2016-07-10 Luke 17:5-10 Scandalized (2): Motives Matter

SCANDALIZED (2): MOTIVES MATTER (Luke 17:5-10) July 10, 2016 Intro – A gifted young pastor was greeted by a parishioner one morning: “You’ve become one of the great preachers of this generation, Pastor.” He could not help mentioning this to his wife on the way home. Seeking further affirmation he asked, “I wonder how many great preachers there are in this generation?” Sensing he needed a sanity check, she looked him in the eye and replied, “One less than you think, my dear. One less than you think.” A vital lesson in humility. There are a lot of reasons to seek humility. Jesus gives 3 here. This passage seems to be a series of disconnected events, but there’s a theme: humility. Key phrase? “Pay attention to yourself.” Examine yourself. We all struggle with this issue. Jesus is teaching us that lack of humility is scandalous. It scandalizes others (1-4), God (5-6) and self (7-10). I. Lack of Humility Scandalizes Others -- The phrase “temptations to sin” translates the Greek word σκανδαλον. It originally described bait in a trap – an enticement leading to destruction. Over time it came to mean stumbling block – something people trip over with disastrous consequences. Jesus warns against being a cause of stumbling to other believers. Severe penalty will attach to that. Almost any sin might do that. But as an example He uses the sin of not forgiving others – holding grudges. It’s a scandal in many of our lives. It promotes our interests above God’s, demonstrates a lack of humility and places us in more danger than being thrown into the sea with a millstone! II. Lack of Humility Scandalizes God (5-6) These verses are often pulled out of context but they are a continuation of what Jesus has been saying. They consist of a challenge and a correction. A. The Challenge – The Lord has just warned against causing one of His “little ones” to stumble which might involve forgiving others perhaps as many as 7 times in one day for the same offense. It’s an outrageous demand with severe penalty attached. No wonder we get v. 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” You’ve got to give them credit for realizing their own weakness. What Jesus asks violates every natural tendency. Their conclusion is, “We’re going to need more faith than we got to pull this off.” 1 Their request seems commendable, doesn’t it? Jesus asks the impossible and they respond by saying, “Okay, but you’ve got to give us more faith!” They are going to have to trust their rights to God rather than protecting themselves. So they ask for more faith. Sounds reasonable. They’re like the girl who said to her date, “John, I can’t let you keep taking me to these expensive places unless you start picking up the checks.” That’s the disciples. “Lord, this is going to be expensive. You gotta increase our faith allowance.” Reasonable! The problem is Jesus’ response doesn’t treat it as so commendable. He doesn’t say, “Right. You’re right. You need more faith. Go and you will have it when you need it.” That would have been logical. But it’s not what He says. Why? Why doesn’t He commend them for their humility in asking Him to make up for their deficiency? It must be because He sees that their response is not really humble. It is a challenge! Look again: “Increase our faith.” It’s not a request; it’s a command. They’re blaming God for not properly equipping them. In their hearts they are scandalizing God by suggesting He hasn’t given them enough faith. Jesus is going to tell them they have plenty of faith. They are not underequipped. God doesn’t underequip any of His children. They’re not using what they already have. Look at Jesus’ correction. B. The Correction – “And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” This verse has been grossly abused to imply that if you just have enough faith you can get anything you want from the Lord. This is not what it teaches at all. First, a quick nature lesson. A grain of mustard seed was, of course, exceptionally small. Jesus’ point is even with miniscule faith here’s what you could do. And what is that? Uproot a mulberry tree – famous for its complex root system. Extremely difficult to pull up. We had one in our backyard as kids. The root system went everywhere. It’s gone now. I don’t envy the guy who took it out. Jesus is saying, “If you had even the tiniest faith, you could command a root infested mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea.” That assumes it’s God’s will, of course. Faith is never a blank check to impose our will; it is always a blank check to further God’s will. Okay. So far, so good. Little faith produces big results, right? Now let’s dig deeper. Note “If you had faith.” That makes it sound like they didn’t! But the word “had” is present tense -- better translated, “If you have faith” as in most English translations. That