TIME TO MAKE PEACE WITH GOD

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 3, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: February 3, 2021 from Luke 12:54-59

Theme: The nearer we are to the time of Jesus’ return—the more urgent our need to make peace with God.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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Over the past while, we’ve been looking at a long passage in the Gospel of Luke that deals with a confrontation. It was a confrontation that Jesus had with the Pharisees and scribes. He had healed a man who had been possessed by a demon that made the man mute. And when Jesus cast the demon out and healed the man, the Pharisees accused Him of doing so in the power of Satan. The scribes also tried to taunt Him into performing a miracle at their demand.

The story of this confrontation begins in the middle of Luke 11; and it goes all the way into Luke 13. There were many things that the Lord Jesus said in this passage. And throughout, there was one basic theme being developed: We must beware of the dangers of religious hypocrisy.

That theme is carried through in the portion we’re looking at this morning. It’s found in Luke 12:54-59. It’s something that Jesus said to the crowd in general that had gathered to witness this confrontation. And it begins with these words: “Then He also said to the multitudes …”

The reason this is important to point out is because that’s a phrase that was meant to identify a final word of serious importance to the crowd. They had listened to this exchange; and they had heard Jesus’ warning about religious hypocrisy. And now, He gives a last warning to them.

Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

“Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite” (Luke 12:54-59).

What serious words these are! They speak, in their immediate context, of those very days—when the incarnate Son of God walked and taught among them. He said that they did not discern “this time”—meaning the time when He was right then with them. But these words also speak—by implication—of the day of final accountability toward God at Jesus’ second coming. And the lesson we learn from them is that the nearer we come to the time of that second coming, the more important and the more urgent it is that we make every effort to be at peace with God.

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Just a few verses back in this passage—in verses 35-40—Jesus spoke of our need to be ready for the day of His return. He said;

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (vv. 35-40).

As followers of Jesus, we carefully heed this warning. It moves us to make sure that we are ready for that day. But what about those who hear this warning, and put off all concern for preparation? Do you realize that that’s a form of hypocrisy? To know that the day of our Lord’s coming is soon—but to ignore the sense of urgency that it presents, and to then go on with life as usual and pretend as if the times were not urgent—is an act of hypocrisy. Jesus Himself says so in this morning’s passage. He called the Pharisees and biblical scholars who were right there with Him—seeing His miracles, and hearing His teaching—’hypocrites’; because they could read the signs about simple, unimportant things, but ignored the signs that identified Jesus as the long-awaited and prophetically promised Messiah.

Do you remember the time when John the Baptist was in prison? He struggled with doubts about Jesus; so he sent some of his own disciples to Jesus and asked, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). Those disciples from John came to Jesus and saw the miracles He performed. And then, He sent them back to John; saying,

“Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (vv. 4-6).

Those miracles were the fulfillment of prophetic promises made about the Messiah back in Isaiah 29, 35 and 61. It was ‘a sign of the time’ that they were being performed by Jesus. They would have been a confirming proof to John the Baptist. But the Pharisees and scribes—who should have been students of such promises—chose to ignore them in their hypocrisy.

In a similar way, modern people can also be guilty of hypocrisy. They can see and interpret the signs about minor and trivial matters that they take seriously. They can even make sweeping predictions and enormous public policy changes about temporal things that they forecast. And yet, they can completely ignore the prophetic promises and signs that concern the coming of Jesus, and completely refuse to prepare themselves for the most important and consequential thing of all—the day of His coming.

When I consider this, I remember what the apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3. He urged his brothers and sisters to heed the warnings of the prophets in the Scriptures;

knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:3-9).

Praise God that the seeming-delay in the time of the Lord’s promised return is an act of mercy. It is how God allows people the time they need to get right with Him before the Lord returns—believing on the gospel of Jesus and being saved. But remarkably, one of the signs that we are drawing near to that time is that unbelieving people ignore the nature of the times, and mock the whole idea that He is returning at all.

So; rather than mock the promises of God, we should be among those who heed the signs concerning their fulfillment. We should pay far more attention to them than we do to the signs of the weather! This shows that we truly are ready for the Lord’s return.

