What Jesus Wouldn’t Tolerate – Part 1
Luke 11:37-54 (37-38)
June 2, 2019
It is quite possible that you find the title of the sermon this morning
To be a little surprising.
Tolerance is a highly valued attribute in our culture today.
I was about 20 years ago when I first saw the commercial
Which said that “Tolerance is a Greatest Virtue”
• Not holiness…
• Not integrity…
• Not honesty…
• Not love
• Not courage…
But tolerance.
It is the virtue most sought after by a culture
Who wants to fun head first into their sin.
• Can’t you just love me for me?
• Can’t you just accept me the way I am?
• Don’t judge me.
Those are all the common overused requests of a sinful society
That has no regard for the standards of God,
But that merely wants to live in sin unquestioned.
It is also a mark of a culture under divine judgment:
Romans 1:28-32 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
You see that approval and tolerance of evil
Is a mark of a culture with a mind of depravity.
It is a culture that is under the wrath of God.
The greater problem is that we also live in a day
When the church so often follows after the culture.
When I was in high school the battles were regarding
• Women pastors
• And the mandate that wives must submit to their husbands.
Neither of those commands were compatible with the feminist movement.
And to appease the culture we began to see the church “reinterpret” what they thought the Bible was really saying.
Today, that battle seems small compared to the new battles.
• We now have the church reinterpreting what the Bible has to say about homosexuality and gender and things like these.
• I actually saw recently a post of clergy who stood up to defend planned parenthood and women’s rights and the necessity of abortion.
Even more dangerous than either of those is the church’s propensity to tolerate false doctrine.
• In today’s church false prophets are no longer vilified.
• But those who question them or call them out are.
These shifts in church doctrine did not occur because of Bible study,
But because of a desire to maintain a good reputation in a sinful culture.
Well, since we live in a world that loves tolerance,
It should not surprise you that we are also seeing the rise
Of a generation of church goers who agree with that misguided slogan that “Tolerance is our greatest virtue”
And most, if not all of them, will
Hold up Jesus as their poster-child for this expected tolerance.
Jesus is portrayed as the most tolerant man who ever lived.
• We remember Him talking to that Samaritan woman…
• We remember the whole “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”
moment…
• We remember Him eating with tax collectors and sinners…
Typically forgotten in all of those instances is that
• Jesus confronted the woman at the well for immoral past;
• That Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more”
• And that Jesus ate in Matthew’s home (a tax collector) only after calling him
away from His tax booth and greedy lifestyle.
But none the less, Jesus is sort of blindly heralded
As the champion of tolerance.
That is what makes stories like this one so important for the church.
• They will reset our theology.
• They will re-center our doctrine.
• They will help us discern what is true in a world of perversion and error.
NOW CERTAINLY
• No one here would seek to overlook the importance of mercy or grace or patience as cornerstones of the Christian faith.
• We certainly forgive and love and even to an extent tolerate sinners.
BUT PERHAPS WE NEED A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE HERE.
If you take a concordance and look up the word “tolerate”
You’ll find that there are 4 Greek words that are typically used.
I think you’ll find this helpful.
1) APHIEME (a-fee-a-me)
It means “to leave alone”
Most of the time this word is not translated “tolerate”.
In fact 38 times in the New Testament it is translated as “forgive”.
Luke 11:4 “And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'”
And certainly we understand the value and necessity of that.
We “leave alone” those who have wronged us.
We forgive them because after all we need God to forgive us.
It seems like that’s a word that could never be out of place.
It seems like that’s an action that should be universally appropriate.
But then we read:
Revelation 2:20 “But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”
There is the same word
• The church at Thyatira was clearly rebuked by Jesus
• Because they were so eager to “tolerate” or “leave alone” or “forgive” this
wicked woman Jezebel who was leading the bond-servants of Jesus into idolatry.
We don’t tolerate that.
We don’t overlook that.
We don’t just leave that alone.
2) BASTAZO (ba-stad-zo)
“to take” or “to take up” or “to bear”
And this can certainly be an expected attitude or virtue of a believer.
Galatians 6:1-2 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
That is the clear calling of believers to get down in the mud
With their struggling brother and help them out.
It is the calling to help restore a brother who has fallen into sin.
