Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning everyone.

It is nice to be invited back.

I enjoyed the short visit back in October, Pastor Kirk and Aimee were nice enough to invite me again today.

It is always a tremendous privilege, an honor even, to be invited back somewhere, isn’t it?

Well I’m happy to be here at Bridge Church with my Son.

I understand from Pastor Kirk that you have been making your way through the first part of Luke’s accounting, part two being the book of am really blessed and honored to be allowed to study this section of the scripture this morning with you.

We’ll be in Luke Chapter 17 this morning.

There are a couple of themes in this passage at first glance, the inevitability of sin, the call to forgive, the call for expansion of faith, and the caution to remember our place of belonging in the God verses us importance scale.

At first glance a Pastor might divide and discuss these topics in greater length, even taking them to a topical oral expository, at first glance.

In reading this section of Luke for preparation of our time this morning, it started to become clear to me that these individual topics really need to be connected to capture the heart of Jesus in His message to His followers.

One of the more popular verses in the Bible is located in this section of scripture, and by reading the whole section we’ll put it into a proper context which I hope will stretch you as it has stretched me in having a greater understanding of His heart and the kind of faith He knows is best for us.

Let’s ask for help this morning in understanding His message and request in faith together that people be reached by it.

Father thank you for your love and patience.

Help me this morning to be a good messenger for you.

I ask that you guide my words and our thoughts in this message that someone would be given a greater understanding and a greater heart for you.

I ask that the people who have come here this morning would be touched by your Word, not mine, I ask that you use me in this time to further your heart, and not mine.

Thank you.

Amen

I am a supporter of the New American Standard Bible, I have found it to be an honest interpretation of original text in a choice of words for our language that bring the truest meanings possible.

I’ll be reading out of the NASB, but feel free to read with me with whatever Bible you have with you this morning.

Most of this section is Jesus speaking, Jesus being the “He” we start with here:

1 He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!

2 “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

Unstoppable Temptation

Inevitable temptation to make wrong choices.

Even within the first section of this section, there’s two themes!

The inevitability of temptation, and the caution against being the cause of temptation for others.

Stumbling Blocks

Jesus uses the word, inevitable, as in “not preventable”, when talking about how temptation to sin will happen.

In the language of the day that this was recorded by Luke, the word used is Anendektos which means “impossible to avoid” There is a saying some of you may have heard possibly, “stuff happens”?

It’s something like that… it’s meant as a plea for submission to a fate where one cannot avoid it.

Please notice with me, that Jesus does not say here that it is inevitable that we will choose to stumble in the temptation.

Young’s Bible says, “it is impossible for the stumbling blocks to not come” Getting back into Jesus’ words and doing a word for word translation, “stumbling blocks” comes from a Greek phrase which references the trigger of a trap.

Skandalon.

In reading for this message I discovered several authors who are significantly more learned than I am, who indicated their strong support for the idea that Jesus’ use of Skandalon meant that the stumbling block was not simply a wrong choice of little consequence, but rather it referenced a moral mistake that would cause ruin.

Their choice of words here, moral ruin.

I believe that is why Jesus is so emphatic about the way he relays this message.

So it should not be of any surprise that Jesus would immediately continue with a similarly strong caution we not be the stumbling block.

Jesus uses the word, inevitable, as in “not preventable”, when talking about how temptation to sin will happen.

There is a saying some of you may have heard possibly, “stuff happens”?

It’s something like that…

As many of our scriptures have come from accounts of Jesus teaching to masses or followers, so is this passage so in order to understand what Jesus means about the phrase “little ones”, we would look back in chapter 15 for the context of the crowd.

He is referencing people of little faith, or in another choice of words, people not strong enough yet to resist temptations of sin.

The passage isn’t an excuse for sinning, and it isn’t a direct reference to children, though certainly may children might fall into the category of faith that he is describing.

Mostly due to the phrase choices Jesus used, which reference deeply ruinous type bad decisions, one could be reasonable in the assumption that the passage isn’t aimed at children.