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Notice then how Jesus teaches us this. First, He teaches that …

1. WE SHOULD DISCERN THE TIME (vv. 54-56).

He spoke a final, solemn word to the multitudes; and said something that would have been common to everyday life. It’s something that we would easily recognize in our own time. It’s the analogy of forecasting the weather. He said, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is” (vv. 54-55).

Clouds that arose out of the west and headed toward the east would have been drawing inland to the nation of Israel from off the Mediterranean Sea. When the winds blew the clouds in from the west, it would be easy to predict that rains would be coming—and that you should dress or plan your work accordingly. And likewise, when wind blew up from the south, they were blowing in from the desert regions—from the Negiv or further south from the Sinai Desert. When the winds were blowing from the south, you could reasonably expect that it will be warm—and that you should dress or plan your work accordingly. These are predictable phenomena. Jesus spoke of people’s predictions on these things; and added, “and so it is” or “and there it is”.

Personally, I’m really quite amazed at the science of meteorology. It must be pretty hard to predict the weather in the Pacific Northwest; and yet, our local meteorologists do a pretty good job. In fact, they even seem to be able to make reasonably accurate predictions two weeks in advance. They do so by keeping careful records of past weather patterns, and by watching for current trends. It all comes from paying attention to the signs, and thoughtfully putting the pieces together.

But what a horribly foolish thing it is to be so attentive to the signs of something so fleeting as the weather, and yet ignore the more sure signs of the times as they are prophetically described to us in God’s word! Jesus said, in verse 56, “Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?” To pay such heed to weather, and yet to ignore the greater issues of salvation and judgment and the culmination of the ages, comes from much more than just a lack of attention. It comes from a heart of pretense—one that makes one’s self out to be wise and discerning toward temporal things, but shows one’s self to be hard-hearted and foolish with regard to eternal things.

One the one hand, we have the reliable nature of biblical prophecy confirmed to us by the ways that the promises about Jesus’ first coming were fulfilled completely and literally. He told His disciples that “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me” (Luke 24:44). And He said this after He was raised from the dead. So, because of this, we can be assured of the reliability of the prophecies concerning His second coming. And consider some of the signs that are promised concerning His second coming—that it would be preceded by the gospel of the kingdom being preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (Matthew 24:14)—which is happening in our lifetime; or that the Jewish people would be restored to their homeland and that the nation of Israel would once again exist upon the earth—which occurred just a few decades ago after centuries of unfulfillment; or that there would be a great ‘falling away’ from the Christian faith—which is occurring in our day as nation after nation that formerly considered itself a part of Christendom is turning away from the faith.

Each day that we live places us one day closer to the day of His return. The promises of that future return are as certain today as the promises of His first coming had proven to be in the days of His ministry long ago. Those with a reverent eye to the prophetic promises can see that the signs of the present time point to that second coming’s imminence.

And what does this mean in practical terms? It means that …

2. WE SHOULD MAKE PEACE WITH GOD (vv. 57-59).

Jesus offered another analogy. He said in verses 57-58, “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.”

Note carefully how Jesus is framing this illustration. Here’s a man who is on his way to court. He is going to stand before the magistrate or the legislative official. And according to the way that Jesus describes the situation, the man who is being taken with his adversary has no chance of winning. If he stands before the magistrate in opposition to his adversary, he will surely be dragged to the judge. And once things go before the judge, justice will irresistibly take its course. The man will be found guilty; and will most definitely be handed over to the officer; and the officer will most definitely throw him into jail. In verse 59, Jesus says, “I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.” And if this is a picture of how we stand guilty before God for having rejected His Son and for not believing on Him for the forgiveness of our sins, then it means that there will never be a release. No man could ever pay “the very last mite”—that is, the very last penny—that they owe to God.

So; what should someone do? They should make peace with God now—while they can. In fact, if God is our ‘adversary’, then we should—as Jesus puts it—”make every effort along the way” to make peace with Him.

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We are “along the way” right now. The promises of Jesus’ second coming are sure and certain; and the signs of the time point increasingly to its soon occurrence. If we are in a state of alienation with God, then now is the time to make peace with Him.

And how do we do this? We do so by placing our faith in the cross of Jesus—where He paid for our sins in His first coming. As the apostle Paul put it in Colossians 1;

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister (Colossians 1:19-23).

May we do so! To neglect to do so—especially in light of the signs of the time in which we’re living—would be the worst kind of hypocrisy.

EA