Luke 6:37-42

Those who follow Jesus do not believe every idea or thought, but tests them to see whether they are from God. False prophets will come to deceive. Like the blind leading the blind, they will lead many away from the truth and into their self-made religions.

As we were in part two of our message this morning entitled those who follow Jesus.
And last week, we got into part one of that and it’s in verses 37 to 42.
And we began looking regarding the characteristics and the call upon those who follow Jesus.
And as the Lord calls, the response is given by those that hear him.
And if you remember uh in our previous studies, Jesus had now come down from the mountain, he had been praying and obviously, his father had given him 12 names because out of the crowd of the vast multitude of disciples, Jesus called 12 of them.
And uh this, the Bible study went on to tell us that Jesus called them apostles.
And so he’s got the apostles with him.
And also a great crowd has gathered around him, whom the Bible calls disciples. And this is important.
There are 12 apostles, but anyone who follows Jesus is called a disciple.
And this morning, if you would uh be one who would say yes, I’m a Christian and, and uh you know, yes, I follow God, I follow Jesus his teaching the Bible, then you would also be one who we could all say of you or to you that you are a disciple, one who is following Christ.
And so that takes on some aspects to it.
And one of them, one of them is quite surprising because listen, learning knowledge, education, if not deposited in a proper heart could really mess somebody up.
You could learn a lot. You could be a very bright student.
But if your heart is not able to receive knowledge, you will become very arrogant.
You might be an author of a book or books, but be completely unable to take what you’ve authored and put it into practice in the lives of people.
What good would that do if you’re somebody who talks about being around others or among others and you yourself cannot cope being with others.
Jesus came from heaven to earth.
God gave us the Bible and you see Jesus right in the midst of it, not only teaching us but calling us to join him in this thing called ministry and all those who are disciples, they first have to be Christians, those who are Christians or those who are what the Bible says saved.
That is they’ve been brought into the family of God and for that to take place, the spirit begins to work in our lives and we become followers of God.
We mimic him. Hey, listen, growing up, I don’t know about you, but have you noticed that growing up?
Or, or watching a child grow up.
Uh, nowadays they have and they’ve had for a while, but I’m dating myself right now.
When, when Rebecca and Ashley grew up, then somebody invented this incredible thing and it kind of look like a flying saucer, to be honest with you.
But you take, you take your child, you put them in it.
It’s like a little seat in there and they got a little table around them and it’s got about eight wheels around it.
And I don’t know what you call those things. What are those things? Baby scooters, baby walkers. There you go.
It makes sense. Baby walkers. And they’re, they’re just everywhere.
They just, they go all of a sudden they got a whole new realm of freedom, man, the kids in there and you could see them light up.
It’s like, whoa, what’s this? And they’ll push backwards. Right.
They’ll move this way and they’ll get going and you’ll hear them going down the hallway, going down to rooms, you’ll hear them crash into the bathroom and have to back on out.
They got to figure it all out and they’re learning how to follow.
And if you’ve noticed when you just put your little one in that thing for the first time and you begin to walk away, you start hearing them following behind you with all that noise on the floor, you can hear them coming and the feet are moving and they’re coming after you and here they come, it’s pretty terrifying if you want to get away from the little guy for a while so that, you know, they’re on the move.
There’s something about a child, the younger they are, the nearer they wanna be to mom and dad.
God made them that way and God made you and I who are Christians to be exactly like that regarding Him.
We are not content unless we are nearer, closer to the Lord.
And so we need to be always on the move because we want to be closer to Him.
We follow in his steps and Jesus is inviting his apostles and disciples to follow or to mimic his ministry, what he does and how he does it.
And that’s a very wonderful thing to keep in mind as we look to those who are following Jesus.
And before we get into this study, listen to what Jesus had to say about us becoming more like a child.
Matthew chapter 18 verse one, the Bible says, and at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
What a ridiculous question. Can you imagine asking Jesus that?
But they did then Jesus called a little child to him and set him in the midst of them the disciples and said assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as a little child, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So we need to become rather than heady and high minded and impressed with ourselves.
We need to become very, very dependent upon following God. There’s nothing weak about that.
