Luke's Gospel

So that's Luke chapter 17, and we're going from verses 1 to verse 10. Jesus said to his disciples, Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It will be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause 1 of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them.

And if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you 7 times in a day, and 7 times come back to you saying I repent, You must forgive them. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. He replied, If you have faith as small as a mustard seeds, you can say to us mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. Suppose 1 of you has a servant plowing a looker, looking after the sheep.

Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the fields? Come along now, and sit down to eat. Wonty rather say, prepare my supper. Get yourself ready and wait for me while I eat and drink. After that, you meet and drink.

Well, he thanked the servant because he did what he was told to do. So you also, when you have done everything you are told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. Rory. Thanks, Ben.

Well, good evening from me. My name is Rory. It's nice to see you all. And we're back in Luke. So we've been working our way through Luke for about a year and a half now, something like that?

It's a year and a half. Let's go with that. And and it's been a wonderful time actually looking in it. So I'm hoping that your excited to be back at Luke. I'm gonna pray for our time as we as we look at it and then we'll get stuck in.

Let me pray. Father, we thank you so much for your words, and we thank you for this amazing gospel of Luke. And so we pray that as we look at it now, that you will help us. These are challenging words. And we need convicting in various places, but we also need encouraging.

And so we pray that you do that tonight. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So when I was starting to sort of think like this and preparing for this, I was I was talking to my my father through this passage. He he pointed something out that I hadn't really seen as as we've been looking through Luke. And I don't know if you've picked up on it.

But as you as you go through, there seems to be like a a sort of pattern between conversations with the disciples, and then he's having conversations with the pharisees, and then he's having conversations with all this, and then he's having more conversations with his disciples, and it keeps on going like that. And I I think when when you read it like that, you it feels very real. This is a real journey. This is 3 years of real life that he's taken his disciples on, and he's teaching them. And he's teaching them as he interacts with other people in the world.

And so, it's a it's a bit what we kinda see, it's a bit like a boss with his apprentice. And as they sort of work together, he's trying to teach them various little things, and sometimes you have these informal conversations, and sometimes you have these more formal conversations. And that's kind of kind of what Jesus is doing with his disciples as he as he walks around sort of these towns, these villages, unless he proceeds to go to Jerusalem. He's really trying to teach his disciples what it means to be a follower of him. And so, actually, we just finished chapter 16, and Jesus is basically just and being having a go at the Faracies and saying, this is not what my kingdom's like.

My kingdom's not all about look, getting money, and earthly treasures. And so it's not like that. And now I'm gonna tell you the disciples what my kingdom's like. And that's what happens. He turns to his disciples and says, This is what Kingdom Living is like.

This is what is expected of you disciples in my kingdom. See, you're gonna be the men, the leaders that go out and take my gospel, and and you need to know what it is to be part of my kingdom. You need to know, and you need to be able to live it out. And it's not just live out individually. Now Jesus has a real view of community.

It's it's about other people. That's why he's saying talking about little ones and and brothers and sisters in this passage. And so he has a lesson for his disciples about how to live with other people, and how we have to interact with other people. And so because it's a lesson for them, and how to live in his kingdom, it's actually a lesson for us. How we should live, how we should act, how we should talk.

And so as we listen, to what Jesus has to say to the disciples. Let us listen and hear what is expected of us as Jesus' followers. So what does he expect What does Jesus expect from his people? Well, firstly, if you're taking notes, he says, don't cause sin. Don't call sin.

Look down with me at verse 1. This is how he begins his teaching. It says, Jesus said to his disciples. Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come. Okay?

In other words, it is inevitable in this world On earth, it's inevitable that there will not be stumbling blocks. They're gonna be stumbling blocks. There's gonna be temptations. There's gonna be snares. I mean, it's impossible in a in a world that is so fallen and broken.