helps. Now it sounds like maybe the disciples have faith; maybe they don’t. But there’s more. In English there is only one way to 2 say “if.” It always leaves a shadow of doubt. In Greek there are four ways to say “if.” Here Luke uses a first-class conditional clause which assumes the condition. So you could legitimately translate “If you have faith, and I assume that you do” or even, “Since you have faith.” That clarifies immensely. “If you have faith, even as small as a grain of mustard seed, and I assume that you do, you could say to this mulberry tree (within God’s will), ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” In other words, Jesus’ correction to the disciples’ challenge that they need more faith is – “You guys don’t need more faith. You’ve already got faith enough to uproot mulberry trees. Your problem isn’t lack of faith.” So what was their problem? Small faith? No. Small God. Even little faith in a big God would enable them to accomplish everything He asks. But they were looking at themselves rather than God. They didn’t want to forgive because their rights were being violated – and they were not willing to trust God to make it all right. They had a small God. They were scandalizing God. Just like we scandalize Him when we don’t trust and obey. The correction isn’t more faith. The correction is see God for who He really is. Get a big view of God. People totally misunderstand faith when they believe it gets God to do what I want. No. No. Faith does not limit God to my vision; faith expands my vision to God’s greatness! That’s why those 3 Hebrew children could say to Neb – “Throw us into your furnace, O, King. We know God can save us. But whether He does nor not, know this, we are worshiping Him, not you.” You say, “What faith!” And I say, Yes. But even more – what a God! In Prince Caspian, there is a wonderful scene where the young prince meets up with Aslan, the great lion Christ-figure. He says, “Aslan, you’re bigger.” “That is because you are older, little one,” answers Aslan. The prince replies, “Not because you are older?” Aslan replies, “I am not older. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” With maturity, we will find the same. We scandalize God when we diminish Him in our minds. We don’t need more faith, Beloved. We need more God. We need to use the faith we already have. III. Lack of Humility Scandalizes Self (7-10) Now, let’s review. Jesus has instructed, “Don’t lead others astray. Pay attention to yourselves.” Among other things that will require a ton of forgiveness. They already have the faith to do that. They just need to trust that their God is big enough to have their back – to protect the interests He is asking them to give up. Big task – but they can do it by His grace. 3 But Jesus knows His audience. He knows success will go to their heads. They will feel they have earned something. He wants to correct that possibility before it even gets started, so He gives a parable. A. The Parable -- 7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” The word servant is literally slave – not a hired servant. This person is a slave by virtue of having been bought or because he incurred a debt he could not pay and thus came under obligation to his debtor. Now when a slave has finished his outdoor chores, the master doesn’t say, “Hey, well done. Come on in and eat with me.” No, no. Rather, he expects the slave to serve him his dinner, after which the slave can take his own. The slave doesn’t earn the right to eat with the master just by doing his duty. He hasn’t even earned the right to be thanked. He’s just done his duty. You don’t get extra points for doing what you’re supposed to do. Jesus isn’t teaching a course on manners here. He’s not suggesting it’s wrong to thank someone for doing their duty. But He is teaching there is no obligation to do so. Doing one’s duty puts no obligation on the master. That’s the parable. B. The Principle -- The key to interpreting is v. 10: “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” “Unworthy” here doesn’t mean without value. A better translation might be “profitless”. Turn to Mt 25 to get the idea -- the parable of the talents. One servant gets 5 talents, another 2 and another 1. The first two invest their money in the master’s absence and made a profit – 100% in both cases. But the final servant buries his talent and returns no profit. So, Mt 25:30 the master instructs: “And cast the worthless (same word αχρειος) servant into the outer darkness.” He was unworthy in that he was profitless. And that’s the idea Jesus is getting to in the parable. A slave is not useless, but he is profitless in the sense that having done his duty, he has earned no profit to himself. No other benefit accrues to him. So the principle? Nothing we can do ever puts God in our debt. Nothing. Obeying God does not put Him under any