Allen Jackson - Listening and The Kingdom of God - Part 1
But in addition to our normal Bible reading, I have invited you to read the Gospel of Luke with me. Really, depending upon your schedule, we have varying amounts of free time. If your schedule allows, read it once a day. It's only 24 chapters, folks. It takes less time than watching a ball game. It's not that big a lift. If that's not possible with the world you're living in right now, maybe you can read it once a week. Whatever your schedule, read it repetitively until you gain enough familiarity with it that the novelty of the the miracles or the novelty of the parables begins to wear off and you can begin to see the story that Luke is telling, the narrative that he's presenting to us.
It's written on purpose. It's not just a random collection of miracle stories or a few parables budded together. Luke had a message. And so we're walking our way through it. I'm trying to highlight some themes for you from the Gospel as we go through it. The messages that are delivered by the characters delivering them in Luke's Gospel are often very uncomfortable. They make the audiences uncomfortable. The disciples will come to Jesus after his message and go, "Did you know that they got mad at you"? Can you imagine coaching Jesus on his crowd awareness? Makes you smile a little bit. I mean, John the Baptist looked at the group that was coming to be baptized. He said, "You're a bunch of snakes. Who warned you to do this"?
And he calls 'em out for their sin out loud in public en masse. I mean, there's some very uncomfortable messaging in the Gospel. And then secondly, Luke highlights for us the resistance of the message and the outright rejection of Jesus. Time and time again, when he goes to his hometown, what turns into a rather happy day in the synagogue turns into a murderous rage because of the difficulty of the message Jesus gives them. I mean, he doesn't miss very many opportunities to challenge his audiences. And because of that, the message is resisted, if not completely rejected.
Jesus is confronted with overwhelming rejection. We haven't gotten that far in the Gospel, but to the point that ultimately, they'll just kill him. They killed John the Baptist. Again, it's a reorientation from how we've been coached to imagine our faith should be lived out. We get anxious if we have a Bible study and everybody doesn't maintain the same perspective on the passage we're reading. And then Luke gives us some very unlikely candidates who accept the message. The people who endorse or embrace what Jesus is teaching or John the Baptist is inviting them to are not the religious characters.
They're not the biblical scholars. They're not the people that spend their lives around the spiritual leadership of the nation. The people that embraced the message are the prostitutes and the thieves and the extortionists and the Roman soldiers and... they're the peripheral people. And, again, it's a message to those of us that fill churches. We tend to be more resistant to the invitations to change. We tend to be more full of self-righteousness. Don't everybody say amen at once. And then fourthly, Luke consistently invites us towards this awareness of a dimension beyond our physical world. Time and time again, Jesus is aware of things that are more than the outcome of the interaction of matter. They're more than what our five senses can determine.
You can't read the Gospel of Luke, you can't understand Jesus's life, his ministry, or his message apart from acknowledging the reality of a dimension beyond time, beyond our physical world. And, again, that's just not something in the church we've been overly comfortable with. We've wanted to have an intellectual faith. We don't even want our emotions involved in our faith. We're happy for it to maintain some place in some corner of our intellectual capacity. But the Gospel of Luke reminds us that to serve God, to follow God, to listen to God, we're gonna have to acknowledge there's a dimension beyond time, a dimension beyond our physical senses.
And then finally, Luke, really, in the portion of the Gospel we're stepping into now, begins to prepare the disciples. He's going to give us a pathway that enables the reader to become a disciple. It's not random. It's not accidental. It's not without cost. But Luke helps us prepare disciples. In this particular session, I wanna talk a bit about listening and the kingdom of God because they go together. Your listening skills will have a great deal to do with your ability to flourish in the kingdom of God. That rejection of Jesus that Luke highlights and the rejection of that biblical worldview, you can be very religious and want nothing to do with the biblical worldview.
Well, it's so essential to the story that Luke is telling. I think it's noteworthy that it's very much a characteristic of the world we're living in. I had an experience in the last couple of days that I haven't quite shaken yet. I sat down, I don't know, I had a couple of minutes waiting for what was next, and I turned on the news. It was the end of the evening news, and there was a panel discussion going on. And one of the panelists... he was on a conservative network. And one of the panelists said, "The greatest threat to our nation and our freedom and our liberty is Christian nationalists".
Then I sat there for a minute, then they went on. They didn't stop. They said, "These people believe their faith influences our lives". They said, "They go so far as to say demons influence Vice President Harris". No, no, no. And there really was no pushback in the discussion. I turned it off. But I thought about it a great deal from that time. It made me very uncomfortable to suggest that believing our faith impacts our lives is perceived as a threat and that it's okay to hold that opinion broadly in public and have the support of people considered to be highly credible. And the church does very little to counter those ideas.
I spent my adult life in the church, so... I certainly don't know everything about it, but I'm entitled to an opinion. You know, I believe our Christian worldview, it's one of the very few things that is appropriate to mock in the public square. It can be denigrated. It can be removed. It can be downgraded. It can be canceled. And they were told it's appropriate. It has to be separated from the apparatus of government. And we've accepted all of these things, the mocking and the rejecting of our faith.