In Luke’s second book, he expands on this, take a look with me:

So Jesus in awesome Jesus fashion, finds an illustration that all in the crowd gathered would understand.

He says…you’d fare better with a millstone around your neck, tossed into the sea, never to escape certain death, than to be the person who brought a moral stumbling block to another.

Wow! Strong words!

SO I am standing here and describing to you Jesus, who just made a threat that would hold up in court!

Let me illustrate the threat in a way that will help us to better understand Jesus’ heart in this.

Becky Pippert, in her book Hope Has Its Reasons: says,

“Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships.

Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers?

Far from it. . . .

Anger isn’t the opposite of love.

Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. . . .

God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer . . .

which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.”

Jesus is not indifferent when it comes to the people who cause the downfall of others, He cares deeply about it.

Just as he knows every scar on our hearts and our bodies, He loves and cares about us enough to get downright mad, even appropriately violent at those who would do such a thing to others.

Jesus is the Good Sheppard who will fight ferociously to protect His sheep.

In his commentary John Courson says, sometimes amongst a group of people who are followers of Christ, given the reference, the body of Christ, sometimes, this connection with one another, which is the reference of “brother”, this connection calls for correction.

Has anyone seen or been a victim of this passage being taken beyond not just its context, but its intention, and used against you?

Another translation of the first phrase uses the warning in a same way stating, “Take heed yourselves”.

Some of you may have that wording.

This time Jesus is saying…within the group of people who consider themselves Christ followers, out of love for each other, knowing each of us is important to Jesus, we should carefully and prayerfully point out these things to each other.

But lets be very careful not to get hung up here…because the point of the passage isn’t to go around picking and poking at each other…but drive home a direct contradiction to the practice of the day in regard to forgiveness.

It was also to address the practice of how others shortcomings were brought to the attention of people in this day.

Jesus uses the word “rebuke”, “epitima”, which means to “show disapproval”.

It means to find a fault, and recognize it....but it does express a direction of condemnation.

Let me repeat that, Jesus is not calling for us to bring condemnation.

For those taking notes, who are hopefully going to be fact checkers and ensure that my words are true, write down these scripture passages for your study this week in regard to these statements I’ve made:

, , , Mathew 7 & 18. You’ll find instruction and recommendations about how to go about expressing disapproval without condemnation.

I want to keep moving, because the next concept here, as I mentioned before, was a direct rebuke by Jesus of the common practice and teaching amongst the rabbi’s that one should forgive offenses by a person three times, and after that there was a pulpit permission so to speak to write the person off.

Jesus is directly saying, don’t just forgive them three times, double that number…and you know what, then add one more.

It was outrageous.

It was scandalous to even poke at the rabbi’s in this way.

It’s an exact picture of Jesus I’m so excited to share today.

Jesus is so passionate and serious about bringing radical change to a broken system, that he’s making threats to drown them, and directly speaking against their improper teachings.

The rabbi’s were answering questions with reference to law and logic.

Jesus turned that whole mess upside down and implored people to come first with love, come alongside with compassion, and if that doesn’t work…add one more for good measure.

Lest anyone get caught up with the 7, don’t miss the message here, he’s saying forgive without limit.

Forgive Without Limits

What a radical concept.

Honestly, it’s still radical today.

The disciples listening to this teaching, this direct assault on legalism, they were thrown aback by this teaching.

Let’s read more:

Luke 17:

They recognize that to forgive someone continually who won’t stop offending you, takes the ability to write off the task of making the offender change.

Let me repeat that.

If we are to be obedient to God in this passage calling for forgiveness, then we are going to have to trust that God is going to not just take care of us in this situation, but take care of this other person also.

It isn’t a love problem, it’s a faith in God problem, and the disciples of Jesus who were listening in…at least understood that much.

Here’s Jesus’ famous response to this:

Luke 17:6

I love how Courson puts it, “ The disciples said, “Increase our Faith”

Jesus says in response, “UNLEASH your Faith in me”

They return again with, “Expand our Faith”

and Jesus says...”Express your faith.

Jesus in said Speak to the mountain itself, He didn’t say, pray to me that the mountain would be moved.