Discerning God’s Displeasure
Luke 13:1-9
October 6, 2019
This morning we come to the conclusion of a sermon
That Jesus started back in chapter 12:1.
It is “The Sermon on the Crowd”
And as we saw last week, here at the end He has now
Started giving His invitation for salvation to the crowd.
He has most recently discussed His return and the coming judgment
And is now confronting men for their need to settle
Before they ever stand before the Judge.
Luke 12:58-59 “For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. “I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”
The idea is that if you are on your way to meet the Judge (we all are)
AND YOU KNOW YOU ARE GUILTY
Then you should do everything within your power to settle out of court.
You should “make an effort to settle” with the magistrate
Before he takes you before the judge.
Because once that judge condemns you,
You will not escape until you pay the full sentence.
But that brings up a new reality to the crowd.
HOW DO WE KNOW IF WE’RE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE JUDGE?
Or more practically asked:
“How can we discern God’s displeasure?”
What we will see here is that the common mindset in Jesus’ day
Was that in order to discern God’s displeasure
They most commonly looked at circumstances.
In a way similar to the modern day prosperity gospel,
People viewed prosperity as a sign of God’s favor
And they viewed suffering as a sign of God’s displeasure.
Take the book of Job for an example.
• You have Job who suffered intently at the hand of God.
• He lost his livestock
• He lost his children
• He lost his health
And when his friends arrived they immediately assumed that
Job was on the wrong side of God’s displeasure.
Eliphaz said:
Job 4:7-9 “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? “According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity And those who sow trouble harvest it. “By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of His anger they come to an end.”
Again:
Job 15:20-25 “The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless. “Sounds of terror are in his ears; While at peace the destroyer comes upon him. “He does not believe that he will return from darkness, And he is destined for the sword. “He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is at hand. “Distress and anguish terrify him, They overpower him like a king ready for the attack, Because he has stretched out his hand against God And conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty.”
Again:
Job 22:4-5 “Is it because of your reverence that He reproves you, That He enters into judgment against you? “Is not your wickedness great, And your iniquities without end?”
Now there is a lot wrong with their theology,
But the main point to be realized there is that Eliphaz clearly believed
That you discerned God’s displeasure by looking at your circumstances.
If God is giving you prosperity then you are clearly acceptable to Him.
If you God is giving you suffering then you are in danger.
SUCH A MINDSET clearly overlooks the reality of the prosperity of the wicked
Psalms 73:3-9 “For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth.”
It also clearly overlooks the reality of the discipline of the Lord used to make the righteous more like Christ.
But it is the common mindset none the less.
There are many in our day who hold to a prosperity gospel that believes along those same lines.
• Namely that we know God’s pleasure or displeasure by looking at our circumstances.
Well, here in our text someone brings this theology to Jesus
And His answer is so important.
There are 2 main points we see in this text:
#1 A COMMON SUPPOSITION
Luke 13:1-5
We first recognize the words “Now on the same occasion”
• Indicating that the chapter break here is somewhat unfortunate.
• We are still at the same setting with the same crowd.
And then we read “there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.”
This is now the 3rd interruption Jesus has received during this sermon.
• First was the man who wanted Jesus to force his brother to share his inheritance.
• Second was Peter who wanted to know who this teaching of being ready for the second coming was primarily for.
And now here.
Jesus had just given the invitation.
• He had just told men to judge what was right.
• He had just told them to recognize the present time.
• And He had told them to settle before the stand before the Judge.
So on people’s mind was clearly the judgment
And how awful it would be to be a guilty person, under God’s displeasure,
All at once taken to stand before Him for judgment.
AND AT THIS POINT SOMEONE INTERJECTS AGAIN.
And they remind Jesus of a group of men who were slaughtered by Pilate.
We don’t really know the history behind the story,
But it does fit the reputation of Pilate.
Pilate was not a wise man, nor was he a friend of the Jews.
• Even upon his appointment as the Roman authority in this region Pilate
entered Jerusalem with a full army bearing standards with idolatrous images
meant to sort of put the Jews in their place and forcing them to accept what
they saw to be graven images.
• The people protested.
• Pilate ordered them upon pain of death to stop the protest.
• The Jews called his bluff and Pilate was forced to back down instead of
massacring an entire group of people.
Also frustrating to the Jews was
• The fact that Pilate took money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct
in the city.
• When people protested and rioted Pilate ordered his solders to beat and
slaughter several of the protestors.
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Luke 11-17; Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2013] pg. 185)
Pilate was no friend of the Jews, nor was he a believer in their God.
