Do Not Worry – Part 1
Luke 12:22-34 (22-28)
September 1, 2019
As you know we are currently in this sermon of Jesus.
It is somewhat reactionary in the sense that
Jesus seems to be caught responding to all that is going on around Him.
• When He saw the large crowd approaching He addressed His disciples regarding some of the dangers and temptations of ministering to a large crowd.
• It was verses 1-12 and we called that portion of the sermon: “In Response To A Growing Crowd”
But as we saw last week, Jesus train of thought was interrupted
When a man in the crowd blurted out for Jesus to help him
With a financial squabble he was in.
And that began section number 2 which will carry from verses 13-40
Which we call: “In Response To a Greedy Request”
Out of the blue, in the middle of the sermon, a man interrupted Jesus.
Luke 12:13 “Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
And that interruption has now inspired the preaching of Jesus
For the next 27 verses.
SO LAST WEEK we listened as Jesus both addressed that man and made and example out of him for the crowd.
• Jesus REBUKED that man stating “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
Which was Jesus’ way of saying, “Your earthly wealth is not My concern.
I came to save the world from sin, not to act as Judge Judy”
• And then Jesus used this man as an EXAMPLE to address the massive crowd and to warn them of the dangers of greed.
• He even closed with that HEARTBREAKING STORY of a man who worked hard his entire life, amassed a fortune, and even had such a large crop that he decided to tear down his barns and build larger ones.
The problem was that though this man
Had done very well for himself in terms of earthly wealth,
He had failed to store up any wealth for eternity.
He was not rich toward God.
And on the day his barns were completed God called for his life
And his story became the ultimate tragedy.
Jesus labeled him a fool and said, (21) “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
I told Carrie when we got home that that story might just be the saddest story in the Bible. And yet there are so many who live it exactly like that.
None the less, the point was made by Jesus.
• Your life should show a definite priority of heaven over earth.
• It is a mistake to become preoccupied with obtaining earthly wealth.
That was clear.
WHAT IS ALSO CLEAR is that this is a very convicting point to make to humanity.
• After all, we live on this earth.
• We can see this earth.
• We have never been to heaven nor have we ever seen it.
• Right now we live in bodies that require food and water and covering to live.
• We have never seen our glorified bodies that won’t require those things.
• And since these bodies can’t go long without food or water it seems to make sense that food and covering should be a priority.
That’s just human logic.
And so it may have been that this crowd was somewhat perplexed,
Maybe even a little scared by what Jesus said.
He was asking for them to take an incredible jump of faith there.
And because Jesus knows the heart of man,
It stands to reason that His next course of action
Would be to address that very fear.
That is what He does here.
And we will break this section of His sermon down into 4 points.
#1 A COMMAND TO OBEY
Luke 12:22-23
We notice now that the direction of Jesus’ sermon has shifted.
(22) “And He said to His disciples,”
I think it would be a mistake to assume that it is only the 12 here.
• This would be people who are following Him and determined to learn from Him.
• It would also include those who are believers, and perhaps even some who are merely superficial believers.
• But it would be a much larger group than just the 12, and certainly even though He is addressing His disciples, the entire crowd can hear.
“And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.”
He starts by linking this message to the previous parable.
• We just learned about a foolish farmer who became rich on earth, but was not rich toward God and in an instant fell into eternal bankruptcy.
• It was a foolish decision on his part to be so preoccupied with earthly things and so unconcerned about eternal things.
And based upon that foolish example Jesus gives instruction, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life”
That is to say, “do not worry about THIS life” or “this physical life”
Specifically “as to what you will eat; nor for your body as to what you will put on.”
Don’t be preoccupied with the physical aspects of life.
Don’t be overly concerned about satisfying physical needs.
It is a simple command,
And I want to start by reminding you that it IS a command.
And commands are meant to be obeyed.
That means that worrying about life is a sin.
• Worrying is an act of disobedience before Christ.
• To worry about earthly things is to do that which Christ specifically forbade.
“do not worry about your life”
And honestly, because He is the Lord He does not owe us an explanation.
But in His grace He gives one anyway.
(23) “For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.”
That is a great statement and one that requires some reflection.
• Jesus is talking about “the meaning of life”
• Jesus is talking about “the chief purpose of the body”
And what do you suppose that it is?
Do you suppose that the chief purpose of the body is regarding what you put in it and what you put on it?
Trust me, there are many who think so.