There’s nothing frail about that.
It’s all together, brilliant because a little child knows that the greatest place of strength and protection.
Church, listen and assurance and comfort is being near their parent.
Jesus is saying you be like a little child to me now, for maybe many of you women, that’s an easy concept for you to embrace for us men.
It’s, it’s challenging to us from the very start. How do I become like a little child again?
Didn’t Nicodemus say that very thing. How do I do this? How can I become a little child again?
And yet the Bible teaches us that it’s essential.
If you and I will see each other in heaven, the kingdom of God will be in the hearts of those who determine I am going to become like a little child.
Oh God, help me now, Jesus to trust you like that little Children are trusting.
They will follow and they will mimic those who they respect. It’s very important.
Let’s look at what we touch on last time together. By way of review.
It’s there in Luke chapter six verse 37 38 Jesus said, judge not and you shall not be judged and condemned not and you shall not be condemned.
There’s a few things we want to look at this and point out again by way of remembrance, those who follow Jesus, we saw number one have now been liberated.
The Christian has been liberated. But from three very important things that we pointed out. Number one was being critical.
We learned about that in verse 37 liberated from being critical.
He said, judge not, you shall not be judged condemn not, you shall not be condemned.
You remember that these words mean that we are not to look at somebody’s life and to draw a quick conclusion and issue an edict that they are going to hell or they’re condemned by God or there’s no hope for them.
That’s not for us to do.
Jesus said, do not condemn anybody and don’t act quickly in judgment against someone no matter what.
It’s not our place. Now in a few weeks, you’re gonna hear something, you’re gonna hear Jesus turn around and say that you will know people by their fruit.
You say, well, Jack won’t that be judging? Oh no, it’s not judging at all.
It’s discerning, evaluating, concluding what is coming out of someone’s life does say who they really are, but that’s not judging in a quick thinking and then condemning issuing death upon them.
Jesus says no to that. So when we are liberated by Jesus Christ and following him, the first thing that begins to leave our hearts as a Christian, is that nasty, mean critical attitude, we begin to look at others with compassion because we’re aware that God has shown compassion to us.
It’s very important. We’ll learn more about this in a, in a moment as we get into our study.
Number two, liberated from being bitter, unforgiveness and bitterness. You cannot separate the two.
If there’s unforgiveness in your heart, you will grow bit you.
You will grow bitter and you’ll grow more unforgiving as time goes on.
Look at verse 37 he says, forgive and you shall be forgiven because you and I have been forgiven.
God holds nothing against us now.
And if we turn and withhold forgiveness against another, this is what happens.
We do not gain any upper hand on that person. We do not gain some sort of victory.
I’m not gonna forgive you for what you’ve done. You have misunderstood what forgiveness is all about.
Forgiveness has been granted to us by God that we might forgive those who have sinned against us, that we the one who’s been hurt can go free.
Yeah. When we realize that then bitterness is gone, don’t think that you are holding the cards and the power so that you will not forgive your husband or your wife or your son or your daughter as though you’re, you’re in some sort of a king or Lord position.
It’s the exact opposite. You’ve misunderstood completely. The Bible.
God says, hey, forgive that guy that hurt you because I don’t want you my dear child to be bound up in bitterness anymore because of them.
This is so why do we miss this? I don’t get it. I will never forgive them.
Well, then you better get used to bitterness and disappointment because God gave you the call to forgive them for your own good.
The third thing that we learned was we’ve been liberated from being selfish and we looked at that last time and Jesus said, give and it will be given to you.
Now watch this give and it will be given back to you. Ok?
Sometimes we can’t get past that verse because we see the word give give.
Oh man, I knew it well, last week was the first time in 15 years, we talked about money in this church.
That’s what that verse means. By the way, it’s about money.
But what you didn’t hear and probably be 15 more years before we ever talk about it again.
It depends on the verse we come to in the bible.
So if you’re visiting for the first time, calm down, you’re OK. We don’t want your money.
God’s got enough. He’s got it. He says this is what’s gonna happen.
It’s gonna be pressed down, shaken together, running over and put back into your bosom, back into your pocket.
Remember the pocket in the robe. And you say, what will money? You mean, money will be.
