Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Guard It
First B Jackson
2023-03-26

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Lord, it is good to sing to you this morning. God, would you fill our hearts with joy and hope for you are good. In Jesus' name, amen. If you're troubled and heavy hearted, let's come in. Tender, deliverer, king of kings he is.

He is helper and healer forevermore, savior and shelter through every You You can have a seat here for a moment. So the worship through giving part of the service, I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing canvas and clay from Isaiah 64, a good reminder of who we are in light of who God is. And we are the clay, and you are the potter, God. We're in all the work of your hand.

And before we sing, Ray, would you pray? Sure. God Almighty, thank you for this beautiful morning. I thank you for this group that's gathered. We ask for, Lord, for your protective hand to be upon those of us who are going out over spring break, Lord.

But I ask that it's not just protection. What the disciples prayed for in Acts was boldness. Lord God, I pray that we would be carrying your name with us wherever we go, that the praise that comes out of lungs that are full of air, Lord, would be praising our Creator, loving you, loving this life that you've given, this abundant life. I thank you for the opportunity, Lord, to be here this morning and share with this room. But God, we ask that when we go from here that we would be sharing your love to everyone we encounter.

In Jesus' name, we ask your blessing on this offering, Lord, that you would take it and do with it as you will. We, Lord, are looking to you for direction, and we want to see your gospel advance into the darkest places, Lord. Show us your way and allow us the strength to walk in it. Thank you for using us, for having us as a part of your divine plan. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thank you, fellows. It's time for Children's Church downstairs.

This

buildup to Spring Bank has been a busy week. Very, very busy week. And I'm thankful to be doing. I love to get the calls. But I had two weddings and that were great this weekend and a funeral yesterday that was probably one of my favorite, celebrations of life I've ever been to.

It was just, it's really, really good. We're up to the rest of Luke 11, okay? We've been going through a chronological study of Jesus walking through the three, the synoptic gospels at the same time recently. And I hit a place where there's a similar story that we've already covered in Matthew, and I mentioned it that it's in Luke two. But I think they're sufficiently different that they're probably different.

But I've preached through a lot of this passage before. I'm going to hit something to begin with that's Justin Luke and then go through the other stuff, and I might go at a faster clip than I usually do. We'll see. Tanya says never promise a short sermon. I don't think it's going be a short sermon.

So Luke 11 so far, if you're looking at Luke 11, it starts off with one of them saying, hey, teach us to pray, and Jesus does, the Lord's Prayer. And then he speaks about being persistent in prayer. He gives a couple of parables of different people that are persistent, going to the neighbor and asking, your kids coming to you and asking, parables for being persistent in prayer. And then he closes off that section with this, and I think it's wonderful. If you all know to do the right thing, just think about this.

You're flawed. You're finite. He even uses the word evil. You're you being evil. How much more then will God give his Holy Spirit to those who are asking him?

And so when you lean into God and say, God, I want to know you. I want to know you. I wanna know you. I don't wanna just take what I know of you and insist that that's all there is, Lord. I want to see who you are.

I want you to start living out your life through me. I want to know that I'm empowered by the Holy Spirit. How much more will God give his Holy Spirit to those who are asking him? He says, be seeking, be asking, be knocking it. You will find, and it will be opened to you.

You'll receive. Immediately after that, we get the Pharisees and they're blasphemy. He does this by the power of Beelzebub. Yeah. Beelzebub talk.

Now last week, we covered Colossians three. I'm just going to put up the slide. The things that we are to put off, to take off like a garment, not just put it off for a later time, okay? It's to take it off. Sexual impurity, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is in itself idolatry when you look around and you want something that someone else has.

What I have is not enough attitude is not a great attitude. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy talk and lies. And to put on compassionate hearts. God, that we'd be able to see people the way that you see them, compassion, kindness, useful goodness, humility, meekness and patience, and be bearing with one another, forgiving each other just as the Lord has forgiven you. And actually, it closes out with this, and put on love, which binds all of these together in unity.

