Woe to Unrepentant Cities
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
The story is told of a farmer in a Midwestern state who had a strong disdain for God.
As he plowed his field on Sunday morning, he would shake his fist at the church people who passed by on their way to worship.
October came and the farmer had his finest crop ever--the best in the entire county.
When the harvest was complete, he placed an advertisement in the local paper which belittled the Christians for their faith in God.
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Near the end of his diatribe he wrote, “Faith in God must not mean much if someone like me can prosper.”
The response from the Christians in the community was quiet and polite.
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In the next edition of the town paper, a small ad appeared.
It read simply, “God doesn't always settle His accounts in October.”
Beloved, an individual's earthly success and prosperity is no clear indicator of what will happen to them on Judgement Day...
Unfortunately, many stand on their achievements instead on standing on the truth found in Word of God...
Many will ignore the myriad of warning in Scripture of the Day of Judgement...
However, that Day will come...
And Jesus will be the Judge...
So, it is vital that we are prepared to meet our Lord whenever that Day comes.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 10 and focus on verses 13 through 16.
Our message this morning is titled, “Woe to Unrepentant Cities”
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This message today will focus on Jesus’ warnings to those who ignore the Good News...
In fact, we will even see that their is far greater judgment for those who receive greater revelation and ignore it than those who never herd the truth.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Warning of Judgement
2) The Warning of Hades
And...
3) The Warning of Rejection
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
As the Psalmist says...
Create in me a clean and pure heart...
And renew a right and loyal spirit in me.
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Have mercy on me oh Mighty One!
Break me and mold me into the image of Your perfect Son...
Teach me the wisdom...
Teach me humility...
Teach me mercy...
Teach me patience.
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Then Lord I can teach others Your ways...
Give me the discernment and boldness to reach lost sinners...
Help me to show them the joy of Your Salvation.
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Heavenly Father...
If You desired sacrifices then we would give it to You...
If You delighted in burnt offerings then it would be done...
But the sacrifices You desire are a broken spirit...
A broken and contrite heart, oh Mighty God, you will not despise.
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Thank you for sending Your Son to save us...
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Warning of Judgement
1) The Warning of Judgement
Verses 13-14: Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
Previously, in our study of the Gospel of Luke we covered the sending out of the seventy-two followers by Jesus...
At the end of the instructions that Jesus gave them He tell them what to do if their message is rejected...
We find this in Luke 10:10-12 which says:
10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say,
11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’
12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
So, it is at this point that we pick up our study...
And it is at this point that Jesus states His woes that He pronounces on Chorazin and Bethsaida.
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This is the second instance in Luke’s Gospel of Jesus delivering woes to a group...
The first instance was back in Luke 6:24-26 which said:
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
So, what exactly is a “woe?”
We covered this in our study previously but it is worth revising again.
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The term “woe” is an exclamation of pain and pity for the misfortune that awaits someone in a certain condition...
The easiest way to think of it is that it is the exact opposite of the term “blessed.”
So, if Jesus is saying “woe to you” and you are the audience He is talking about then it would be advisable to quickly repent of what you are currently doing...
This is no small warning...
This is a urgent plea to turn from the destructive path one is on.
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In our passage today, three cites are in view regarding these woes...
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.
They were the cities in which most of Jesus’ miracles were performed, and yet their occupants rejected Jesus’ mission and remained unrepentant.
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The other cites mentioned...
Tyre and Sidon...
They were Gentile cities in Phoenicia on the Mediterranean coast which is northwest of Galilee.
They were also often the object of condemnation by Old Testament prophets for their Baal worship and arrogant materialism.
There are many Old Testament passages that talk about Tyre and Sidon but I would like to bring to your attention two.
First, look with me at Ezekiel 26:3–6 which says:
3 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.
4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.
5 She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. And she shall become plunder for the nations,
6 and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Additionally, look with me at Ezekiel 28:22-23 which says:
22 and say, Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will manifest my glory in your midst. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments in her and manifest my holiness in her;
23 for I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword that is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
As you can see, Tyre and Sidon along with Sodom really had the worst of the worst of reputations in regards to their wickedness to the Jewish people...
So, to hear that wicked Gentile cites like these would have repented if they only had the Gospel shared with them and seen the miracles and wonders preformed by Christ is shocking!
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In fact, Jesus even says these notorious and evil cites would have sat in “sackcloth and ashes” which is an expression of severe mourning and repentance.