No, I mean, it could be, but that’s not what he’s talking about.
If you give to God’s work, he will give back to you in ways that you can’t enumerate.
It could be health, it could be position, it could be money, it could be friendships, it could be whatever God will bless.
He blesses obedience. And there’s something about partying with that thing that we hold almost as dear to us as God himself.
See Jesus, as we pointed out last time, you can either serve God or money.
Isn’t it interesting how he pointed that out when we’re liberated?
And we know Jesus, we’re set free from all that.
So now we get into our study and we touched on some of these areas, but we’ll dive into it more fully.
Now, as we look to part two of our message, those who follow Jesus, they can see clearly.
Now you Christians can see clearly now much more clearly than you could before. How is that?
Well, this way, verse 39 Jesus spoke this parable to them.
Can the blind lead the blind will they not both fall into a ditch?
The first thing I want you to see regarding this is that Jesus in verse 39 is clearly showing us the way that those who are now Christians can see the way you can see the path.
And I love this. I, I the temptation for me to spend the whole week on.
This is high and great because of Jesus’s style of teaching. It’s absolutely awesome.
I wish he could talk to us right now, verbally right here.
I mean, I would just have to zip my lip and sit down and be washed with his words because when he taught in what is called the parabolic method, he used parables.
They’re very colorful, they’re very dynamic.
It’s part of the Hebrew Jewish culture And what he did was he took common day every day, understanding of the lives of people and he took something common and made it into technicolor brilliance.
And people’s jaw would drop and they would go, wow, I got it.
Or it’s like one of those trips to Israel that we take.
I just got a note this last Thursday from three people who had gone to Israel with us a couple of months ago and they said I cannot read my Bible the same.
You mentioned Cesaria the other day. And I remembered pastor Jack standing in Cesaria. My Bible has come into color.
That’s exactly how Jesus taught. He opened it up.
And so when he said this parable to them, what was happening in this parabolic teaching it.
It’s a fishing term. It’s taking a rod and a reel with a hook and there’s truth on the hook.
Jesus throws it out. Imagine for a moment. There’s a big school of fish over here. OK?
By the size of this crowd. There’s about 900 of you on this side of the sanctuary.
Maybe, probably more. Could be 1000 of you sitting right in this area.
Jesus throws out the hook, it plops down in the middle.
And what this teaching means is that once it hits all the fish, look at it. You ever seen fish?
Look when the boer hits and they, oh, look, and some fish go, seen that before and they walk away.
Some fish swim to it. Some fish don’t move at all. Para bo parabolic para alongside Bollock to cast.
He casts this truth alongside their head. Some will take it, some will be indifferent.
Some will go away from it. And it happens every time the Bible is presented.
Guess what are you guys sitting down? Are you OK? It’s happening right now.
Whenever the Bible is taught, the Lord is casting alongside you look right where you’re sitting the person next to you.
It just goes right there and it’s gonna happen numerous times during the message because God’s promised to use the Bible and it’s sitting right there and you’ll go, hm I heard that before or you’ll swim away from it or you’ll go to toward it, you’ll go to it, you’ll take it.
This is what God’s word does. He throws it out. Jesus does.
And so we want to ask the question, what is it?
He’s throwing out and why should I respond to it? See this morning?
By the time the service ends, some of you will say, I want, I didn’t understand a word that was said, I don’t want anything to do with it.
I can’t wait to get out of here. Some of you will say I’m very interested in this.
And some of you say, I thank God, he opened my heart and my eyes to see this whenever that day was whenever Christ came into your life.
but you can see clearly. Now you can see the way.
Not only that you can see clearly where not to go. What not to do? Look at.
Verse 39 Jesus said, can the blind lead the blind?
Now remember last week, I shot some of you uh because I broke up the norm of thinking, I didn’t mean to Jesus did not say, can the blind lead the blind?
No, that’s not what he said. The teaching means can the blind lead the blind?
Will they not both fall into a ditch church? Listen, are you with me?
Listen, everybody Jesus asked, can the blind lead the blind? What is the answer from the Bible?
Yes, the blind can lead the blind. It happens every day. That’s how they fall into a ditch.