If you are loving, then you will have these other qualities. They'll be a byproduct of the love. So here we go. Back to Luke. This is where we left off last week.

I actually had it included in the slides last week. I wanted to close with it, but honestly, I looked out and I felt like you could bear no more. While Jesus was saying these things while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised up her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that carried you and the breast at which you nursed. What a beautiful blessing that is. Blessed.

You can hear her. She's so excited about it. Now the Pharisees had just blasphemed him. There's there are two ways to take what Jesus is saying when he said, keep on seeking. Keep on knocking.

Keep on asking. This is the way to pray on earth as it is in heaven. God, help us see who you are. And then the Pharisees like, he did that by the power of the devil. And this woman cannot help but holler out, raises her voice.

Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breast at which you nursed. Now, but he said, on the contrary, on the contrary, menoun is the Greek word, menoun right there. I'll get to that. But he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it. Now, his mother was definitely an example of one who heard the word of the Lord and said, may it be to me just as you have said, and she followed it.

So on the contrary sticks in my mind and I go, why would they use on the contrary there as the translation for that? So I'm going give you three options and these three options across Greek literature can be used for this word. Nobody cares about this but me. Adversative. On the contrary.

That's saying what you said is not right. On the contrary, there's something different that needs to be said. No, rather. And I think that that snuck into this new American Standard translation as a, oh, we can't be praising Mary. And so on the contrary, no, don't do that.

I think that that was almost a theological underpinning for the translation. It's you got to worry about this stuff when you're translating. The next one is affirmative, indeed. How can it be either on the contrary or indeed, but it is. It's a particle.

Minun is a part it's actually two particles. Me means, nope. And therefore, it's what it kind of means. On the contrary, no, rather, affirmative, indeed. Or it can be corrective, yes, but rather.

I think that it's either affirmative or corrective. The New American Standard took it as adversive. So I just wanted to point that out. The definition, look at this. This is straight up dictionary definition.

I don't make this stuff up. Rather, on the contrary is the definition. The usage is nay rather, indeed, truly, really. When you hear somebody say, yeah, right, what does that mean? Yeah, right.

What does that mean? It means no.

Yeah.

I texted somebody yesterday and I got a new one that I've never heard before. They got IKR. I didn't know what IKR meant. I know what IDK means. I don't know.

But IKR means, I know, right? I didn't know that. So a teacher is teaching and she says, if you use a double negative, it's really positive. You say, I'm not. I ain't going there.

I can't even do it. I'm not never going to do that. I'm not never going to do that. That means you're going to do it. You can't do that.

There are no the teacher says double negative really means positive. Don't use double negatives. So there's no example where two positives means a negative. And the one of the kids says, yeah, right. So I think that taking the context here, when this woman is hollering out a blessing, and it is true that Mary is blessed.

The angel said so. This lady is the first one from Mary said, all generations will call me blessed. The first recorded in scripture that we have of another woman calling her blessed is this woman. So I think that we have to go with indeed or yes. But beyond that, even more so, blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it.

Mary's reasonable service was a unique task. And she said, may it be to be just as you have said. Now when God comes to us with our unique task, what are we to do? We're to hear the word of God and follow it as the word here. This one is used twice in the New Testament.

It emphasizes ongoing continual action just because of the type of participle, it's a present participle. It means keeping, guarding, protecting, observing. It's used twice in the New Testament. The other place that's used as well, the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night. So they're guarding them, they're protecting them, they're observing, they're careful for the sake of well-being, guarding, keeping watching, that's the word right there.

To guard, to keep watch, to have an eye upon, to guard a person of thing that it may remain safe. So if we are to hear the word of God and to guard it, it reminds me of the thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against thee. That I would hold on to it and that I would let it light my path, that I would preserve it safe, that I'd guard it, I care for it, I take care not to violate it, I would observe it. So that's the little section I thought I would go through rather slowly and think. It is important that we are listening, first of all, and that we are willing, second of all, and that we are guarding what we hear, and we're sticking with it.