obligation to us. This is not the 4 totality of our relationship with God, but one aspect of it is that He is master; we are slave. In obeying we are only doing our duty. He owes us nothing. That is the principle. We do not earn God’s favor – not ever. It comes by unmerited grace. Even as a believer. God is never under obligation to us. Now – I already hear some of you saying, “Wait a minute! What about those rewards He promises? What about the crowns? What about the judgment of our works as Christians in I Cor 3 where the wood, hay and straw works burn up – but the gold, silver and precious stone works are rewarded? What about that?” Good question. Really good question. Deserving of two comments. First, it is obvious that any sins we commit are part of the wood, hay and straw. But guess what? So is any good thing done for selfish motives! That means if we are only serving God and others for the reward we might get, we’ve made the reward an idol. We’re serving God for the blessing instead of for Himself. Our motive isn’t love for Jesus; it’s a selfish desire to be #1 in heaven – and it’s going to burn to up, Beloved. So what won’t burn up? That which we do out of the pure motive of a heart of love and gratitude for such a Savior. Service that stems from a desire to give for Jesus’ sake rather than get for my sake. That is what will not burn up. It’s a big paradox. We will be rewarded for those selfless acts of service that are done for Him, not for what we can get from Him. Reward comes to those who are not working the reward! You have to get this or you will never understand the Christian life; you will never understand humility. You can never put God in your debt. Underline it in your mind and heart. Tim Keller says, “You owe him everything, and you owe it to him to make him number one in your life. But we make all sorts of other things number one in our lives, and then we expect, and in some cases demand, a good life from this God, with dastardly cosmic inappropriateness, don’t you think? He owes us nothing except to throw us into debtor’s prison. He owes us nothing. A Christian is somebody who understands that. A Christian is somebody who figures that out.” Have you figured that out? If you have not you are scandalizing yourself every time you think you are chalking up brownie points with God. C. The Promise This parable has been hard to interpret because it seems unduly harsh. This is the reality of the slave/master relationship. This governs how we look at God’s 5 obligations toward us – there are none. But that does not mean grace will not prevail! Our Lord is not going to act like the Lord in this parable. To get the full picture, remember Luke 12. There Jesus tells the parable of slaves who faithfully do their duty in the master’s absence – Jesus Himself being that master. Then He says in Lu 12:37, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” So here’s the full picture. Our parable emphasizes that God owes us nothing for faithful obedience. But the other parable emphasizes that what He does not owe us, He will give us by shear grace! He will not merely thank us and invite us to dine with Him. He will serve the meal. Is grace amazing or what? Our parable is not saying God never rewards His followers – it is saying He is never under any obligation to do so. What He doesn’t owe, He gives out of amazing grace. Even the reward is due to His work thru us, not our own efforts. Conc – So how do we keep from scandalizing others and God and even ourselves? Let me summarize this section by putting myself into a John Piper illustration. Suppose I come home on our wedding anniversary and I knock on the door. I have roses hidden behind my back. Now Patty is puzzled. I never knock on my own door. So she is surprised. She is more surprised when I show her the flowers and say, “Happy Anniversary, my love!” She says, “Oh, David – why did you?” And I say, “Isn’t it obvious? It’s our anniversary. It’s my duty to bring your flowers!” [Shake head] That is a baaaaad answer. It’s a bad answer because it doesn’t honor her; it dishonors her! What’s the right answer? “Patty, I couldn’t help myself. Nothing makes me happier than to bring beautiful roses to you. And get ready. Nothing would make me happier right now than to take you out to dinner.” Now, that’s the right answer. Never in a million years would Patty say, “You are so selfish. All you think about is yourself. Nothing would make me happier than to spend the night with you. All you ever think about is yourself. Me. Me. Me. Me.” Never in a thousand years would she respond like that. The reason: We glorify our wives by enjoying them. And we glorify our Lord by enjoying Him – not by attempting to put Him under obligation to us. So let’s get the scandal out of our lives by joyously obeying the One who has saved us! Humility – driven by love. Let’s pray. 6