And here the story is apparently that
• While some Galilean Jews were in the middle of worship and sacrificing to God
• Pilate slaughtered them and then defiled them and their worship site by intermingling their blood with the blood of their sacrifices.
It was clearly an awful and disturbing scene for any Jew.
Now the purpose of bringing this story to Jesus now seems to be that
THE CROWD IS LOOKING FOR A REFERENCE POINT.
The crowd is looking to find some sort of standard
By which they can measure their own personal danger before God.
Jesus just said that if you are guilty and on the way to see the Judge
That you should try to settle out of court.
The question then is “How do we know if we are guilty?” or “What sort of people need to hear this?”
And someone in the crowd brings up this story.
As if to say: “You’re talking about people like those Galileans that Pilate killed, aren’t You?”
In the mind of the people
• These Galileans clearly must have been people who were unacceptable to
God for why else would God have allowed such a violent and defiling
judgment upon them?
• Clearly (they thought) those men must have been men under God’s
displeasure or He would have never allowed that.
So then Jesus must be talking about really bad people
Who are experiencing terribly suffering in life.
Surely those are the types of people Jesus is referring to,
And if that is you, then you had better make things right with God
Before you stand before Him.
To state their theology more clearly: If God is allowing circumstantial misfortune in your life then that is a clear indicator of God’s displeasure and that means that you need to settle out of court before you stand before Him.
THAT IS THE INTERRUPTION.
It is simply people trying to figure out how to tell
If they are among those who are in danger before God.
And they toss Jesus this theology very similar to that of Job’s friends.
Here Jesus responds.
(2) “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?”
• That is precisely what they supposed.
• They supposed that their circumstances revealed God’s displeasure.
But Jesus is about to crush their theology.
(3) “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus just removed all their faulty standards for judgment.
We like to think that as long as
I can stay ahead of the human curve then I’ll likely be ok.
You know, as long as I can point out that I’m better than most
Then surely at the judgment I’ll be fine.
That is the thinking here.
It was just like Job’s friends.
• Job was a righteous man, who had appeared righteous to all, and then he
suffered terribly.
• The reason Job’s friends arrived, was not to comfort Job, but rather to find out
what Job did wrong so they could not make the same mistakes he made.
But Jesus just revealed that everyone in this crowd
Was in just as much danger before God as those Galileans.
In fact those Galileans WERE NOT “greater sinners” than anyone else.
And to drive the point home Jesus brings up another illustration.
(4) “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?”
Another peculiar incident had apparently occurred at the outskirts of Jerusalem when a tower fell and randomly killed 18 people.
The mindset of the day was that those 18 people
Must have been really sinful for God killed them with a freak judgment.
Do you remember when Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta?
Acts 28:3-4 “But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.”
Do you see the mindset?
• If he wasn’t a really bad guy then justice would not have allowed this.
For them it was some sort of form of pagan karma.
The Jews were just as superstitious,
They just attributed it to the just judgment of God.
You also see it in John 9
John 9:1-2 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
The reason for the question was because
It was a mysterious case for the people to rationalize.
You had a baby who was born blind.
• This blindness was seen as a clear judgment from and God and a clear
indication of God’s displeasure.
But the problem was figuring out who caused it.
• Was it the parent’s sin that caused this? (So why did God make the baby
blind instead of the parents?)
• Or was it the baby’s sin that caused this? (Wondering what a baby could
have done in the womb to so offend God?)
But you see how their common supposition ruled their theology.
And here is the second account of this.
• SURELY these 18 that were killed by the tower were the type of people Jesus was talking about.
• SURELY they were really bad and that is why God killed them with a tower and so we had better not be like them.
But again Jesus overturns their judgments.
“do you suppose…[they] were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?”
(5) “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus answer is clear:
DO NOT SUPPOSE THAT
ONLY THOSE WHO SUFFER IN LIFE ARE IN DANGER.
EVERY MAN IS IN DANGER BEFORE GOD.
It is human nature to try and narrow the scope of God’s judgment,
BUT JESUS CONTINUALLY WIDENS IT.
Every man is need of repentance.
Every man is under the threat of judgment.
How often we have discussed this.
Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
Acts 17:30-31 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
• No one is good enough.
• No one is acceptable.
• Not one single person can stand before that Judge.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO SETTLE OUT OF COURT
Because if any human stands before God they will “likewise perish”
It is Jesus who gave us instruction on how not to perish.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Only through Christ can we stand before God and “not perish”.
Otherwise, on our own we are all in grave danger.
• DO NOT view your prosperity as a sign of God’s favor.
• DO NOT view other’s suffering as a sign of God’s displeasure.