He has a plan for our abundant life. And so whatever it is, Jesus says, blessed are those who hear the word of God and guard it, keep it, follow it. Now as the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the son of man be to this generation.

This one confuses a lot of people like, he's given signs all the time. He just cast out a mute a demon out of a man who was mute and he now could speak. He just did a sign, but they're demanding me a further sign. They wanna see something bigger, something else. That one was done by Beelzebub.

Do something else. Do it again. Do it again. They won't but there's no amount of signs. There's no level of sign that will convince someone who already has closed off their heart.

And he's saying that this generation appears to have done that. But he says that no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. Now without going through the whole book of Jonah, Jonah was reluctant to go to the Ninevites, remember? And so he ran. He ran from the call of Lord, not because he was afraid.

Well, not because he was afraid to do it because he thought they might kill him or something else. He was afraid to do it because he thought they might repent. And they didn't deserve repentance. They didn't deserve to be God's people. When we ask for thirty days of prayer for the Muslim world, is there anybody in here who has this feeling of they don't deserve it?

Modern day thinking. We go, I mean, some of some of you don't even wanna pray for the Democrats. Like, it's like, it's for the Republicans. Let me balance that back out. We we like to draw lines as who is the enemy.

Jonah had drawn a line as to who was the enemy. God was sending him as an agent of peace, and he didn't wanna go because he did want them to have peace. So three days in the fish's belly, he comes out and he goes. I'm I'm imagining it's a rather lackluster servant. Repent.

And they do because God had him sent for a purpose. Now Jesus has been sent as an agent of peace. He's been sent as an agent of peace to people that should listen to him. They've got the whole Old Testament, and everything points towards him, and they cross their arms and they say he's from Beelzebub. But there is a time coming when Jesus will spend three days and when he comes back.

It changes everything. Even his followers, it changed the way that they were. They were no longer reluctant and skittish and confused. They had a new purpose and they went out and we're here because they went forward and were willing to die for what it was that God had said. Just as Jonah became assigned to the Ninevites, so will the son of man be to this generation.

The queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them. Why? Because the queen of Sheba came from the Middle Of Africa all the way up to see what was going on. She was seeking truth with Solomon because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. Behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

That's Jesus. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and they will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. And if you reject that, the people who have accepted the word of the Lord get back to that verse before. Right?

So hear the word of Lord and guard it. The Queen of Sheba did that. The Ninevites did that. And he's saying, and you're not doing that. It's still open.

You still have the option of doing it, but you're not doing it. No one likes a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eyes a lamp of your body. When your eyes clear, whole body is full of light. But when it's bad, your body is also full of darkness.

So watch out that the light that's in you is not actually darkness. And he's speaking to Pharisees right here. He said, y'all have got the word. You've got it figured out. Every syllable, you've got it figured out.

And you think you know it all. Make sure that the light that you have is not darkness. Your attitude makes all of the difference if you're not willing to listen to what God says. Therefore, if your whole body is full of life without any dark part, it will be wholly illuminated as when the lamp illuminates you with its light. Be ready to receive the light.

Be ready to receive the light that God gives. God resists the proud, He gives grace to the humble. I preached on this one in March 2022, and I went into greater detail. It's almost the same message. You can go back if you want to.

I'm going keep moving. Now when he had spoken, a Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him. Table fellowship is huge at this time. If you invite somebody to dinner, it's a huge deal. So the Pharisee honestly, for a Pharisee, he's asking Jesus to come to his house.

He's asking him in. That seems like he's on the fringe already. When he had spoken, a Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him, and he went. Jesus went in, and he reclined at the table. And when the Pharisee saw this, he was surprised that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.

What a faux pas. I invited this guy in, and he's just gonna go sit down. Or in Jackson, I invited this guy in, and he didn't take off his shoes at the front door. When the Pharisee saw this, he was surprised. He was taken aback.

He was aghast that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but your inside is full of greed and wickedness. Oh. Y'all are very careful about following the rules. But what's inside is ugly.