It seems like “bearing” should always be the calling of a believer.
But then we read:
Revelation 2:2 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;”
Jesus praised the church at Ephesus because “you cannot tolerate (bear) evil men.”
• They just couldn’t stomach it.
• They just couldn’t let it go.
• They just couldn’t overlook it.
We don’t simply let evil spread and just turn a blind eye.
We don’t just bite our tongues.
We don’t just float downstream with a culture who runs to evil.
3) ANECHO (a-nek-ho)
It means “to bear with” or “endure”
This would be:
Ephesians 4:2 “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”
It is part of that passage that elevates the importance of church unity
And the commitment to preserve it.
Certainly as believers we know that in order to maintain church unity
We all have to show a little tolerance and love for one another.
None of us are going to agree on everything.
And that certainly is a good thing.
• That we should endure when things don’t go to suit us.
• That we should just accept it patiently and move on.
However, we also read:
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.”
That is that same word ANECHO.
• So you can see that we tolerate when someone turns the thermostat higher or
lower than we like.
• We tolerate when someone eats all the deviled eggs at the potluck.
But we do not tolerate someone preaching another Jesus.
• That we don’t endure.
• That we don’t just accept.
4) ANOCHE (a-na-hay)
“a delaying” or “forbearance”
Now, this is certainly an attribute of God.
We read:
Romans 3:24-25 “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;”
You have God there who did not send all the sinners in the Old Testament to hell.
• Certainly Jesus had not yet come.
• Certainly it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
• So in a very real sense, none of those Old Testament believers had ever actually offered to God an acceptable sacrifice.
• That wouldn’t come until Jesus.
• But none the less, God did not kill them.
• He tolerated them he forebear them until the acceptable offering would arrive.
Well that is certainly a good thing.
However, don’t assume that even God will use it forever:
Romans 2:3-4 “But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”
And there we find that the tolerance or forbearance of God
Comes with an expectation of repentance.
God doesn’t just tolerate indefinitely.
• He is merely giving sinners the opportunity to change their behavior.
That is a far cry from the tolerance our culture demands
And which the church is all too often willing to give.
I show you that because I think it’s important that you understand that:
BLIND TOLERANCE IS NEVER THE OBJECTIVE OF THE CHURCH.
We need DISCERNMENT.
• I’ve always liked the way John MacArthur talks about discernment.
• He calls it “The Church’s immune system”
• A body without an immune system can die of a 1,000 diseases.
• A church without discernment can die of a 1,000 heresies.
We must have discernment.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
Romans 12:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
And even the divine expectation of the church is that in a world of error,
We are the ones who shine the light of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:15 “but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”
Or even consider the requirements for an overseer in the church:
Titus 1:9-11 “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”
When the church loses discernment
And just falls into blanket tolerance of all things,
The whole world loses its foundation for truth
And is on a sure and certain path of destruction.
I’ve always liked the question of Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 5:30-31 “An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?”
That’s sobering isn’t it?
BUT YOU GET THE POINT.
• The culture may cry for tolerance…
• The culture may demand tolerance…
• The church may even want to follow suit…
• BUT BELIEVERS YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT WE DO NOT TOLERATE
EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING.
I just want to make sure you know that this morning.
Now, I realize that was quite a lengthy introduction.
But aside from addressing an important issue of the day,
It is also meant to prepare you for the story we are about to study.
This morning we are going to begin looking at:
THE ABSOLUTE, RIGID, INTOLERANCE OF JESUS
• We are going to look at what He would not bear.
• We are going to look at what He would not leave alone.
• We are going to look at what He would not endure.
• We are going to look at what He would not overlook.
In fact the language of Jesus here is so harsh that the crowd He spoke to
Actually told Him that He was being insulting to them.
(45) “One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.”
Wow! Really?
Jesus being insulting?
JESUS IS NOT TOLERANT HERE.
So what is it that Jesus won’t tolerate?
ANSWER: THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF ISRAEL
• He won’t bear them
• He won’t leave them alone
• He won’t endure them
• He won’t overlook them
And even before we get into this specific instance,
I want to remind you that HE WAS SENT WITH THIS MANDATE.
