Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What the Christian Life is About | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 14.1-14

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. I'm recording this on a Monday morning, and that's significant because yesterday afternoon I watched the NFL with my boys. I love to watch football with just about anybody, but it's especially fun to do it with my boys. I love almost everything about football, but there are some things that I've developed kind of this love-hate relationship with, and one of those are the celebrations that take place on the field during a game. Now, some of the celebrations are pretty cool, the ones that are creative, the ones that involve teammates, the ones that maybe celebrate are really important touchdown.

Starting point is 00:00:51 But some of the celebrations seem more self-exalting. They are done away from the team. They're done in a way that draws attention to one person. and a lot of times they're done when a team is losing or when a player has only done their job, nothing exceptional. And it reminded me of this NPR interview I heard with David Brooks, who writes for the New York Times, but has also written a really good book called The Road to Character. And he was just discussing how different things are now than they were a few decades ago. And he was pointing out how after the United States defeated Japan in World War II, and kind of the whole war came to an end, that the singer Bing Crosby was on this radio program

Starting point is 00:01:36 and the news had been announced and he was announcing it to some people for the very first time that this huge world war had finally come to an end and all these men and women who had served overseas were going to be able to come home. And there just wasn't that kind of self-glorifying celebration. There wasn't much of a celebration at all. Bean Crosby, kind of concluded his brief remarks by saying, I guess all anybody can do is, thank God, it's over. It feels like in comparison to that, we live in a day of self-promotion and self-exaltation, self-glorification that we love to draw attention to ourselves. And that desire to be made much of causes us to overlook the needs of real people right in front of us.

Starting point is 00:02:29 The desire to be thought of important causes us to overlook the needs of people who can't do anything for us. We're going to be in a really powerful story, I think, in Luke chapter 14. Luke starts by telling us that it was a Sabbath and Jesus went to the house of a prominent Pharisee and that they were carefully watching Jesus. Now, when you see Jesus in the Gospels, you find that he spends times with all kinds of people. So he doesn't make distinctions between gender or age or physical condition or your importance or your societal rank. He will spend time with the poor and the marginalized, but he will also spend time with the

Starting point is 00:03:12 religiously powerful and the politically connected. But I think the way Luke tells this story, we're supposed to see immediately that there's a connection between it being the Sabbath and Jesus being carefully watched. Luke then tells us that there is a man who is suffering from dropsy there. Dropsy is a serious medical condition. It can even be terminal. It's the retention of fluids in your body due to organ failure. So it seems kind of weird for these Pharisees to invite Jesus to a party on the Sabbath and then also to include this unnamed man who is suffering from this significant disease. But the more you think about it, the more you begin to see that this is a setup,

Starting point is 00:03:59 they are trying to trap Jesus. So Jesus asks these Pharisees, these teachers, respected people, he says, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? Now, they remained silent. And so Jesus healed this man with dropsy and then sent him on their way. Now, what was the Pharisees' response? Do you think that they were excited for this man, happy? Were they amazed at the power of God, that the grace and love of God that had been shown to this man? No, they were silent. So Jesus asked them a question. He says, if one of you have a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath, will you not immediately pull him out? And they had nothing to say. See, Jesus is making a point here that they are willing to bend their religious rules to benefit themselves. They are fine ignoring their own rules as long as it

Starting point is 00:04:57 serves their needs, their own self-interest. Luke picks back up of this story about the dinner party by telling us that Jesus is noticing how the guests pick their places of honor at the table. And so Jesus tells him a story, a parable, about someone who is invited to a wedding feast. He says, if that's you, don't take the place of honor because another more distinguished person may have been invited. And if so, the host invited you both will have to come and say to you, give this man your seat. Then humiliated, you'll have to take a less important place. Jesus says, when you're invited, take the lowest place. So that when your host comes, he will say to you, friend, move up to a better place.

Starting point is 00:05:46 then you will be honored in the presence of your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. See, Jesus is watching human behavior in every setting and then drawing connections between the behavior he sees and the human heart. And what he notices here is that people are vying for the best seat because they are vying for attention. These people are in love with him.

Starting point is 00:06:16 themselves. They are in love with their own rank, their own privilege, their own honor. And I think in some sense, we are no different than those Pharisees. We too are status conscious. We too are very aware of where we rank within society. And we want to be thought of as important people. We crave that significance and importance that others can give us. But what's the connection between people, vying for positions of honor at a dinner party and this man with dropsy who Jesus healed against the wishes of the Pharisees. I think what Jesus is doing is showing them that when you are concerned about your status, when you want to feel important, when you crave the approval of other people, then you will begin to treat needy people, people who can't do anything for you as a commodity. Your heart will

Starting point is 00:07:15 become hard toward them. You will ignore them or use them, but you will not care about them. If you seek honor and importance in people's eyes, you won't care about a man with a disease like dropsy. We are blinded and hardened by our love for self-exaltation, and what we're specifically blinded to is the needs of other people. We won't have time for people who can't do something for us. We won't have time for needy people, broken people, sick people, poor people, old people. Instead, we'll only have time for people who can do things for us, who can make us feel good about ourselves. And so then Jesus ends with a warning and a promise. He says for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Now first notice he is

Starting point is 00:08:09 talking to everyone. In other words, everyone will be humbled or everyone will be exalted. No one gets to sit this out. And who does the humbling and the exalting? Well, God. God promises that some will be humbled and some will be exalted. So how does it play out? Who gets humbled and who gets exalted? Well, the people who get humbled are the people who in this life vie for attention, exalt themselves, are self-absorbed, people who are self-promoting, people who are too busy with their own agenda, too busy with their own life to think about others in need, too busy to take time out for the small people who can't do anything for them. People who are too busy to serve, too busy to help, too important to do that low of a job.

Starting point is 00:09:05 and who is it who will be exalted by God? Well, those who cared for the needy, those who set aside their own agenda to take care of the poor or the old or the sick or the person at the office who's just a bit of a hassle and a pain, those are the people who God will exalt. Those who sacrifice their life in this world will be rewarded.

Starting point is 00:09:31 Now, understand that everybody gets rewarded. We're either going to be rewarded, the praise of people or the praise of God. Either we're going to get the approval of other people and that will be our reward in this life or we will labor for the reward of God that comes in the next life. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that this is what the Christian life is about, humbling ourselves in this world and entrusting our exaltation to God. Because we follow a Savior who showed us that pattern, a Savior who humbled himself to become obedient to death, even death on a cross. And because he humbled himself, God later exalted him and gave him the name that is above

Starting point is 00:10:14 every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. We follow a humble Savior. We follow the humble king. So we should humble ourselves in this life and entrust our future to God. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What the Christian Life is About | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 14.1-14

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