You're not paying any attention to that. You foolish ones. Did he who made the outside not make the inside also? But give that which is within as a charitable gift. What is inside of you?

Give that as a charitable gift, and then all things are clean for you. It's not about ceremony. It's not about ritual. It is about a heart that is right before God. And then he starts off with the woes.

He's at the Pharisees' house. But woe to you, Pharisees. Woe to you. For you pay your tithes of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet you ignore justice and the love of God. But these are the things that you should have done without neglecting the others.

Yeah. Go ahead, tithe your mints. That's fine. Tithe mint, tithe rue, tithe what it is. That's fine.

It's the Old Testament standard for sure. Go ahead and do that. But get your heart right before God too. Pay attention to justice. Reach down and help someone.

Allow the love of God to just not stop with you. He loves me and he doesn't love them. I'm so glad I'm not them. These are the things which you should have done without neglecting others. Woe to you Pharisees for you love the seat of honor in the synagogues, and you love the personal greetings in the marketplaces.

You love it, your position. Woe to you, for you are like unseen tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. Now this one's an interesting one to talk about with Pharisees because they were really, really big on not touching dead bodies. Right? You couldn't be anywhere near a dead body.

There was a certain perimeter around the grave. And he's telling them, yeah, you pay a lot of attention to those rules like that, but what you actually are, you are like a dead man's tomb, and it's not even marked so people can walk around it. They're stumbling over you. You're causing them to be defiled, and you don't even know it. Your teaching is a problem, Jesus is saying there.

One of the the lawyers said to him in reply, love this. One of the teachers of the law or experts in the law or lawyers. One of the lawyers said to him, teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too. Is that not funny to y'all? He's talking to the Pharisees.

Woe to you Pharisees. Woe to you Pharisees. Woe to you Pharisees. And they get that, and then they think, but I act just like them. When you say this to them, you insult us too.

Honestly, if I was sitting right there in the pew, I'd be thinking, when you say this to them, you insult us too. I'm sorry, I'm the one delivering this message, but I've had to deal with this for several weeks now. When you say this to them, you insult us too. If it's if the shoe fits, you wear it. Right?

He said, woe to you lawyers as well. Don't let me leave you out. For you load people up with burdens that are really hard to bear while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. You're not helping people with the problems that that you are creating for them. Your interpretation of what it says that you have created into this system is leaving out people.

And there are people who are struggling from things that you're telling them not to do, but you're not giving them any help to get out of the problem. Help them. Get out of the problem. Woe to you. It keeps going.

This is just five. There's one more. Woe to you. For you build the tombs of the prophets. Can you think about that for a minute?

You build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. They killed them because they didn't wanna listen to what they were saying. Jesus is saying the same thing the prophets were saying. You're ignoring justice. Dare I say social justice these days.

You're ignoring it. You're ignoring it altogether. You build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. You are witnesses, and you approve of the deeds of your fathers by what you're saying to me because it was they who killed them and you build their tubes. You're glorifying the prophets like, poor thing.

Isn't that a shame? But you're not listening to what they said. For this reason also, the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets. I'm gonna send them people, and apostles sent out ones, and some of them they'll kill, and some of them they'll persecute so that the blood of all the prophets, all of them that have been shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this very generation. It builds up.

It keeps going. So that the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. I don't know if it's just because it's A to Z, I don't think it is. But Abel's the first one, Cain slew Abel. Without good reason, Abel had offered a good sacrifice to God, and Cain was jealous and angry and upset about it.

Why was his not accepted? Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God. Yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation. Woe to you, lawyers, experts of the law, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourself did not enter in, and you hindered those who were entering in.

Isn't that hard? We have the scriptures. They had the scriptures. How are we using them? Is this the key to entry into the kingdom of God?

Or is this something that we can study so we can separate ourselves from them and be an us together and everybody else be darned damned outside, anathema. We are it and they are not. Woe to you, lawyers. You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you hindered those who are entering.

