's always going to be some kind of division or distance.

Notice our passage. It's not saying that we should just ignore offenses, wrongdoings, or abuses. You know, sometimes there's this caricature of Christians being told to always forgive, as though they should just overlook wrongdoings. Far from it. Jesus is saying, be on guard, be vigilant.

We're not to just sweep sin and wrong under the carpet and say, forgive, don't worry about it. Far from it. We're to deal with it properly. We're told by Jesus to rebuke, we're to call out sin. But also we're always trying to move toward this goal of forgiveness and restoration, if that is possible.

We are to be people that forgive. That's to be the heart of our community because we've been forgiven by God. And if we can do this, if we can be people that do forgive, we really will be radically countercultural. When others are tallying up all the wrongs and holding it over one another, we instead are to talk about it, to rebuke, to repent and forgive, and what a great blessing and light will be to those around us.

It is very countercultural, sadly. Increasingly, our society encourages people to kind of almost do the opposite, to identify the people in their lives who are toxic and then put up barriers and boundaries and kind of cut them out, even removing them all together. And it's just the language of our culture. One study looking at this found that the increased frequency of terms like Trauma or narcissist or toxic had led to over 50% of people surveyed to then start looking around and then come to believe that someone in their life or a partner was in some way toxic to them. Another study showed that around one in three people are estranged from a family member, a parent or a child, or a brother or a sister.

Instead of trying to move toward forgiveness and restoration, often people are advised to just cut toxic people out of their lives.

It's very sad. Now, healthy boundaries are healthy. There is a place for good, healthy boundaries. But saying to that difficult person, I'm sorry, we can't be friends anymore, it's just not what Jesus is saying we should do. It's not how we should treat people that have hurt us and offended us.

We remember instead, Jesus said, love your enemy. It's kind of incompatible, isn't it? We're to love our enemy, the hard, difficult person. Jesus is pushing us to try and even love the them.

Now it's easy to say in a room with this many people in it. There will be all manner of offences that have been done to us, from big to small, from easy to forgive to very, very hard, from easy to move past to others that will change us forever and possibly even involve the police. There's all kinds of wrongs that people can do and yet we're still called to forgive.

We don't want to enable abuse. As I say, there is a place for healthy boundaries. And to pick an easy example, you know, let's say someone has repeatedly borrowed money from you and say, gambles with it, and you can see that there's something not right there, a kind of addiction. So you, you know, Jesus is saying, go and talk to them, rebuke them gently and let's say they ask for forgiveness and repent and say they're sorry. Well, then we are to forgive them, aren't we?

We are to look to still try and love them. But it's going to be unlikely that you're going to lend them more money if they ask for it, isn't it? The way to love that person is not going to be to enable that. So as we say, some boundaries are helpful. Well, this is all a very big topic.

There's so much more you could say. I wanted to say something on it, but you obviously can't say everything. A few years ago at Big Day out, we did a few talks on it. So if you would like to think more about it, message me or Jonathan on the feedback slip and let me know and I'll Send you a copy of the talks. There's lots more to say on all of that.

Well, when someone offends or hurts us, we always want to think about why our case is different, why somehow we don't need to forgive them, why for some reason they are so toxic in an ongoing way, why they keep crossing the lines that we draw. But Jesus insists that we need to forgive. Have a look at verse 4. Have a look at verse 4. He says, and if he sins against you seven times in a day and comes back to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him seven times in one day, that's a bad day.

Can you imagine seven times this person comes back to you? I've never had that happen. This is an extreme example. And yet Jesus is. He's saying, even in that situation, if this person is repenting and asking for forgiveness, you must forgive them.

It seems ridiculous.

And yet Jesus is clear, we must forgive. We of course naturally ask, are they really repenting? This is the way we think in these situations. Surely they are not really repenting. But I think this is where we need to say, that's between them and God, isn't it?

There's a point at which our job is to forgive and God is the judge.

When somebody asks us to forgive them and we do forgive, it's so human, it's so natural to still want to hold a bit of a grudge against them. It's like, I will forgive you, but now I've kind of got one over you. I will forgive you, but now I know I'm a little bit better than you. I will forgive you, but now you've kind of lost your right to be loved by me fully. I forgive you, but somehow you're a second class sort of citizen to me now.

And so Jesus, I think when he says forgive seven times in one day, he's saying, no, focus on our own hearts and let God be the judge of others. If we are going to love people, we're always going to be opening ourselves up to this kind of ongoing hurt. To love someone is to leave yourself open to that, isn't it? Obviously not thinking about criminal matters here, but you know, when someone think of someone who says hurtful things to you and when they repent and say they're sorry, if you're going to go on loving them, you're going to open yourself up to them potentially saying hurtful things again. That is what love is.

That is a key part of love. Inevitably you open yourself up to being hurt. And the reason I'm saying all this is because this really is getting at the heart of the gospel. It's getting at the heart of how God has treated us in Christ. That's why it's important.

We can't just cut people out or cancel them. We always need to forgive, we always need to love, however it might look. And it comes back to gospel grace.

I don't know if you've ever thought about this. When we say the Lord's Prayer, and we're actually going to say it after the sermon together, when we say the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer. Jesus, he is the Lord of the Lord's Prayer, if you haven't thought about that. And he teaches us these words to say.

And they are, they're kind of terrifying words. Jesus, he says we should pray. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. They're terrifying words if you think about it. They're saying, God, we will forgive other people.

So forgive us, forgive us. And we also forgive other people. Elsewhere, Jesus puts it more strongly. He says, you cannot be forgiven by God unless you forgive others. And the reason is that we all must go to God with deep humility.