And people who are so fallen and broken and sinful and selfish, you're gonna you're gonna encounter stumbling blocks. Right? There's gonna be things that trip us off. It's like walking through a a a forest. There's gonna be little little stumps and and and what those things called roots got there in the end.

They're gonna trip us up, but he doesn't stop there. He goes on. Look with me again at verse 1 to 2 now. Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but whoa, to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause 1 of these little ones so stumble.

It's pretty strong. In fact, it's extremely strong here. In other words, don't be the 1 that causes someone else to stumble. I don't know if you've ever had a conversation, like this or or or you you come across young people and people follow young people. Especially the popular ones.

And as a as a teacher, as a youth leader, sometimes I you have to have a conversation that says, listen, as a leader, Don't leave people astray. Don't be that that kid who takes everyone else away from being a good kid. Don't be that person who in the classroom disrupts the whole thing, so then everyone else starts disrupting, and no 1 learns. And Jesus is saying, if you cause someone to go away from me, if you cause someone to stumble, if you cause someone to sin, then woe to you. Woe to you.

If that is you, he says, it's better for you to die than do that. That's pretty that's pretty strong words. It's fair for you to have a huge boulder tied around your neck, and you to be thrown into the sea then cause 1 of these little ones to sin. That's what he says. In other words, the little ones being weaker Christians or young children to cause them to stumble.

That's such a a grievous thing. And so he says in verse 3, so watch yourselves. So watch yourselves. Go back to illustration where I'm telling kids not to to lead others astray. So I say, you watch yourself.

Watch yourself. It's it's language that we see throughout the the the bible. Watch yourselves. Be alert. Be careful.

In fact, Paul writing to Timothy, in 1 Timothy chapter 4 in verse 16, he says, watch your life and doctrine closely persevere in them, because if you do, you'll save you will save both yourself and your heroes. Be Watchching yourself. Watch the way that you talk. Watch the way that you act. Watch the way how that you behave with people.

Make sure that you aren't causing a little 1 to stumble and to fall. And so we need to check What we're saying, we need to check what we're doing. So are you causing people to go away from its faith. You're causing people to sin. Think about your your actions.

Think about your words. Think about the things that you teach people. Does it put people off coming to the Lord Jesus? There's the way that I live my life. The people look at it and go, well, that's not there's nothing special about Jesus there.

Why would I follow him? Do the words that I say reflect the lord Jesus? Do the things I do? Does it cause people that I know and love to sin, would it be better if I died than to do that? So don't cause people to sin.

Don't cause people to sin. But secondly, deal with sin. Deal with sin. Look down it. Verse 3 to 4.

Second part of 3. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them. And if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you 7 times in a day, and 7 times come back to you saying, I repent, you must forgive them. So, We're not to caution, but when people do sing because we saw before it's inevitable that people are gonna mess up.

When they do do that, then we must act and we must deal with it. And there's 2 things that Jesus tells us to do when people fall. The first thing that he tells us to do is rebuke them, rebuke a brother or sister when they sin. So when someone wrongs you, or when someone falls into sin, you have to go to them and you have to tell them. You can't just let them sin and then do nothing about it.

You can't just let them wrong you, and do nothing about it. You're not meant to be a doormat who just gets walked all over. No. You need to go and rebuke them. Not just go and talk about it with someone else so that you feel better about yourself, and there's 2 against 1 now, you go to them and you rebuked them.

It's not an easy thing to do, is it? Often, I would much like to brush it under the carpet and feel a bit hurt. I don't really like confrontation. I don't like the uncomfortable conversation that says, listen here, mate. That you were out of order then.

Or if I do go in to to rebuke them, sometimes I go in a little bit too hard. Because it makes me feel a little bit better about myself. I could shout and scream at them and judge them because I'm so much better than you. I didn't sing like that. Or I can pick out every little grievance I have with you.

But you did this and you did that and you did this and you did that and you did this and that that that that that that. I'll never forget anything. I just got a whole list. Well, look at this, 3 months ago. Shocking.