So what were those six woes about again? If I were to just do a one word summation of the six of them, it was hypocrisy to start off with. You're mighty clean on the outside, but on the inside, you're dirty, greedy. Imbalance, ostentation, you love those seats and those greetings in the synagogues. You put impossible demands on the people, but you give them no resources for how to get out of the problem.

Intolerance and exclusiveness. This this I didn't make up those. Those came ready made for me in a commentary. I agree with all of them, but that is what those six woes were about. Woe to you Pharisees, you pay tithes of mint, every kind of garden of myrrh, you ignore justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

That's hypocrisy. Woe to you Pharisees for you love the seat of honor in synagogues and personal greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you for your like unseen tombs and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. Woe to you for you load people up with burdens that are hard to bear while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you for you.

Build the tombs of the prophets and you approve of their killing. And woe to you for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you hindered those who were entering. Boy, this is a hard message. And it ends right here.

When he left that place, the Pharisees' house where he was eating, the scribes and the Pharisees, those experts in the law, they began to be very hostile. They were already hostile in a lot of cases, But it says they began to be very hostile and to interrogate him about many subjects plotting against him to catch him in something he might say, if you think cancel culture is new, it's not. There are litmus tests in politics and there are litmus tests in the world of, let's ask him this and see where he lands on this, to know whether he's with us or with them. Right? Is he on our side or is he on their side?

And we love to split up into teams, and that's just not here. Love finds them all together in unity, compassionate hearts, kindness, all those things we're supposed to be putting on. They're trying to catch him in something he might they just heard the word of the Lord. They just heard it and laid out before them instead of saying, you're right. Oh my gosh.

I'm a hypocrite. Oh, I'm out of balance. I'm broken before you, God. Help me. Instead of doing that, they did this.

I like the funeral yesterday because it was an AA funeral, and church ought to be more like AA. Here it is. On the contrary. Indeed, blessed are those who hear the word of God and they guard it. God, is there any wicked way in me?

Am I a hypocrite? Am I missing this, Lord? Am I just shining up the outside and not paying attention to the inside? God, help me. Am I out of balance?

Am I disobedient straight up? Am I intolerant really? I know I'm accused of being intolerant, but am I really intolerant? Am I exclusive? I know there's an exclusivity to the gospel because there are people who are gonna accept it, the free gift that it is, and there are people who are gonna reject it.

So there's an exclusivity, but it's based on what you choose to do with the word of the Lord. Either you're gonna hear it and reject it or you're to hear it and accept it and guard it and hold on to it. So those are the six woes again. And that's just the way to close it. Think that's the last one.

I go with indeed though instead of on the contrary. I do think that Mary was blessed. I don't think she should be deified, but she definitely was blessed. But the reason she was blessed was because she heard the word of the Lord, and she kept it. Would y'all stand?

I'm gonna ask the band to come back up. And the altar is always open. God help us. Help us to see ourselves in the scriptures, not just, see ourselves as Jesus in the scriptures and not just see ourselves as one of the disciples in the scriptures. But, Lord, when the shoe fits and we are really looking a whole lot like one of the Pharisees or one of the experts in the law, God Almighty, would you would you allow us your Holy Spirit to convict us and to convince us of your righteousness and to lead us into the truth, to illuminate the scriptures so that we may see them and understand them and have the power to walk in victory.

In Jesus' name. Amen. To be forgiven and be free.

It's all you got to lean on, but thank God it's all you need and all the people say

Amen. Alright. For the benediction of day well, I think we're gonna go back to Colossians three twelve. I would like to say a prayer blessing, though. Anybody moving this week?

I know one. Pam, would you come up? That we should just ask that every week. Right? Who's moving this week?

May God bless you on your journey as you go, to Texas. We pray, for you that this would be a good move. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask that, reunited with family and that for all health concerns, everything, Lord, that you would be working all things together for Pam's good. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, even with me, and forgiving one another just as the Lord has forgiven you, and put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. In Jesus' name, Lord, may it be so. Amen.