The blind lead the blind every day. See what is he talking about, Jack.
That is extremely rude to be making fun of blind people. This has nothing to do with blind people.
It has something to do with a man with dark glasses or a white cane.
It has to do with the spiritually blind. They have a hunger. Every human does.
Don’t tell me you don’t, you, do you have a hunger for spiritual things?
But if you don’t have an eye for God, you are blind and because you’re blind, you will pursue spiritual things, but you will lead others with you.
And in the end, you’ll both fall into a ditch. Can the blind lead the blind answer?
Yes, it happens every day. They knock on our doors, they hand out their stuff.
They’re going all over the world.
The blind leading the blind and it all begins with one bit of aberrant teaching using the Bible and then twisting it enough and their a cult is born or some legalistic system.
Thank God that you and I know where not to go.
We are not to follow some blind man or some blind thing or denomination or movement or whatever because God has cast his truth alongside of our hearts and you’re here right now because you love the Bible.
It has nothing to do with our beautiful Hawaiian set or our incredible stained glass are screaming chandeliers or the robes that I’m wearing has nothing to do with that.
You’ve come for Bible. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. That’s who you’re following.
And that’s a wonderful thing and I’m excited about that.
I’m excited to be in your presence because we’re doing it together.
That is a very, very wonderful thing. We know where not to go.
And so when somebody comes up and says, hey, you know what? I, I’ve had this new revelation.
Well, I’ve got a new way to go.
You’re just going to say, you know what Jesus is, the way, the truth and the life.
And the Bible says, Jesus said it. No man comes to the father but through him, thanks, but no thanks.
And you can just leave them in the dust or better yet.
Give them the truth and then leave them in the dust, right? It’s very important to understand that.
In fact, in Matthew chapter 23 listen to this Matthew 23 15, Jesus said, now you need to hang on to your seats here.
This is not easy. Jesus turned and said, woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you travel land and sea and make one convert.
And when you’ve won him, you will make him two times as much worse.
The Children of hell than you are yourselves. Isn’t that subtle meek and mild little Jesus?
There you say, man, he’s really passionate about it.
You wanna know why you know what Jesus was so hot on this topic because those in the place of religion were using the things of God to lead people astray.
Where were they going? They were the blind, leading the blind and they were leading them, right? Into eternal destruction.
And Jesus came to set us free from that.
The Bible says Jesus died for the sins of the entire world. He cares.
And so when somebody comes teaching something different, a different path, a different way.
In fact, God told Moses, are you ready for this?
God told Moses Moses, if anyone teaches and prophesies falsely to my people, Israel and they’re found out what they say doesn’t come to pass.
God told Moses, I want you to take the guy out and I want the guy stoned and I don’t mean with drugs, it doesn’t mean give him a beer.
I want the guy stoned with rocks to say, man that’s really violent, shouldn’t be more tolerant.
You know what God says to Moses that there are those that are satanically and demonized by false doctrine and listen, even though you and I really don’t appreciate this much.
I don’t think we can as humans, salvation, eternal life, heaven and hell are so real and so forever that Jesus and the Bible makes it very clear that what’s at stake holds eternal ramifications.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called those who follow Jesus part two.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of real life radio.
Hey, you know, the New Year is right around the corner and we’re really excited to have you join us in going through the one year Bible in 2023.
Doesn’t that sound great? Let’s nourish our spiritual growth together as we divide God’s word into daily readings in as little as 15 minutes a day as a church family.
We’ll explore the Old Testament. The New Testament, the Psalms, the Proverbs.
And don’t worry if you miss a day or two or three or even a week for that, just begin again on the current day so that we’re all on the same page, begin this incredible journey with us by ordering the one year Bible.
We saw many awesome and challenging things happen in 2022 didn’t we?
God moved in miraculous ways and we can look forward to the New Year as we look to the scripture together in an unforgettable devotional experience.
Just know this that when you sit down to your cup of coffee or your lunch or your dinner and you and you open it up, just know that there are literally tens of thousands of believers that have joined you in that discovery that day.
It’s absolutely awesome. The one year Bible is available for purchase at our website Jack Hibbs dot com.
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Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio.
Wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.