None of that's loving. Now, our attitudes should be 1 in which we wanna point out the wrong. We wanna say, listen, you've done wrong. But that we wanna show them they're wrong so that they then correct it, and they start doing right. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 25, Paul again says says, opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.

And then again, in Galatians, he says brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, You who live by the spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Gentle rebuke. It's not it's not ripping into someone, and it's not ignoring it at all. Is to go gently and firmly and say, listen.

That was wrong. You're out of order there. It's a bit and I know you I do a lot of teacher illustrations because I'm a teacher probably. When a teacher you have a you have a couple of options when you're in a class in a kid's misbehaving. You can you can either absolutely rip into them in front of the whole class.

And just you might have had some of these teachers when you're in school, and they're like, God, terrible human being. And absolutely shout at them. But that does nothing to change their behavior, really. And it does nothing to change their heart. In fact, sometimes it'll just cause a huge argument.

Or you could do this, turn a blind eye, and that causes havoc in the classroom. Or I can take them out and I can say, listen. What you're doing there isn't appropriate. I can show them why it's inappropriate and lead them to a place where they go, actually, no, I need to sort myself out. That's what it's saying here.

Gentle rebuke. So that when they see that they're wrong, they can repent. They can turn and they can do what's right. And when there is repentance, that leads to the second thing that Jesus says to do. And that is to forgive them.

Book down at verse 3 and 4 again. If they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you, 7 times in a day, and 7 times come back to you saying, I repent. You must forgive them. Not you maybe you can, you must forgive them.

See, you may be wrong on a number of occasions. You may be wrong time and time again. That person has said that thing again to me. That person has put me down once more. That person has let me down again.

They've not turned up again. And then that same old story comes. I'm sorry. And it comes your way. I'm sorry.

Again, you're sorry again. Yeah. I'm sorry again. And Jesus says forgive them. But they've they've done it about 18 times.

No? Forget them. And now, he's not saying here, by the way, in case you were like, well, 7 times. On the eighth time, I'm not forgiven him. That's not Jesus' point here.

He's a bit like in Matthew when he says, when Peter's like, How many times should I forgive my brother? 7? Jesus says, no. Not 7, 77 times. We're not saying that at 78.

We go, hold on. I've been counting 78 You're out of forgiveness. No. The point he's making here is that you continuously forgive people. Every time that you're wrong, you forgive.

It's a habitual forgiveness. It's limitless, boundless, total, immeasurable forgiveness. It's an it's an attitude of forgiveness that I'm always gonna be willing to restore this relationship. It's a parent. The parent doesn't stop forgiving usually.

You know, he has to tell the child off You know, Lewis is my nephew. It's the closest I've got to a child. You've been naughty again. Oh, sorry, Rory. I forgive you.

Lewis, you've done it again. Oh, sorry, Rory. He never said, sorry to me actually. Kit. I forgive you.

I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. You'll never be kicked out of my house.

I forgive you. When they repent, you must forgive. That's what it's like being in a family. That's what it's like being in a church. We have to live with each other.

We have to put up with each other's annoying habits. We have to put up with the times that you let me down, and I let you down. But then I can rebuke you, and I can forgive you. So this is all very easy. Right?

Forgiveness. Rebuking, like, not not not putting things in the way of people because as a simple being, I will cause people to stumble. How This is not easy. So how What So thirdly, faith to do the impossible. Because this is impossible.

I cannot do this. So the faith is to do the impossible. So, I mean, at this point, the disciples are probably thinking, how on earth, am I gonna do this? How is this possible? This is I can't do this, and so in verse 5, what do they say to the Lord?

Increase our faith. Jesus, I can't do this. Increase our faith. I can't not cause people to stumble. I can't rebuke people correctly, if at all.

And I can't forgive them. So to do that, we need faith. Otherwise, we haven't got a hope. And with that faith, we can do the impossible. That's why he goes on in verse 6.

