‘DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR LIFE’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 13, 2021 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: January 13, 2021 from Luke 12:22-34
Theme: Our Lord teaches us that, because we are under our Father’s care, we can cease from all worry.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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This morning, in our study of Luke’s Gospel, we come to a very beloved passage. It should be very precious to us as followers of Jesus—especially living in the hard times in which we’re living right now—because in it, no less than the Son of God Himself gives us His permission and His instruction to cease from all worry and anxiety.
In Luke 12:22-34, we read;
Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:22-34).
What good words these are to read. What a medicine for the soul. And just think of how much we need to hear them today.
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Now; you may feel as if you’ve heard this instruction from the Lord elsewhere in the New Testament. And you, in fact, have. They were spoken by Him in Matthew 6—in His Sermon on The Mount. But that was on a completely different occasion than the one we find in Luke 12. And that fact lets us know that these are words that our Lord spoke to His followers on more than one occasion—and perhaps with little variety in each restatement. When our Lord repeats a teaching like this, He clearly wants us to pay attention to it.
And we also need to pay attention to the specific occasion on which these words were spoken in Luke 12. As you’ll remember, He had just gotten through telling a parable. It was about a rich man whose fields had prospered and had brought forth a great yield; and who sought to build bigger barns to hold more of his goods and his riches, and who had anticipated providing for himself for many years … but whose soul had become suddenly required of him that very night. He worked hard to build a secure treasure for himself on earth, at great cost to his own soul. And suddenly he died and left it all. The Lord called him ‘Fool’.
And so, our Lord’s words in this passage need to be seen in contrast to that foolish and tragic man’s wrong priorities. They teach us that—unlike that man in the parable—we should cease from giving undue concern and care to our own provision. As Jesus’ followers, we need to trust in the provision of our heavenly Father. We need to cease from worry.
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Now; this passage is a very hard one to organize into a clear structure. Perhaps it’s best not to try to do so. There are some passages that instruct us through a clear, logical structure; and there are others that teach us by just allowing us to stroll around in them, and be in them for a while, and by letting what they say rub off on us. I believe it’s best to treat this passage in that way.
As verse 22 makes clear, Jesus spoke these words—not to His opponents, and not to the crowds in general—but specifically to His followers. It says;
Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on” (v. 22).
The word that is translated to “worry” is the same one that the old King James Version often translated “to be careful” of something, or to “take thought” of something. And the idea is not that we cease giving appropriate consideration to things in our lives; but rather that we cease giving undo and inordinate fretfulness to them. Jesus used this same word when He spoke to His dear friend Martha—who was so distracted by her preparations of food that she wasn’t listening to Jesus teach. She was even trying to pull her sister Mary away to help her. Jesus told her;
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:44-45).
That’s the danger of worry. It distracts us from what’s eternal and places our attention on things that are temporal. It takes our eyes off of our faithful heavenly Father and His provision for us. The apostle Paul wrote;
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).
Our Lord and Master—Jesus—teaches us not to let worry do that to us. He tells us not to be anxious or worry at all. He even gets specific and tells us not to worry about the things that we think we ought to worry about—our very life; what we will eat or what we will drink or what we will wear. Some people think that that’s all there is to think about. To them, it’s all about survival. But He reminds us in verse 23;
“Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing” (v. 23).
Those things are not ‘life’, but are just temporary helps and aids in enjoying what truly is ‘life. We shouldn’t allow the pursuit of such things to become our main focus in life. In verse 15, He said that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses”. Later in, in 1 John 5:11-12, we’re told
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11-12).
If you have all those aids to life in abundance, and yet do not have Jesus Christ, you don’t have ‘life’ at all. We must be careful not to worry so much about the things that cannot give us life that we end up failing to know, and trust, and be satisfied in the One who truly gives us life.
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Now; Jesus gives us some examples from nature. Perhaps as He spoke, people could look up to the sky and see the birds flying overhead. In verse 24, He said;
“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” (v. 24).
This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. The birds of the air don’t worry about where their next meal will come from. They don’t get rakes and hoes and try to plant gardens for themselves. They don’t do like the man in the parable did—and try to store things up in storehouses for the future. They can’t. They wouldn’t need to anyway. God provides for them. And in fact, it’s important to notice that these aren’t just any birds. These are ravens—which were considered to be unclean to the Jewish people. They were ‘dirty birds’; and yet, God provides even for them. And we are much more important to God than they are.
Jesus then asks a very interesting question—one that shows how useless worry really is:
“And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” (v. 25).