I’m not opposed to people who want to eat healthy,
But there are some who are so preoccupied with what they put in the body that one might suppose that their only goal in life is to keep their body healthy.
There are some who are so preoccupied with fashion and dress and even comfort and clothing
That one might suppose their only focus in life
Is to adorn this body and make it look good.
Is that really the purpose?
Is that why God gave you a body?
(So that you would feed it right and clothe it well)
If that is the case then some of the apostles greatly sinned against God
Because Paul mentioned that he had often times gone hungry
And even been in cold and exposure.
Someone might well tell him he is sinning
For not taking better care of the body God had given him.
• What is the purpose of life?
• What is the purpose of the body?
• Why did God give you either?
Jesus here gives us direction by saying, “life is MORE than food…the body is MORE than clothing”
Food and clothing may be part of it,
But life and the body are so much more than just that.
Well I think Scripture speaks very clearly to what Jesus means.
CONSIDER LIFE:
Colossians 3:3-4 “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
You catch that.
Christ is your life. He is the purpose.
Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Paul indicates that the purpose of life has nothing to do with my goals or dreams and sure is not something as superficial as self-preservation.
My life now is Christ and faith in Him.
Romans 14:7-9 “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
All of those give a very important reminder that your life
Was not given to you simply so that you would preserve it.
God DIDN’T give you life just so you could do everything you could
To make it as long as you possibly could.
God gave you life for the purpose of using that life for His glory.
• Your life is an offering to God.
• It is meant to be spent, not in self-satisfaction, but in service to the Lord.
And the same could be said for the body.
CONSIDER THE BODY:
We learned a great deal from the life of Jesus about this:
Hebrews 10:5 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;”
• God didn’t give Jesus a body so He would come and show us proper techniques of caring for a body.
• Jesus didn’t come as a nutritionist who taught us how to eat right.
• He was given a body for one overarching purpose: OBEDIENCE.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
Here we see that our body is a temple of God’s Holy Spirit.
And many even use this as a means to say “So you should take care of it”
“You should eat right and exercise because your body is a temple.”
That is not the Biblical application there.
That’s just someone who wants to use Jesus to sell exercise equipment.
Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 4:7-8 “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
The point of having a body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit
Is about godly living.
It is about using that body for holiness not sinful activity.
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Yielding our body to obedience is actually a form of worship.
2 Corinthians 5:8-9 “we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
Our body is here so that we might walk in a manner that pleases the Lord.
We don’t preserve the body,
In fact Paul says there is ample reason to buffet our bodies.
1 Corinthians 9:27 “but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
You just see the point Jesus is making all throughout the Scriptures.
“For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.”
I’M NOT SAYING eating healthy or dieting or exercise are bad things, they certainly aren’t.
• We saw a couple of weeks ago that laziness and gluttony are certainly sins.
I’m just pointing out that nutrition or physical fitness
Or self-preservation are not the end goal or even the primary goal.
Life is Christ.
The Body was given as a conduit to obey Christ.
And yet some leave Christ out and put all the focus on the body.
That is what that foolish farmer was doing.
• All his preparation, all his work was for one purpose and it was so that his body
would be taken care of for many years to come.
• No thought of eternity…
• No thought of Christ…
• All his focus was on the body and caring for the body and Jesus called him a
fool for being so preoccupied.
And so His command is clear.
“do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.”
That is a command to obey.
#2 A CONSIDERATION TO OBSERVE
Luke 12:24-28
There’s actually 4 considerations that Jesus offers.
• He just uses simple observations from nature and simple human logic to get you and me to think rightly about how foolish it is to worry.
Let me give you these 4 considerations.
1) WORRY DISREGARDS YOUR VALUE (24)
“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!”
Now I do need to say at this point that it is important that you recognize that Jesus is here speaking to His disciples, not necessarily everyone.
We saw that in verse 22.
• We also see down in verse 30 that Jesus distinguishes again, “For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.”
You can see that Jesus is distinguishing between the children of God and the nations of the world. He’s not speaking to everyone universally here.
• Even in verse 32, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”
You see that Jesus is addressing God’s children, God’s flock,
Not necessarily everyone in the world.
And you need to see that because it is an important distinction to be made
As we address the notion of your value.
Now on one hand we do understand common grace.
• Common grace is that good will that God has for all mankind universally.
• That is to say that God has good hopes and good desires for all humanity.