Look. If you have faith As small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea and it will obey you. Now, don't don't get confused. This is not a a lesson for people who like gardening and trees. Okay?

And don't get don't get distracted by the fact that this is not it's not saying we should go around, go to Busy Park, Go to a tree. A r tree. Get into the thames. Right? That would be a bit mental.

Okay? That's not what Jesus is saying here. You gotta remember and I'm sorry. He's also not saying, if you have a little bit of faith, you can do anything. Or or you can have anything if you just have a little bit of faith.

Or this this will increase your chances of having a great life. It's not saying that. You gotta remember the context. What he is saying is if you have faith, you can do the impossible And the impossible is what I've been talking about. The impossible is forgiveness rebuking and not causing people to stumble.

And so to obey Jesus' command, you've got to have faith. You've got to trust. Otherwise, you won't be able to do this. You must trust in Jesus to do this. Why Jesus Well, he's the only 1 who always sorted out sin.

He's the only 1 that can forgive. He is the forgiver. He is the dealer of sins. And so in order for me to forgive you, and for you to forgive me, and for me to be dealing with your sin, I must trust in 1 who's greater and better, and who does that perfectly for me. I need to grasp, and I need to trust in the Lord Jesus that he has indeed forgiven all of my sin.

As he nails our chrono cross, he forgives me. Which is 1 of my 1 of my favorite songs is an old song actually here, as well with my soul. 1 of my favorite verses is that 1 where it says my sin. Oh, the bliss of this thought. My sin, not in part, But the hole is nailed to a cross, I bear it no more, praise the lord.

Praise the Lord of my soul. I need to grasp that Jesus on a cross has taken my whole sin and that I am forgiven of it all. But more than that, because I'm not just forgiving for what I've done in the past, but every time that I sin and I in time and time and time again. And every time I sin and I go back to God and go, God, I'm sorry. More than 7 times, it can guarantee that in a day.

And God always forgives. He always forgives. And so I can have an attitude of forgiveness because my God is a forgiver. And I can deal with people's sin because God doesn't let sin go under the carpet. So I can act in this way.

And so the more I understand this forgiveness and this love and this grace, the more I can trust. Just like the mustard seed, the mustard seed grows. Right? It grows bigger and bigger and bigger. My faith can go more and more.

And as if my faith grows in the forgiving gods, then I can live more in this way. So the faith to do the impossible. But actually, the faith to do the impossible is actually the faith to do your duty. And that's my fourth point. Do your duty.

Do your duty book with me at verse 7 to 10. Suppose 1 of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field? Come along now and sit down to eat. Won't he rather say, prepare my supper, get yourself ready, And wait on me while I eat and drink.

After that, you may eat and drink. Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. So he brings in these 3 questions.

It might seem a bit odd, but I think the point here is that we aren't to live in this way to earn God's favor. You're not to be a forgiver so that you can go, well, god, look at me. Forget 77 times. Rebute that bloke. Had it coming to him.

That's not what gets you right with God. God isn't gonna look on you living that way and go, wow, wow, well done. You can have my kingdom. I'm impressed. Now, it's meant to be like this servant.

The servant is meant to serve the master. He doesn't then serve the master and then get a reward for it. He's doing his job. He's doing what he's meant to do. That's the whole point here.

Now we don't like this in the 20 first century, Albert. He deserves a little bit of a meal, poor poor little serving, We deserve stuff. No. It's a bit like Imagine you you went to a restaurant, There you were. You went to Landos for some reason.

Ask for a fino pitter, maybe. Way to comes and brings that you and then sits down and proceeds to start eating with you. I think you would be think you'd be saying, excuse me, can you jog on? And they're like, well, no. I've been working really hard, you know, slayed a few chickens beforehand, you know, cooked them up I've done weights, done everything this time.

And I've served it out to you. And I'm gonna sit down. You'll be like, no. You can go away. I'm trying to enjoy a nice Nando's with my my wife here.