TURN TO: Zechariah 11:4-8
• I know we’ve looked at this passage before.
• It is actually a pre-incarnate conversation between the Father and the Son.
• It is the Father explaining to the Son what He must do when He takes on
human flesh and comes to dwell among us.
The simple command is found in verse 4:
“Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter.”
To put it simply, God’s flock had come under vicious attack.
Those who were supposed to care for them had instead attacked them.
(5) “Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them.”
And God had enough.
He was sending Christ to save the sheep and slaughter their enemies.
Christ was to come as the Good Shepherd
And lead those sheep to green pastures and beside still waters,
And in verse 7 we get the incarnation.
Christ did just that. “I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter”
And in verse 8 we see His confrontation with those bad shepherds:
(8) “Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul was weary of me.”
You see it there.
• Christ was not tolerant of these men.
• Christ did not overlook these men.
• He was “impatient with them” and he “annihilated” them.
We certainly saw that play out in the life of Jesus.
He warned
Matthew 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Luke 12:1 “Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Matthew 16:11-12 “How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Jesus was on the offensive against them to say the least.
There was no patience at all.
AND THAT BRINGS US TO OUR TEXT THIS MORNING.
We begin simply by reading the setting of the event:
(37-38) “Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.”
“Now when He had spoken” links this story back to the rest of the chapter.
• Namely this sermon Jesus had just delivered regarding being Authentic or Being Real.
• Jesus had just harshly addressed phoniness in Israel.
• It was a direct and confrontational sermon.
And at the end of the sermon we find that
“a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him”
This is the 2nd of 3 Pharisee meal invitations recorded in the book of Luke.
The first one was in chapter 8
When Jesus was invited to the Pharisees house and the sinful woman was there and started washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair.
If you will remember that was a hostile event from the outset
• Because Jesus Himself acknowledged that the Pharisee “gave Me no water for My feet…gave Me no kiss…did not anoint My head with oil”
That was an ambush from the outset.
The third meal will be as well. It is found in Luke 14.
Luke 14:1 “It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.”
They were hoping to catch Jesus in sin.
In both of those we understand why Jesus became aggressive.
They had backed Him into a corner.
And so many think that if those Pharisees had just been nice
Then perhaps Jesus would not have been so harsh with them.
Let me tell you why that’s not true.
Because in this second of the 3 meals Jesus goes to the home of a “Nice Pharisee”.
“a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.”
This is important.
The FIRST TIME Jesus ate at a Pharisee’s house, no water was offered.
Was it this time? Yes
In fact the Pharisee was “surprised” that Jesus didn’t use it.
When Jesus failed to wash, did the Pharisee say anything? No
The Bible just said he was “surprised”
Maybe he raised his eyebrows, maybe he looked at someone else in the room,
But he didn’t make a scene.
Here’s what I want you to understand about this encounter.
There is a fight coming,
And Jesus is the One who starts it.
• I have no doubt at all that Jesus intentionally skipped that water pot.
• I have no doubt at all that Jesus purposely went and sat at the table.
• (Certainly He knew the custom)
JESUS IS PICKING THIS FIGHT.
Now the question is: WHY?
• Why would Jesus pick a fight with this man?
• Why wouldn’t Jesus just be a gracious guest?
ANSWER: Because these people had offended Him!
• Did we not read that in Zechariah 11?
• These people had been slaughtering His flock.
• He came because of what they were doing.
And He was not about to just politely sit and eat
In the presence of those who had slaughtered His flock
As though everything was ok.
These people had offended Him and had offended God.
TURN TO: Ezekiel 34
(Read 1-6) – There you get the sin that had occurred.
• And it’s more of the problem of bad shepherds who had not cared for God’s sheep.
(Read 7-10) – There you find God’s response to the situation.
• To put it mildly, God is angry.
(Read 11-16) – There you find God’s solution to the situation.
• God is going to take matters into His own hands to deliver His sheep.
(Read 23-24) – That is how God will do it, by sending Christ.
SO DO YOU SEE:
• That for ages God has been watching as these false shepherds led His sheep astray?
• That God’s answer was to send to His flock a Good shepherd who would deliver those sheep from those corrupt shepherds?
John 10:7-10 “So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Matthew 9:36 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
• These people had mutilated His flock!
