Luke 12:1-7
The Tell-All of All Time
\\#1\\ There is "an innumerable multitude of people." Jesus was on
the road to Jerusalem \\#Luke 9:51\\. How long Jesus spent on this
trip, we do not know; but this verse makes is obvious that Jesus’
popularity had not diminished. Such a great host of people were
coming out to meet Jesus that they could not be counted.
But notice, with that great crowd of people, Jesus speaks "first of
all" to His disciples. That is interesting. We would suppose that
Jesus could speak to them at any time. We would suppose that He
would speak to them at another time. But on this day, He did not.
Why? I think for several reasons.
1. Jesus wanted everyone to know the truths that He will reveal
at this time. For example, He wanted every to know about
the Pharisees.
Luke 12:1 …Beware ye of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
a. Of course the disciples needed to know. They were going
be ministering and winning people to Christ in opposition
to the Pharisees.
b. But the Jews who were going to reject Christ needed to
know what they were rejecting Christ for as well.
2. Jesus wanted the people to know what He was teaching the
disciples.
a. I have said before that Christianity is an open worship.
There is nothing secret.
(1) The same Book that prepares the people prepares the
preachers.
(2) There are no secret meeting, secret codes, secret
teachings, secret officers, secret ceremonies,
secret handshakes or secret anything else.
b. I think that is also the way the church should be
operated.
(1) In our church, what you see is what you get.
(2) Most things in this church are even as open to the
visitors as they are to the members. Not all, but
most.
3. Jesus was preparing the disciples for the ministry that would
soon be theirs. Remember that Jesus was headed to Jersualem
to die. These are some of His last days to prepare those who
will lead after Jesus’ death.
NOTE: Some of the truths in this chapter and into the next will be
exclusively JEWISH. The disciples will have to deal with the Jews
being set aside by God. Some of these truths will help them to
understand what God was doing. More about that as we go.
So what was it that Jesus taught that day?
I. \\#2-3\\ There is nothing hid.
A. A big part of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees was their
backroom dealings.
1. Seven times in the New Testament, the phrase "took
counsel" is used. Every time it is used it is the
religious leaders having a meeting to entrap or kill
someone!
2. Their plots to trap and to kill Jesus were made in these
secretive councils \\#Luke 11:53-54\\.
3. If you are plotting to hire false witnesses, pay off
traitors, or kill people, you don’t meet in public.
4. Bad things happen in backrooms!
B. Jesus’ statement is not spiritually deep.
1. Rather, it is basic truth!
2. It has two parts.
a. Nothing is hid.
Luke 12:2 For there is nothing covered…
(1) Nothing!
(2) So sin, no backroom deals, no secret
arrangements.
(3) God sees it all so there is nothing that is hid.
b. But even more, secrets are going to be made public.
Luke 12:2 …that shall not be revealed; neither
hid, that shall not be known.
(1) It is not just what God knows. It is also what
God is going to reveal ALL!
(2) That ought to make every one of us blush. Every
hidden sin will become public knowledge to ALL!
C. We need to let that sink in because when it comes to hidden
sins, one day everyone is going to know.
1. Many are laboring under a false notion.
2. They think, "As long as I can get by with it now, I
don’t care about the future."
3. Christians have learned to think differently. They say,
"Since I would have to answer for this in the future, I
will not do it now.
D. So what do we do about the sins we have already committed?
1. I have secrets and so do you. If you do not want them
revealed, you have only one recourse.
2. Be saved and confess your sins.
3. If you do that, God forgives you of your sins.
4. Forgiven sins are not hid. They are removed!
Joh 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.
1John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to
take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
E. By the way, there is also another dimension to this truth.
1. The context indicates that Jesus was speaking of secret
sins and backroom deals, but the truth would also apply
to the secret good deeds we do.
2. I spoke to a person (Kerry) the other who had a $22,000
hospital bill. He has had some serious health
procedures, is self-employed, and his socialistic
Obamacare got so high he had to let it go. Then a family
member had to go have a procedure and he was left holding
the bill. He called to make arrangements and was told
the bill was paid. Someone paid a $22,000 hospital bill
for him! Right now, he does not know who. One of these
days he will.
II. \\#4-12\\ There is nothing to fear.
A. Jesus changed topics to discuss fear. He mentioned fear four
times in these verses.
B. Jesus made mention of two kinds of fear:
1. Fear of death
a. Knowing what the religious leaders were going to do to
Him and His disciples, it is logical that this topic
came up often with Jesus.
b. Jesus statement is again simple but powerful.
(1) They can only kill you.
Luke 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do.
(2) It might take you awhile to let that fully sink
in but death is not the biggest enemy for the
Christian.
(3) Example - My brother owns quite a bit of hunting
land in the rural country. He decided to put a
camper on it. There is no water or sewage so he
decided to put an outhouse on it. Yesterday,
I helped to frame my first outhouse. A bunch of
amateurs doing such a project are going to run
into some problems. One of my brother’s friends,
Randy, was there to help. If he made the
statement once, he made it 20 times. "It’s just
an outhouse." What did he mean? No one was
going to live in that building. No one was
going to sleep there, eat there, or come inside
for the decor. If everything is not perfect,
it really does not matter.