• He so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son
• He sends rain on the just and the unjust
• He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth
• He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked
Certainly God has good will towards all humanity.
And certainly, as Jesus insinuates here, human life has more value before God than animal life.
• That is simply true too.
• I know in our day there has become some confusion on this topic, but Jesus makes it clear that human life has much more value than animal life.
• It doesn’t mean we don’t love animals, or that animal cruelty isn’t wrong, but don’t let your focus get skewed here. Human life has much more value than animal life.
But even that isn’t all that is in view here.
What we are talking about here is the greater value of the redeemed.
• The value God places on His children.
• The value God places on His flock.
And just at the outset I would remind you that
It is a tremendous value that God places upon His children.
Acts 20:28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
1 Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
Those verses certainly express to you the value that God has assessed to His children.
• He paid a high price for our redemption.
• He paid with the blood of His own Son.
• He paid with something far more valuable than silver or gold.
God has assessed great value to His children whom He has redeemed.
UNDERSTAND THAT FIRST.
Now let’s look at the verse.
“Consider the ravens…”
And let me stop you there, Jesus used a raven on purpose.
• It was filthy
• It was unclean
• It was annoying
• It was loud and obnoxious
But even more than that, ravens aren’t disciplined at all.
“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them;”
Here we have a filthy, unclean, annoying, obnoxious,
And totally undisciplined bird who doesn’t take any precaution whatsoever to make sure it has something to eat.
And if it did starve to death no one would miss it.
AND YET, GOD FEEDS THOSE THINGS.
And to that Jesus says:
“how much more valuable you are than birds!”
If God would take the effort to feed an annoying unclean animal,
Don’t you think He’s going to take the time to feed His children
Whom He has paid such a high price to redeem?
Do you not know how much more valuable you are to God than that?
Psalms 34:8-10 “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.”
Psalms 37:23-26 “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread. All day long he is gracious and lends, And his descendants are a blessing.”
It’s a simple issue of your value before God.
But when you worry about what you will eat or what you will wear,
You are actually disregarding how much God values you.
Imagine if your child continually came to you worried that you weren’t going to feed them any supper…
• Eventually would you not set them down and explain to them that you’d go hungry before you’d let them go hungry because you love them so much?
Well little flock we are talking here about your heavenly Father.
• He values you!
• He purchased you with the blood of His Son!
• If He’ll feed a bird, He’ll certainly feed you because you are much more valuable then they are.
So worry disregards your value
2) WORRY DISPLAYS YOUR ARROGANCE (25-26)
“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? “If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?”
Now that subtitle may surprise you a little.
• You may ask, “How can worry demonstrate that I am arrogant when the whole reason I am worried is because I don’t know how I’m going to do something?”
• You’d say, “If I was arrogant then I’d be confident I could do it and I wouldn’t be worried.”
No, worry and arrogance run very close.
Many times we worry as a result of arrogance.
• Your worry indicates that you have assumed responsibility or abilities that you don’t have.
• Your worry indicates that you have entered a world of authority that is not yours to assume.
Look at the verse.
(25) “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?”
Now can I ask you who it is that is sovereign over the span of your life?
It isn’t you.
It is God.
Acts 17:26 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”
Psalms 139:16 “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
Friend, I hate to tell you, but you aren’t going to live one second longer
Than God has ordained for you to live.
I don’t care how often you buckle your seat belt or how much kelp you eat.
God is sovereign over our appointed times and the length of our days.
And if you take up responsibility for the length of your life
Then you have taken up a responsibility that is beyond your pay grade. And that is arrogance.
And if you do take up a responsibility that is beyond your ability
I can promise you that anxiety is coming.
(You have arrogantly assumed responsibility for that you have no right to assume and for that which you cannot control)
Do you suppose that you “can add a single hour to [your] life’s span?”
How?
You can’t.
That’s all up to God
“If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?”
What is Jesus’ point?
• Things like how long you will live on this earth are not your responsibility.
• Things like where you will get food are not your responsibility either.
Those things fall under God’s responsibility.
If you try to arrogantly assume responsibility from God
All you’re going to do is cause yourself anxiety and worry.
You weren’t created to control that.
Worry just means you’re trying to control something
That is beyond your control.
We’d do better to remember the advice of the Psalmist from Sunday night.
Psalms 46:10a “Cease striving and know that I am God…”
• Or “Be still and know that I am God”
• Or “Stop and know that I am God”
• Or “Settle and know that I am God”
• You are not God.