See the righteous standard revealed in God’s word
And listen to the warning of Jesus.
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
The clear admonition is stop justifying yourself!
• Repent of your sin.
• Repent of your rebellion against God.
• Repent of your pride and arrogance.
• Repent of your hypocritical religion.
• Repent of your self-sufficiency.
• Repent of your worldliness.
• Repent of your vile language and gossip and slander
• Repent or your sexual immorality and bitterness and covetousness and discontentment, and lack of gratitude, and lying and cheating and hatred and anger.
And the list goes on and on and on.
REPENT!
Or “you will all likewise perish.”
So Jesus simply exploded their common supposition.
#2 A CRITICAL SITUATION
Luke 13:6-9
The question of the crowd was such a tragic indicator
Of their lack of discernment regarding their own danger before God.
It is clear that this crowd had totally failed to apply the sermon.
• They heard the Lord’s warning about His imminent return.
• They heard the Lord’s warning about the coming judgment.
And all they did was apply it to someone else.
• Surely the Lord wasn’t talking about them.
• Surely they weren’t in danger before God.
• Surely they didn’t need repentance.
• Surely they didn’t need to settle out of court.
Indeed they did, but they had failed to discern that.
SO NOW JESUS CLOSES HIS SERMON WITH A PARABLE.
And might I remind you again that parables were often used by our Lord to conceal truth from those who wouldn’t listen.
Remember Matthew 13 after the parable of the sower was given?
Matthew 13:10-15 “And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING,BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’”
What a tragedy that this stubborn crowd now has driven Jesus
From straightforward preaching into yet another parable.
But here it is. It is the parable of the fig tree.
When it begins we see a vineyard owner and we see:
1) HIS DESIRE (6)
“And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.”
The scene is clear.
• A man had planted a fig tree and he had done it for the reason that anyone would plant a fig tree…he wanted figs.
• And like an eager farmer, he routinely approached the fig tree during fig season hoping to harvest some figs off of his tree.
But he never got any.
2) HIS DISPLEASURE (7a)
“And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any.’”
His displeasure is clear.
• He wanted figs.
• He had returned 3 years in a row looking for figs and had yet to eat one.
Now, let me just make sure that you grasp something at this point.
For 3 years this tree had been enjoying ease of life.
• It had been planted, it enjoyed the safety of the vineyard, it received water, it
was cared for by the vineyard-keeper.
This tree had for 3 years lived in relative ease and prosperity
Totally oblivious of any hardship of any kind.
But this tree had failed to yield any fruit.
And unbeknownst to the tree the vineyard owner was displeased.
The owner of the tree is not happy, but the tree is oblivious.
3) HIS DECISION (7b)
“Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?”
Notice the swift, sudden, and almost unexpected judgment.
• In a moment, in a flash, the frustration of the vineyard owner boiled over and he ordered that tree to be cut down.
Yesterday that tree thought all was fine and good.
Today that tree faces judgment.
4) HIS DEMAND (8-9)
“And he [vineyard-keeper] answered and said to him [vineyard owner], ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
The vineyard-keeper interceded on behalf of the tree
And asked for one more year to groom that tree.
The expectation is that this tree will bear fruit next year,
And if not then it rightly deserves to be destroyed.
Now, let the parable sink in.
• The vineyard owner is obviously God
• The fig tree is obviously Israel
• The vineyard-keeper is Christ
• The expected fruit is righteousness
And now the parable comes to life.
• God has planted Israel in their land with the expectation of righteousness.
• He routinely looked for it and never found it.
• And for 3 years Christ has been working in Israel.
• But Israel has refused to listen or refused to repent and produce righteousness.
• So God determines it is time to Judge.
• And Jesus intercedes for one more chance.
• Let Me warn them again, let Me tell them again. Let Me instruct them of the necessity to produce fruit.
• And next year if there is no fruit, then fine, judge them.
So let me ask you…what happened?
Interestingly enough THE VERDICT IS NOT REVEALED in the parable.
This is what you call a cliff-hanger.
• We are not told what the verdict is.
• We are not told how the vineyard owner responded to the request of the
vineyard-worker.
Jesus purposely left the parable open ended
Because it is meant to produce urgency.
If you were that tree, AND YOU HEARD the argument going on about whether or not you should be chopped down…
WOULDN’T YOU BE TRYING TO POP OUT A FIG ALL OF A SUDDEN?
That’s the point, you are in danger!
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
• Judgment is imminent!
• You are being dragged before the Judge.
Now, history allows us to finish this parable.
If you want to know how it ends, we know that answer.