(4) Jesus was making a similar statement. It is just
death.
(a) Why minimize death?
(b) It is inevitable and unstoppable. To
compromise to delay it is foolishness.
(c) If it comes today or tomorrow, it does not
matter. It is just death.
(5) Christians must be careful that we do not give
fear or place to death that it does not deserve,
especially considering what waits for us on the
other side.
c. Jesus pointed out that there a thing far more
important.
Luke 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall
fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath
power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you,
Fear him.
(1) Being sent to hell is worse than death.
(a) Oh, how much more worse being damned is than
being killed.
(b) Death, as a rule, is quick. Hell is
forever.
(c) Death is unavoidable, but hell is.
i. No one need go to hell.
ii. The penalty for hell was paid by Jesus.
(d) Death may or may not have pain, but hell is
filled with torments unimaginable.
(e) Death, for the believer, has NO fear. Those
in hell will have fear every moment. Every
horrible, uncomfortable, unpleasant
emotion and impulse of the human life will
abide on those in hell.
(2) Letting Jesus down is worse than death.
(a) That is a decision each person must make and
do make for themselves, but Jesus told us
that it was so.
Luke 12:8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall
confess me before men, him shall the Son of man
also confess before the angels of God:
9 But he that denieth me before men shall be
denied before the angels of God.
(b) This is another of those Bible verses that
I do not have all of the answer for.
i. I get that unsaved people are denying
Jesus and that Jesus will deny them
when they stand before the Father.
ii. They will go to hell.
iii. But what about those who are
Christians and deny Jesus?
aa. They deny Jesus by the words they
speak.
bb. They deny Jesus by their selfish,
carnal habits.
cc. They deny Jesus by their
compromising.
iv. Is Jesus speaking about them too?
v. I can’t answer that but one thing I
know, I don’t want to be the one that
has to find out.
(c) I have think I have made up my mind. I
don’t want to say something that I might
not be strong enough to do, but I believe
that I would rather die than to let Jesus
down.
(3) I believe I would rather die than to let some
people down.
d. Why speak of such things?
(1) Because there are things worse than death.
(2) To the mortal, that may seem difficult to accept,
but Jesus wanted people to think about this and
to accept it so that WHEN death comes, we would
not shame ourselves in the facing it.
2. Fear of uncertainty
a. Most have both of these fears.
(1) We know we are going to die. We try not to think
about it, but when we do, we are fearful.
(2) But there are things we think about more often
that frighten us too, such as the fear of the
unknown.
(a) What will happen to us?
(b) How will we live?
(c) What are going to eat?
(d) How will we survive?
(3) Many people have these fears about them
constantly.
b. Jesus did not make specific promises.
(1) He did not say we would never go hungry.
(2) He did not say we would never go homeless.
(3) He did not say we would never be hurt.
(4) But He did tell us that He is in control of it
all.
Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two
farthings, and not one of them is forgotten
before God?
7 But even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more
value than many sparrows.
(5) By reminding us that He cares for the sparrows
and knows the number of hairs on our head, Jesus
was telling us that He is always watching, that
He always knows. that He is always in control.
III. There is nothing else.
A. The thought is there is nothing else but Jesus and salvation.
All else pails to those two goals in life.
B. I do not get this from a particular verse but from the overall
emphasis in this passage.
1. Being saved and living for Jesus is the only thing that
matters.
2. It is more important than comfort, than wealth, than
status, than acceptance, than even life itself.
3. Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem and could have turned
back at any time, but He did not.
a. Why?
b. Because this whole life is nothing compared to doing
what God desires us to do.
c. One day, we will understand that.
C. I find this text to be very relevant to the events of last
Sunday, a gunman opening fire on a church, killing 28 people
and wounding as many more.
1. Some God-haters have mocked God over this. They have
responded to the challenge to pray for these people by
saying that the people in the church were praying and it
did not help them.
2. But I do not worry about the God-haters. I am a little
concerned for some of God’s own people who might wonder
and doubt God for allowing such a thing to happen to His
own church and to His own people.
a. To them I would say that God allows people to do what
people want to do.
b. By what I have read, the man was an angry atheist who
was taught and bought into the lie that man is an
animal with no soul and no accountability.
c. He decided to inflict man on those he hated and on
anyone else around those people at the time.
d. It could have been in a home, in a shopping mall, but
it was in a church.
e. Christians are not promised any special protection
from the deranged people our society breeds, but we
are promised three things.
(1) There is nothing hid. I don’t know what was in
the killer’s heart or mind, but I will know
much better one day.
(2) There is nothing to fear. Life is a gift from
God and very precious, but the very fact that
those people were where they were indicates they
knew there are some things more important. I
pray that they were all saved and we will one
day be able to talk to them about it face to
face!
(3) There is nothing else.
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