You see Beloved, “Sackcloth” is rough cloth made from goat’s hair and that was worn along with “Ash” being placed on the head of the one repenting or sat upon.
It was an outward act of a very real inward repentance.
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As the Baker Exegetical Commentary on Luke says:
“If mighty works had been performed in these ancient cities, these sinners—
Unlike the current ones—
Would have repented long ago.
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These ancient cities exhibit more sense than the total lack of spiritual discernment of these current cities.
What a stinging rebuke!”
For with greater revelation a greater judgment will come.
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum...
They saw many signs...
They heard the Good News...
They saw Jesus in the flesh...
You can’t get better than that, Beloved!
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Unfortunately, these cites as a whole ignored Jesus’ message...
And today many ignore God’s message still...
The result of that rejection is the second death...
As Revelation 20:13–14 says:
13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
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This was a shocking message, Beloved!
Capernaum for example thought they would be exalted to Heaven but Christ made it clear that they had way to high of a view of themselves...
For the very opposite was true...
And this takes us to our second point.
2) The Warning of Hades
2) The Warning of Hades
Verse 15: And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
We really have an extraordinary ability to deceive ourselves don’t we...
Talk about self-righteousness...
Capernaum believed that Heaven was their destination...
It was a no brainier for them...
Yet, Jesus burst that balloon of theirs real quick...
He told them you are not on the Stairway to Heaven...
You are actually on the Highway to Hell!
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That wasn’t very seeker sensitive of Jesus...
Not many “successful” preachers are going to speak a truth like that so bluntly...
Yet, Jesus had the love and boldness required to share the Good News!
As the Pillar New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“So exceptional is the advent of the kingdom of God in Jesus that Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon—
Places proverbially beyond hope of salvation—
Can still be saved; and places like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum—
Places that have heard with their ears, seen with their eyes, and touched with their hands the Word of Life—
Will be doomed unless they repent.
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No place had greater exposure to this Word than Capernaum, no place, perhaps, had responded with greater ‘amazement.’
‘And you, Capernaum,’ says Jesus in rebuke.
In its pride and complacency, Capernaum imagines it ‘will be lifted up to the skies.
No!
You will go down to the depths.’
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The imagery of elevation to the heavens and condemnation to the depths is an allusion to ‘the rise and fall’ of the almighty king of Babylon in Isaiah 14—
An image that Jesus will extend to the fall of Satan immediately following!
When one truly hears the proclamation of grace in the kingdom of God, one can only repent like the Ninevites, or like Peter, ‘sitting in sackcloth and ashes.’
Despite human sin—
And examples like Sodom, Nineveh, and Tyre epitomize the depths of human sin—
The proclamation of the kingdom of God offers an opportunity of grace to turn and be saved.”
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So Beloved, be bold!
Be loving!
Be honest!
And warn others of the danger that may befall them if they continue in their ways...
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Many believe that, like the people of Capernaum, they are basically good...
They are not murders or thieves...
So, they should have no problem getting to Heaven...
Surely God will allow them in...
He is love, right?
He is full of mercy, right?
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Well Beloved, no one is a greater image of pure and perfect love and mercy like Jesus...
And He warned that the people who though they had Heaven as their destination actually had Hades in their cross hairs and didn’t even know it.
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The Greek word used here, “hadēs,” is used in substitution for the Hebrew word “she’ol”—which is the realm of the dead—originally used by Isaiah.
“Hadēs” is the Greek equivalent of the realm of the dead or the netherworld.
In other words, it can refer to the place of the dead, the opposite of heaven, or the place of the unrighteous dead...
So, this is not a place anyone should ever aim for but without Christ that is one’s destination.
As the Word of God says in Revelation 21:8:
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
This is an inconvenient truth for those who love their sin...
So, at the cost of the Gospel messages itself, many so called “loving” Christians avoid the mention of Hell with unbelievers...
Yet, Jesus never did that.
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consider what Jesus says in Matthew 10:28:
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Now this truth can turn off people so you will find many who omit parts of this verse in order to make it more palatable...
Case and point...
Take the wildly popular TV series “The Chosen”...
The “Jesus” in the show is very likable and I have even heard it said by someone, “That is a Jesus I would follow”...
Yet, the “Jesus” presented on the show lacks the backbone and courage of the real Jesus...
Consider this comment by user Leib109 posted on a discussion board regarding the show:
“Although there are other bothersome issues with the show, nothing quite gets to me as much as the show’s pretty obvious avoidance of the topic of Hell.