Of special treat. Or I can if you I mean, as a state agent, this will be even worse, wouldn't it? And a state agent hope there's none of here that actually. Sorry. You know, you got all the all the the house stuff's gone through, you've got into your house, and then turns up the estate agent in their own removal van with all the stuff.

Starting to put it into your house, you'd be thinking, what the dickens are you doing? Jog on. And they're like, well, I've I I helped you buy this house. You know? I got it all sorted.

You'd be thinking, no. You just did what you were meant to do. You were just doing your job. There's a there's a comedian actually who who it's very funny. A bit not the best language.

But he he he talks about a certain type of people who who boast about things that they're meant to do. Like, they say, I take care of my kids. And he's there going, you're meant to take care of your kids. Or I go, I've never been to jail. You're not meant to go to jail.

You just didn't do what you're meant to do. And Jesus is saying, you're meant to live like this. You aren't actually going above and beyond. As a servant and actually that word servant is really slave. As a servant of the lord Jesus, you're meant to act like this.

You're bound to behave in this way. Now you might be thinking, what's this about a servant? That doesn't sound fun. Well, actually our status, the bible tells us is 1 of son and daughter. We're forgiven of our sin in Christ.

We're You know, that never changes. We're always gonna be a son or a daughter. We trust in the Lord Jesus. But our function is a function of a servant. So we're supposed to serve Jesus, the master.

We we talk about how Jesus is Savior, but he's not just Savior. He's lord as well. And that means we're to serve him as our master. And so, therefore, as his servant, as someone who is following him and living for him, we're meant to act like he does. We're meant to do everything we can to make sure people don't stumble.

We're meant to call people up when they get it wrong. Were meant to forgive. Just like the servant here, he's doing what he's meant to do. Then we too are to do these things. So we can't come to Christ and go, look at what I've done.

Your men to do it. And the and the best thing is that the ability to do it is down to the lord Jesus anyway. I mean, Jesus gives us the grace to do these things. In Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 to 21, Paul says this, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. In other words, by faith, I'm in Christ, and the to live for him is by grace. Everything that I do for Jesus, I do by grace, I can't do it on my own. So I can't boast. Well, Jesus, look what I've done for you.

Yeah. I know. I gave you the power to do it. Look at me. No.

No. Actually, verse 10. You also, when you've done everything you were told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants. We've only done our duty. All we can do is humbly come to the master and say, listen.

I just did my duty. It's interesting in chapter 15, the lost son came to the the father and said, I'm unworthy to be your son. In chapter 17, we now see that we're unworthy to be Jesus' servants. We're unworthy, but That means we have the privilege to be a servant of Christ. And in his service, I can live like this, I can do the impossible as if it's just my duty.

That's quite a remarkable thing. Because because I could go away going, well, look at me now. I I I I forgive people. But with Christ, The most the most extraordinary thing here is that living like this is just ordinary. And so then people would might see us and go, what?

Look at that Look at those people there. They just forgive like nothing. They're meant to fig They just do it. And how glorious does that make the lord Jesus look? Of a community that loves and rebukes and forgives.

So how are you doing with this? How are you doing with this? It's not easy. Sometimes we we don't wanna forgive when I'm hurt, I wanna hold on to that hurt. Sometimes we don't wanna rebuke because it'll be a confrontational Conversation.

Sometimes I wanna live, however I wanna live. And so we must continue to look to the Lord Jesus, to look to the Savior, to look to the deliverer, to the forgiver, so that we may do our duty. So that we may stop people falling, so that we may rebuke those who do fall, and so that we may forgive when those who fall repent. Let me pray. Father we, thank you.

So much for the lord Jesus. And we thank you that with him, we can do the impossible. But not only that, with him, the impossible is just our duty. And so far, that we pray that you'll help us with these things, help us to fix our eyes upon the lord Jesus, and what he has done for us. So that we may live in a way that reflects who you are.

So pray these things in Jesus' name. Oh, man.