FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 5-23-10 AM NOTES
“RESPONDING TO THE EXTREME TEACHING OF JESUS”
LUKE 6:46-49
#1 in Series, “The Extreme Teaching of Jesus”
Extreme—Immoderate, far from what is usual or conventional, drastic, extending beyond the norm.
“A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away
everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that He receives all our affection.
A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, He loves us just the way we
are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to
avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.
But do you and I realize what we are doing at this point? We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like
us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church
buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshipping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be
worshipping ourselves.”
—David Platt
“I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it. Seeing that
Christ went about the world giving the most violent offense to all kinds of people, it would seem absurd to expect that the
doctrine of His person can be so presented as to offend nobody. We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
was so stiff in His opinions and so inflammatory in His language that He was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to
place, and finally gibbeted [to expose to public scorn] as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever His peace was, it was not
the peace of an amiable indifference.”
—Dorothy Sayers
Luke 21:16b (NKJV) “…they will put some of you to death.”
I.
Two Responses to What Jesus Says (vv. 46-47)
Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV) “‘19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
Hebrews 5:9 (NKJV) “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”
“It is true, of course, that no man enters the kingdom because of his obedience; but it is equally true that no man enters
the kingdom who is not obedient. It is true that men are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ; but it is equally true
that God’s grace in a man’s life inevitably results in obedience. Any other view of grace cheapens grace, and turns it into
something unrecognizable. Cheap grace preaches forgiveness without repentance, church membership without rigorous
church discipline, discipleship without obedience, blessing without persecution, joy without righteousness, results without
obedience. In the entire history of the church, has there ever been another generation with so many nominal Christians
and so few real (i.e., obedient) ones? And where nominal Christianity is compounded by spectacular profession, it is
especially likely to manufacture its own false assurance.”
—D. A. Carson
A.
Those Who Refuse to Do What Jesus Says (v. 46)
Colossians 1:16 (NKJV) “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
John 10:17-18 (NKJV) “17 Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No
one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
command I have received from My Father."
Romans 10:9 (ESV) “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:13 (NKJV) “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’"
“It is the very height of irrationality and arrogance to call Christ Lord with the lips while utterly defying Him with one’s
life. Yet that is precisely how multitudes live (Luke 6:46). Such people are even more preposterous examples of
self-contradiction than the atheist who imagines he can deny the Source of all that’s good and yet somehow be
‘good’ himself. But the hypocrite is not only more irrational; he is also more contemptible than the out-and-out
atheist, because he is actually doing gross violence to the truth while pretending to believe it. Nothing is more
completely diabolical.”
—John MacArthur
Ezekiel 33:31 (NKJV) “So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your
words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.”
1 John 2:3-5 (NKJV) “3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, ‘I
know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His
word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”
B.
Those Who Do What Jesus Says (v. 47)
“God chooses not milksops destitute of backbone, to wear His glory upon their faces. We have plenty of men made
of sugar, nowadays, that melt into the stream of popular opinion; but these will never ascend into the hill of the Lord,
nor stand in His holy place, nor wear the tokens of His glory.”
—Charles Spurgeon
II.
Two Foundations Upon Which to Build a Life (vv. 48-49)
1 Corinthians 3:11-12 (NKJV) “11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw.”
A. Building on the Rock (v. 48)
B.
Building on the Sand (v. 49)
2 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV) “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not
know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you are disqualified.”