Other than Jesus’s mention of sinners being thrown into a ‘fiery furnace’ while telling the parable of the fishing net, there does not seem to be a single reference to Hell as a real place or even a metaphorical concept.
Instead, we have references to unsaved sinners ‘perishing’ and being condemned, but no direct reference to Hell itself.
In fact, there is one episode in which Jesus speaks of not being afraid of those who can kill the body and do no more, but the writers seemed to have deliberately omitted the second part of his statement in the Bible that people should fear the One who had the power to destroy both the body and the soul into Hell.”
Yet, as Pastor John Piper says:
“Jesus spoke of Hell more than anyone else in the Bible.”
Likewise, New Testament Scholar D.A. Carson says:
“[Jesus] himself speaks twice as often of Hell as of Heaven.”
So, why is that the case?
That doesn’t seem to fir many “modern” church’s idea of effective ministry and evangelism...
Well, Pastor John MacArthur says:
“Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven in order to warn men of its reality.”
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So, let us take Jesus’ lead and warn people of the danger they are facing...
Let us share this truth so that one may repent and believe and avoid Hell...
For there is a great cost of rejecting the truth...
And this takes us to our next point.
3) The Warning of Rejection
3) The Warning of Rejection
Verse 16: “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
Beloved, speaking God’s truth comes with a price...
And the reality is that many will reject this truth...
Yet they are not rejecting you the individual...
They are ultimately rejecting God Almighty!
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To reject Jesus’ messengers is to reject both Jesus and God the Father, who sent Him as John 20:21 shows:
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
So, in this context the ones who rejected the seventy-two in reality rejected God...
Likewise, any believer...
Pastor, deacon, evangelist, seminary student, or lay person...
Anyone in the Body of Christ that shares the Good News with others and is rejected...
It must be understood that God is the one being rejected.
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The opposite is true, too...
As our passage says, “The one who hears you hears me.”
So, those who accept the Good News are accepting God Himself!
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Beloved, that is why it is our responsibility to go out ans share God’s truth even with those we secretly think are a lost cause...
We are called to be faithful and share the Gospel...
The heart change is up to God and God alone!
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Recall with me what is recorded in Jonah 3:6–8 which says:
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
Beloved, Nineveh was legendary bad...
So bad that Jonah didn’t even want to given them a chance to repent...
Yet, once they heard the truth...
Even from a reluctant prophet with a bad attitude...
God still changed their hearts.
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There is no way around it...
There is only one way to Heaven...
So, we must share that truth as recorded in John 3:18 which says:
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Likewise to reject Jesus is to be rejected by God...
To be ashamed of Jesus and His message is to be ashamed by God...
As Mark 8:38 says:
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
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Beloved, our message is not just Bad News...
Sure we have to talk about Hell...
We have to talk about God’s wrath...
Yet, their is the actual Good News that we share that gives people hope!
As Acts 4:12 says:
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
And let us not forget what Romans 6:23 says:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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If God has changed your life...
If you God saved you from the destructive path you were on before...
Then share with others the truth that set you free...
For many will draw their last breath and it will then be too late to reach them.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
The following incident is vouched for by a Church of England clergyman who knew all the circumstances.
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A young woman, who had been brought up in a Christian home and who had often had very serious convictions in regard to the importance of coming to Christ, chose instead to take the way of the world.
Much against the wishes of her godly mother, she insisted on keeping company with a wild, hilarious crowd, who lived only for the passing moment and tried to forget the things of eternity.
Again and again she was pleaded with to turn to Christ, but she persistently refused to heed the admonitions addressed to her.
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Finally, she was taken with a very serious illness.
All that medical science could do for her was done in order to bring about her recovery, but it soon became evident that the case was hopeless and death was staring her in the face.
Still she was hard and obdurate when urged to turn to God in repentance and take the lost sinner’s place and trust the lost sinner’s Saviour.
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One night she awoke suddenly out of a sound sleep, a frightened look in her eyes, and asked excitedly, “Mother, what is Ezekiel 7:8-9?”
Her mother said, “What do you mean, my dear?”
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She replied that she had had a most vivid dream.
She thought there was a Presence in the room, who very solemnly said to her, “Read Ezekiel 7:8-9.”
Not recalling the verses in question, the mother reached for a Bible.
As she opened it, her heart sank as she saw the words, but she read them aloud to the dying girl:
8 Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.