We cannot be thinking we're better, that we're worthy, that we're self righteous. We cannot be thinking God is lucky to have us because we are so good. Any ounce of such thought shows that we haven't really understood gospel grace.

At the heart of the gospel is that we need God's forgiveness. If God doesn't forgive us, we still stand condemned for our sin.

God doesn't forgive good people, people who think that they're good, who seem to be good. God forgives people who ask for forgiveness in the name of Jesus, who paid for our sins on the cross. And that's the heart of the gospel. And that's why this all matters. That's why you cannot be forgiven by God unless you forgive those who sin against you.

Well, there you go. That's these first two pieces of teaching from Jesus. It's a bit of a feast. There's so much food for thought. I feel like I could stop there.

But we have two more sections of teaching here. I'm going to go through them very briefly, and they're both again on this topic of how to be faithful, not phonies. The next little teaching here is about faith, not fear. You see it there in verses five and six.

You might say, how can we possibly keep on forgiving? How are we going to have enough strength to do that? Surely I Will need more faith. And I think this is the catalyst for the question the apostles asked Jesus there in verse 5. Verse 5 says, the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

Jesus reply is, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, the Lord said, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. I don't know if you've ever tried this when you've seen a tree.

I haven't. I don't know why anyone would want to do this, to cast a perfectly good mulberry tree into the sea.

So Jesus is teaching here. He seems to be in response to this request for the followers or Jesus. His teaching is in response to their request for more faith, how to have more faith. And Jesus is essentially saying, you have enough. You already have what you need.

And again, he's given us a picture, a picture so that we can understand it. He says, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, a mustard seed was famously small. So if you have the tiniest amount, then you can, with your words, tell a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the seed. This is a wonderful mulberry tree here. And a mulberry tree was famously huge and had a famously massive, extensive root system.

The kind of root system that meant some of them, some of them lived for like 500 years.

Nikki, my wife, had one in her backyard. They would get buckets and buckets of mulberries every year. They are amazing trees. As I say, I have no idea why anyone would want to cast one. No one can really explain why someone would want to do this.

But the point is you have the faith, all the faith you could ever need with just the tiny. The tiny amount.

What does it mean to have faith? What is faith? According to scripture, faith isn't some mystical feeling. It's not some active will beyond all logic. It's not about conjuring up a good Christmas with the power of your mind, as it seems to be in the movies.

Faith just means trust. Faith is just belief in something. And we put our faith in God. We're to believe God, to trust him. The thing that makes faith strong is not us and our strength of faith, but God, who is very, very strong.

And that's Jesus point. It's about God's strength and not ours. It's not about how much we have. It's the thing that we're trusting in that makes faith so effective. And the oldest analogy in the book for this is sitting On a chair.

You're all sitting on chairs now and you know you've got faith that your chair will hold you up. And whether or not the chair holds you up, it's not down to how much faith you have in the chair, it's the chair. It's the thing that you have your faith in is the thing you've got your faith in, strong or not. And we're to have our faith in God and He is very, very strong. And so like the faith that you have in your chair, it's not keeping you off the ground, it's the chair.

Like the faith that we have in God, it's God, it's not our faith. This is Jesus point. That's how to understand it. The tiniest amount of genuine faith is all that you need. If you trust God, if you rely on him to forgive you, to be true to his promises of grace in Christ Jesus, then you have all the strength that you could ever need.

How can you ensure that God is on your side, that all the power of God is with you for eternity, that he is with you? Will you just pray in the name of Jesus? That is all. Just pray in the name of Jesus. Just ask a mustard seed sized prayer and God will be with you.

That is the gospel promise. That is how powerful God is. And so rather than fear God, rather than look at ourselves and fear that we do not have enough faith, we are to look to God and His love poured out for us and trust in Him.

Well that's verses 5 and 6. And then our final teaching then is 7 to 10, duty, not self delight. Final couple of verses. Very briefly, Jesus reminds his followers that it's our duty to love and to forgive and to be faithful. And we see it there in verses seven to nine.

Seven says, which one of you, having a servant tending sheep or ploughing, will say to him when he comes in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat. Instead will he not Tell him prepare something for me to eat, get ready and serve me while I eat and drink. Later you can eat and drink. Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? Sounds pretty bad.

It sounds very entitled, doesn't it? It's surprising to hear Jesus saying this. It sounds like the master is treating this poor slave poorly. The example, it's surprising to hear Jesus saying is because the example Jesus gives us of him is of him washing his disciples feet, right? So Jesus was the teacher, the master, and yet he stoops to wash his disciples feet.

Jesus said that he came to serve, not to be served, and we are to do likewise. Jesus's life was one of such deep humility and service. It's a model for us to follow. So it's surprising to hear this. But the reality is that Jesus, despite that servant heartedness, he was God's Son.

He is master of all. We are to serve him faithfully. And when we have done all of that, we will only have done what we ought.

Verse 10, Jesus concludes. He says, in the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say we are unworthy servants. We've only done our duty.

And I guess Jesus is saying this because there's a bit of a danger for us who invest our lives in serving Jesus, that somehow we think God owes us something. It's easy to think that God's lucky to have us. But Jesus reminds us that even if we did it all, God would not owe us anything.

The heart of the gospel is that we're saved by faith, not by works. The good that we do does not make God love us. It's our faith in Jesus Christ. And so when we serve him faithfully, all we have done is our duty.

That's our passage. Why don't I pray? And then we're going to sing a song and we'll come back for Q and A. Let me pray well. Heavenly Father, do be with us.

Help us to forgive. Lord, help us to love one another enough to speak into each other's lives and to help each other live faithfully for you. And Lord, help us to remember that you indeed are Lord of all and that we are called to serve you faithfully with our whole lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.