• You can’t handle things like how long you live or where to get food.
• Those things are God’s prerogative.
• You quit worrying and let God do God’s job.
Your job is obedience, not provision.
So do you see that worry is just displaying your arrogance?
Worry Disregards Your Value Worry Displays Your Arrogance
3) WORRY DENIES GOD’S GOODNESS (27-28a)
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you?”
Now Jesus moves from birds to flowers.
“Consider the lilies…”
He’s not talking about a specific variety here, but basically all flowers in general.
And what is so special about a flower?
Namely this.
That despite how temporary they are
God still takes great effort into their beauty.
When you want to talk about their beauty Jesus says “not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.”
And that is remarkable considering how temporary they are.
Jesus says they are “alive today and tomorrow [are] thrown in the furnace.”
THE QUESTION IS: Why would God go to such great efforts and pour such great beauty into something so transient?
Well this is where we talk about the goodness of God.
Good in the sense that He cares for all His creation
With great detail and faithfulness.
Consider the book of Job
Job 38:25-27 “Who has cleft a channel for the flood, Or a way for the thunderbolt, To bring rain on a land without people, On a desert without a man in it, To satisfy the waste and desolate land And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?”
God reminded Job that He sent rain on land where no people live
Simply so that the grass in the land would have water.
That is meticulous care for seemingly insignificant things.
Job 39:1-4 “Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? “Can you count the months they fulfill, Or do you know the time they give birth? “They kneel down, they bring forth their young, They get rid of their labor pains. “Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field; They leave and do not return to them.”
There God reminds Job that He is even active in the birth of mountain goats and deer and the raising of their offspring.
God attends the birth of every creature on this planet.
He is meticulous in His care of His creation.
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
Not only is the Lord present for the birth of every creature,
But He is also keenly aware of the death of every one of them.
He is involved in His creation and meticulous about its care.
David said regarding humanity:
Psalms 139:1-6 “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
And what God did for David He does for every single human, especially those who are the redeemed.
• He knows everything about you at all times.
• He knows your thoughts.
• He knows our words before you do.
• He knows the rhythm of your heart.
• He knows your cholesterol level.
• He is “intimately acquainted with all my ways”
We are simply talking about a God who is good
And who cares for all His creation,
Even grass which will wither and be burned tomorrow.
• And “if God so clothes the grass in the field”
• And if God waters the desert
• And if God helps the mountain goat to calve
“how much more will He clothed you?”
Do you get the point?
When you worry about things like provision you are overlooking and even denying the very goodness of God to care for His creation.
It is an accusation that God doesn’t take care of His creation.
Certainly that doesn’t mean that God does not allow or even ordain some measure of human SUFFERING. We know that He does.
That is to say that God may not always clothe you like you think He should.
• But that is never because He doesn’t know…
• And that is never because He doesn’t care…
• And that is never because He can’t…
It’s simply because He is using that hardship for a greater purpose.
But to worry about it like you don’t know where it’s going to come from
Is to greatly deny God’s basic goodness to care for His creation.
Worry disregards your value Worry displays your arrogance Worry denies God’s goodness
4) WORRY DEMONSTRATES LITTLE FAITH (28b)
Did you catch that final statement from Jesus?
“You men of little faith!”
Do you understand how worry is a slap in the face to God?
Do you understand why it is a sin?
• Christ commanded us to not worry or to be preoccupied with the things of the world.
• And then He wanted us to consider a few things as to why He gave such a command.
And at the heart of it is because
Worry over temporal things is an insult to God.
• When you worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, you are in essence accusing God of not caring enough about you to care for you.
• When you worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, you are in essence telling God you’ll do His job for Him because His work has been unsatisfactory.
• When you worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, you are in essence accusing God of not being able to manage His creation.
• When you worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, you are in essence telling God He cannot be trusted.
Either He can’t do what He said or He won’t do what He said.
Both of those sentiments are a slap in the face to God.
That is why we say that worry is a sin.
And that is just part of why Jesus commanded us not to do it.
FRIEND, OUR COMMAND IS TO concern ourselves with spiritual things and leave the physical things up to God.
• Your life is not about trying to continually clothe this body or feed this body.
• Your life is about Christ and obedience to Him.
So here we see
1. A Command to Obey – Do Not Worry
2. A Consideration to Observe
We’ll finish this text next time.