A cubit was a very common unit of measurement. It was about 18” in length—about as long as a man’s forearm from elbow to fingertip. And when Jesus speaks of stature, it may be that He is speaking of a man’s height. But the word, in this context, most likely means length of years. We can worry all that we want. In fact, we can decide that we will sit in a chair and worry for most of the day—every day—for the rest of our lives. And it will not add even one common unit of measurement to our life’s duration. No one ever made their lives one bit longer by worrying. If anything, they’ve shortened significantly by doing so. And if we can’t even do that one simple thing through worry—that is, make our life longer or add to it one bit to its length or quality—then what good is it? As Jesus goes on to ask;
“If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?” (v. 26).
What an utterly useless thing worry is!
Jesus gives us another example from nature in verses 27-28. It may have been that He drew His disciple’s attention to the grassy hills around them as He spoke; and said,
‘Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?” (vv. 27-28).
King Solomon was the most splendorous king in all of the history of the Bible. He was always dressed for success. But not even at his very best would he have been as splendid in his attire as the flowers of the field. I have grown to appreciate it when someone is able to do beautiful floral arrangements. They are real works of art—capturing and combining the colors and patterns in such lovely ways. But you have to appreciate such things quickly. They don’t last very long; and pretty soon you’re picking the brown withering petals off the floor. Again, this is another argument from the lesser to the greater. If God clothes such temporary things with such beauty, won’t He take care of you and me?
Perhaps there is a lesson in this for us in terms of a regular life practice that will help us learn not to worry. We should spend more time looking at God’s creation—the birds, the flowers, and the other displays of His ongoing providential care. All around us, God is letting us see that He is a care-giving and faithful God. And when we look at these things carefully—and learn from them—we learn that there’s no reason for us to worry if we are under His care.
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Now; all of this really puts us in the position of making a decision. Do we really believe that God our Father is our faithful Provider or not? Do we trust Him or don’t we? Or do we—by our worry—say that we really don’t trust Him at all? Do we—by our worry—think and believe and behave like atheists?
There are a lot of people around us who don’t trust Him or acknowledge His providential care. For them, all of life—like the man in Jesus’ parable—is about getting what they can for themselves. In verses 29-30, Jesus said;
“And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things” (vv. 29-30).
The word “nations” here speaks of the Gentile people—those who were not under the covenant grace of the God of Israel. It was a figure of speech for those who do not believe. And those who don’t believe in God show their unbelief by their constant fretting over the things of this earth, and over the continual effort to get what they can. But our heavenly Father—with whom Jesus has brought us into a relationship through faith in His cross—knows better than we do what we need. He is able to provide.
So; what should we do instead of making a priority out of seeking those temporal things? Jesus said in verse 31;
“But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you” (v. 31).
Instead of anxiously seeking to build up our own store of provision for ourselves on this earth, we need to be seeking our heavenly Father’s concerns. We need to be focusing—first of all—on knowing and loving and obeying our Savior Jesus. We need to be seeking His kingdom rule on this earth; and helping other people to know Him and trust Him. And we can be sure that as we do so—and are putting our priorities where they truly need to be—our heavenly Father will provide everything else we need.
Now; this of course cannot mean that there will never be times when God’s people will suffer—because obviously, as we can see from history, they sometimes do. Sometimes, God’s people have suffered terribly. But if we suffer such times of need—and let’s even dare to say that if we even suffer unto death—there is something in it that is being allowed by our heavenly Father to advance His kingdom. When we stand before Him in glory, and see all that He has done—and especially when we see the rich treasure of His kingdom into which we enter—we will praise Him that He never let us down. He truly provided all things that were needed for us to be able to live for His kingdom’s cause.
As Jesus went on to say in verses 32-33;
“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys” (vv. 32-33).
We should be cautious about taking this as a literal command. It may indeed be that, for some, it’s God’s will that they sell all they have and give it all away. But some who have run ahead of God’s will for their lives in this matter, and who ended up giving away all of God’s provision for themselves, ended up making themselves poor—and then needing someone to give alms to them! Rather, what our Lord is doing is letting us know is that we can freely give what we have for the meeting of the needs of others with confidence. We can be a generous and giving people. And if He ever indeed does command us to sell all we have and give it all away to others, we can do so without fear. We won’t have to hang on to it. Our Father is our all-sufficient Provider. We would be building a treasure that is utterly worry-free; because no harm can ever come to it, and no thief could ever steal any of it, and no moth could ever eat it away.
And this is important because, as Jesus says in verse 34;
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v. 34).
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Now, dear brothers and sisters; our Lord’s instruction to put away all worry is not something that we can ever do in our own power. Let’s always remember that the One who is telling us in this passage not to worry is also Himself the only reason why we never have to worry. The more that we sit at His feet and learn from Him—and the more that we grow closer to the heavenly Father through Him—the more that we are then enabled by Him to put all things in perspective, and trust in the Father’s provision, and cease from all anxiety.
So, through close dependent fellowship with Him, let’s learn to embrace His encouragement to us;
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life …”
EA