• These people had led His sheep into judgment!
• They were slaughtering His people.
• They were deceiving His people.
• They were extorting His people.
AND HE WAS NOT ABOUT TO TOLERATE THAT.
And so, after preaching this direct sermon about authenticity,
And when this Pharisee invites Him over for lunch,
Jesus is more than ready to confront these enemies.
• He is not about to just let bygones be bygones.
• He is not about to just sell out His flock for the sake of being able to rub shoulders with the religious elite.
• He is not about to start tolerating all the evil that they have spread throughout Israel.
And I want you to see that.
In a culture that says “tolerate everything”, you need to see that.
BUT YOU ALSO NEED TO SEE
THAT WHAT JESUS WOULDN’T TOLERATE WAS NOT SINFUL PEOPLE,
WHAT JESUS REFUSED TO TOLERATE
WERE THE FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADERS.
You have to see that.
John MacArthur wrote:
“Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44), the ruler of the evil world system, opposes salvation truth (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; I John 5:19). His kingdom of darkness spawns an endless stream of religious liars and deceivers, who have led people astray ever since Adam and Eve. Deception today is greater than ever, due to its accumulation through human history and its exposure by the widespread reach of modern media. And in an age where the promoting of tolerance and diversity as the highest virtues has left people both unable and unwilling to distinguish truth from error, deception dominates. Even many who call themselves Christians advocate tolerating false teachers in the name of love, acceptance, peace, and unity. They ignore the reality that such people are savage, ravenous wolves (Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29) disguised as messengers of truth, who keep people from true salvation…But Jesus taught that false spiritual teaching comes from Satan’s hell and sends people there. He aimed His most severe warnings and most stern judgments at those who outwardly seemed to be the most religious adherents to God and Scripture.
But being religious is not a virtue…False prophets and false teachers are in reality hypocrites, who create the illusion that they are something they are not. Instead of giving lost sinners the saving truth of the gospel, they reroute them from the narrow way of salvation onto the broad path that leads to eternal damnation (Matt. 7:13-14). Their outward display of piety is nothing but an insincere charade of godliness. Because they are devoid of true spiritual power they are to be avoided, not applauded (2 Tim 3:5). And when they claim to represent the true God and Jesus Christ, they are the most dangerous.”
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series: Luke 11-17; Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL; 2013] pg. 95-96)
That is such important perspective for the church.
It is one thing for us to tolerate a sinner, lost in sin, who needs the grace and mercy of the gospel.
• Absolutely we are merciful.
• Absolutely we are gracious.
• We show forbearance as God does, hoping to lead them to repentance.
• We don’t hate sinners.
• We don’t call down fire on sinners.
• We don’t stone sinners to death.
• We preach the gospel that will save sinners.
Certainly we show tolerance for believers and bear one another’s burdens and seek to maintain unity even when personal preference gets in the way.
• We are diligent to preserve unity.
• We would rather be wronged, rather be cheated than go to war with fellow believers.
• When a brother stumbles we strive to pick him up
• Certainly we exercise tolerance and patience and forbearance there
But if you want to know where the church draws her lines of intolerance, it is all wrapped up in false teachers.
These are people who deceive and ultimately send people to hell.
(Jude and Peter have a lot to say about them)
And Jesus had no tolerance for them.
• He could eat comfortably in a room of tax collectors and sinners, but He could not bear sitting at the table with a Pharisee.
• He could ask the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink of water, but He didn’t even want the hand washing water of the Pharisee.
• In just a few weeks Jesus will go and gladly eat at the house of Zaccheus, but He cannot tolerate this Pharisee.
I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT.
THIS IS WHAT JESUS WOULDN’T TOLERATE.
Church eternity is at stake.
• We cannot shake hands with a false gospel.
• We cannot turn a deaf ear to lying message.
• We cannot tolerate the Jezebels who lead bond-servants into idolatry.
• We cannot tolerate evil men who pull the sheep away into sin.
That was from the very commands of Jesus.
In this story you’ll see that Jesus practiced what He preached.
As we get into this text, you’ll see 7 specific reasons
Why Jesus would not tolerate the scribes or the Pharisees.
They are a much needed message to the church.