9 And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.
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The poor sufferer, with a look of horror on her face, sank back on the pillow, utterly exhausted, and in a few moments she was in eternity.
Once more it had been demonstrated that grace rejected brings judgment at last.
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This story breaks my heart, Beloved...
A wasted life...
But why?
Why reject Christ when He alone can pay your debt and set you free?
He was sent into our world...
He was perfect in every way...
Yet, His people rejected Him...
Wicked men executed Him...
He was sinless but took on all our sins...
The sins of His elect in order to free them...
Free them from the shackles of eternal death.
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This was only made possible by the cross...
Were Jesus took our place and died for His sheep.
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And it is now about Christ’s sacrifice that we bring our attention to.
Communion
Communion
As we begin our communion service, I want to invite every genuinely born-again believer in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and do not have a relationship with Him...
Or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church...
Then I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
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As you came in you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and juice in a convenient package.
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If you have not received one of these, please raise your hand and someone will get you one.
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Before we join in communion together, I would like us to consider Romans 5:6-10:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Preacher Steve Lawson has this to say regarding this passage:
“This is what we once were; helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies. It’s a package deal.
All four of these represent what we once were.
It’s not two of the four, one of the four, three of the four; it’s across the board package deal, all four.
He says, ‘While we were still helpless –’ this word helpless means to be totally powerless.
The idea is to be weak, to be infirmed, to be feeble, to be frail, to be impotent, to be sickly, to be totally unable to do anything to gain or earn acceptance with God.
I mean, there is nothing that we had to even contribute.
We were completely helpless.
If you’re helpless, you’re helpless.
You have no help whatsoever.
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‘At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.’
Christ died.
He had to die.
It wasn’t enough that he shed blood in the Garden.
There was more going on.
His blood was even shed when he was circumcised as a little baby.
He had to die because Romans 6:23 says, ‘The wages of sin is death.’
He had to die in our place if we were to have the salvation that we so desperately need.
Christ died for – and I want to make a big deal out of this word for, this tiny little preposition.
But there is a world of theology in this little word for.
It means on behalf of, for the sake of, for the benefit of, and in that little preposition is contained the truth of the substitutionary, vicarious death of Christ for us.
He died in our place and for our benefit.
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The just died for the unjust.
The perfectly godly died for the ungodly.
The one who was perfectly holy died on behalf of and for the benefit of those who were unholy.
Then here’s the second descriptive word, ‘the ungodly.’
Not only were we helpless and unable to deliver ourselves but we were ungodly.
And this word ungodly is not a complimentary term.
It means we were irreverent.
We were impious.
We were without giving the due reverence to God.
It’s a matter of the heart.
It’s not just that our actions were lawbreaking.
It runs much deeper into the core of our being.
It was that our attitudes and our hearts were ungodly.
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We were a train wreck when God looked upon us and saw us fallen in Adam.
‘God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners –’ the word sinners here speaks of falling short of the glory of God, falling short of the divine standard, to be a lawbreaker of God’s moral law.
God did not love good people.
God did not love righteous people.
God did not love anyone who brought anything to the table that was in any way attractive to him.
God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were polluted, foul, filthy, rotten sinners, how different is God’s love.
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This love is an eternal love for he foreknew us before the foundation of the world.
He loved us in eternity past.
It’s an eternal love.
It is a divine love.
It is God’s love for us.
It is an initiating love.
He loved us when we did not love him.
It is a sacrificial love.
It wasn’t just a feeling in God but it led to the actions of God giving his son to die for us upon the cross.
It is an irrevocable love.
It can never be broken.
It can never be rescinded.
It can never be reversed.
He will never stop loving us.
There is no love like this.
It is an unexpected love.
We basically spend our life loving people who are easy to love.
There are exceptions, and we do help people at times when they’re down and out, but we certainly don’t give our son to die for them and we certainly – we ourselves don’t die for our enemies.
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But God gave his son to die for us.
There is no parallel to this love.
There is no precedence for love like this.”
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So, Beloved...
Let’s all take a moment right now in silent prayer to thank the Lord for all He did for us...
(MOMENT OF SILENCE)
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Tom will you pray before we partake in the bread:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
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Adrian will you pray before we partake in the cup:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:20:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
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With that we conclude the communion portion of our service.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way...
Then I beg you to help them to understand to gravity of their current predicament for the purpose to lead them to genuine repentance and belief.
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You...
Then I beg you to give your followers strong backbones to be loving enough and bold enough to share Your truth with this confused world.
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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It is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