Here is the ending to the parable.
“The vineyard owner agreed and went his way. The next day as the vineyard-keeper dug around the plant in order to fertilize, the fig tree grabbed up the vineyard-keeper and killed him and hung his body from a limb displaying him to the world. When the vineyard owner returned he was enraged at the tree and chopped it down and burned it with fire.”
That’s how the parable ends because that’s what actually happened.
• Israel will reject the warnings of Christ,
• Will crucify Him on a tree,
• And God will come and judge those Jews
• By breaking them off and burning their city with fire.
That is why we read this statement from Jesus later:
Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Because you were a fruitless tree unwilling to repent.
Do you see the tragedy?
Do you see this tree thinking all was fine until suddenly judgment swept upon it?
• Do you understand now why Jesus warns about the suddenness of His return?
• Do you understand now why Jesus warns about the wicked slave being cut in
pieces?
• Do you understand now why Jesus says you should try and settle out of court?
• Do you understand now why Jesus say, “unless you repent, you will all
likewise perish?”
Because God wants the fruit of righteousness and man isn’t giving it!
Now I want to close with one more illustration from Scripture because I want to clarify even more for you what is expected from you.
TURN TO: ISAIAH 5
• You may be familiar with this story, we’ve seen it before,
• The youth should certainly be familiar as we recently looked at it.
(Read 1-2)
• We have there a vineyard owner who obviously wanted grapes and wine from his vineyard.
• And he did everything necessary for that vine that it should produce good grapes.
• But it did not.
He wasn’t lazy, he wasn’t cheap, he wasn’t negligent.
He was a model farmer, it just didn’t work.
So then comes the question for us:
(Read 3-4)
• The question is posed to us: “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done it?” (nothing)
• “Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?” (must have been a bad vine)
(Read 5-6)
• That makes sense to us because it was a bad vine.
• Why in the world would you keep pouring resources into a vine that refuses to produce?
Or as the vineyard owner in our story asked,
“Why does it even use up the ground?”
And so the vineyard is destroyed.
(You see the same application here)
And then the story is explained.
(Read 7)
There it is spelled out.
Because Israel failed to give God the righteousness He demanded they were judged.
God gave them every opportunity to be righteous.
Romans 9:4-5 “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
They had every privilege that could be afforded and they refused.
And so God judged them.
If you don’t bring God righteousness then you get judged.
And it doesn’t matter if you’ve been given every benefit or not.
Remember the slave with many benefits received many lashes, the slave with few benefits received few lashes,
BUT THEY ALL WERE FLOGGED; THEY ALL WERE JUDGED.
Every slave is required to produce righteousness.
Every tree is required to produce fruit.
And so you see another story of the same point.
Fruitlessness brings judgment and if you are not righteous before God you will be judged.
THAT IS FACT.
But you need to see one more verse.
TURN TO: JOHN 15
(Read 1-4)
Did you catch that?
“I am the true vine”
That is to say, “I am the fruitful vine. I am the righteous vine. I am the vine that is pleasing. I am the fig tree that produces figs.”
And not only that,
But the explanation is given as to how we can become fruitful.
How do we become fruitful?
When we are grafted in to the true vine.
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
When we abide in Him.
Here is the good news!
• We are all fruitless trees.
• We are all fruitless vines.
• There is none good, not even one.
• And we are headed for a certain judgment.
Jesus Himself said that we are all going to perish.
Our only hope is to be righteous
And that righteousness comes through Jesus Christ.
We are grafted into Him. We are clothed in His righteousness.
I read you the familiar John 3:16 earlier:
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
Let me show you something interesting.
• We read in verse 16, “believes in Him” The Greek word for “in” is EIS
• We read in verse 17, “God did not send the son into the world” The Greek
word for “into” is also EIS
My point is that EIS can easily be translated “into” not just “in”
Now read John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes into Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
How are we saved?
• We repent of our sin and our sinfulness.
• We see our need for a Savior.
• And we place our faith in Jesus by which we are grafted into Him.
• We are then clothed in His righteousness and we begin to bear fruit for God.
That is the point of the sermon.
WE NEED JESUS!
That fig tree should not have killed Him,
That fig tree should have tapped into Him.
THAT IS THE INVITATION.
• The return of the Lord is imminent
• The judgment of God is certain
• Your guilt is already proven
Our only hope is to run to the only One
Who produced the righteous fruit that God desires
And that is Christ.
• Confess your sin and your sinfulness.
• Repent before God and run to Jesus,
• Place your faith in Him and be clothed in His righteousness.
Because Jesus could not have been more clear, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