I thought about that statement, not directed at Vice President Harris, but to mock the idea that Christians would believe there are spiritual influences that impact us. To mock that openly with derision and suggest because of such a thought, we are some sort of intrinsic threat is quite simply just unacceptable. And I would remind you of something, because the church has worked so hard to be accepted by a secular culture, we're denying big chunks of our heritage. We are. Big chunks of mainline evangelical America acts like there's whole portions of the scripture we just don't pay attention to. And this one's important: Jesus believed in demonic activity.
So you're gonna have a very difficult time saying you're a Jesus follower or a Jesus person and saying you don't believe in that. Jesus followers for centuries have believed in demonic activity. They have. Orthodox Christian doctrine acknowledges demonic activity. Now, I'm gonna bring all this back to Luke because in the midst of Luke's chapters, the story, the narrative that he's presenting to us, there's this persistent, unrelenting rejection of the message that Jesus is delivering. And I think there's a very clear parallel with much of we're seeing in the 21st century, a very loud, profound, persistent rejection of biblical values. Now, here's the awkward part: by many churches.
Rejecting the authority of scripture. Rejecting our assignment to be salt and light. Rejecting obedience to the fundamental principles of scripture. We tolerate redefinition of marriage. We tolerate redefinition of moral and immoral. We make accommodations with the secular culture. We're rejecting what... the truth that has been held out to us. Now, if you step beyond the church, I believe the first line of defense is the church because of the church's failures. Those same worldviews and those same values have been rejected in academia. Our faith isn't welcome in most of those places.
Tragically, to many of our Christian universities, universities that wear Christian labels have embraced broadly ungodly principles, Marxist principles. Those same biblical values have been rejected by corporate culture. They'll embrace almost every imaginable form of immorality and perversion. Those same values, biblical values, have been rejected far too broadly by our political class. I would remind you this is our heritage as a nation. These Christian values, this Christian faith, this belief that God is involved with our lives and impacting the outcomes of civilizations is not something new. It's not fringe or peripheral.
This Judeo-Christian worldview has been at the heart of our national formation since before our beginning as a nation. Our legal system, our educational system, our business values, our community values were all derived from those Judeo-Christian principles. The Bible was used as a textbook in our schools for decades. Pastors used to preach election sermons, where they talked about the current, it just seems bizarre. There's books filled with them. This is not, like, my imagination. They would talk about current issues and the candidates who were running and their positions on those issues. Sermons at one point in our history were printed on the front page of the leading newspapers in the major cities.
If you haven't noticed, our money says, "In God we trust". This is not some peripheral lunatic. This is the essence of who we are as a people. If you'll allow me, I did just a little work. Some of our most important monuments and buildings and landmarks in Washington, D.C. include religious words, symbols, imagery. I brought a sampling. I'll spare you a more complete list. But in the United States Capitol, the declaration, "In God we trust," is prominently displayed in both the United States House and the Senate Chambers. Around the top of the walls in the House chamber appear images of 23 great lawgivers from across the centuries. But Moses is the only lawgiver honored with a full-face view looking down on the proceedings of the House.
Religious artwork is found throughout our Capitol building in Washington, including in the rotunda, where the prayer service of Christopher Columbus, the baptism of Pocahontas, the prayer and Bible study of the pilgrims are all prominently displayed. In the Cox Corridor of the Capitol, the words, "America, God shed his grace on thee," are inscribed. At the east Senate entrance, with the words, I'll give you, it's Latin. I'll give you the English translation. "God has favored our undertakings". And in many other locations.
Images of the Ten Commandments are found in many federal buildings across Washington, D.C., including in bronze on the floor of the National Archives, in a bronze statue of Moses in the main reading room of the library of Congress, in numerous locations at the US Supreme Court, including the frieze above the justices, the oak door at the rear of the chamber, the gable apex, and in dozens of locations on the bronze lattice work surrounding the Supreme Court bar seating. Our spiritual heritage fills Washington, D.C. There are numerous Bible verses and religious acknowledgments carved on the memorial blocks in the walls of the Washington monument.
Exodus 28:26, "Holiness to the Lord". John 5:39, "Search the scriptures". "The memory of the just is blessed". Proverbs 10:7. "May heaven to this union continue its beneficence". Easy for me to say. And, "In God we trust". The Latin inscription, "Praise be to God," is engraved on the monument's capstone. On the five areas of the Jefferson memorial into which Jefferson's words have been carved, four are God-centered, including Jefferson's declaration that "God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever". End quote.
The Lincoln memorial contains numerous acknowledgments of God in citations of Bible verses, including the declarations that "We here highly resolve that this nation under God shall not perish from the earth. The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to the man by whom the offense cometh.'" Matthew 18:7. "As was said 3,000 years ago, so it still must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" Psalm 19:1. "One day, every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, and the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh see it together".
If you don't know, a significant portion of Dr. King's speech was based on Isaiah 40, verses 4 and 5. In the library of Congress, the Giant Bible of Mainz and the Gutenberg Bible are on prominent display. And etched on the walls are Bible verses, including, "The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not," John 1:5. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding". Proverbs 4:7. "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God"? Micah 6:8. And, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth with his handiwork". Psalm 19:1. There's a trend emerging.
The spiritual heritage of the United States of America is obvious. Numerous other of the most important American government leaders, institutions, monuments, buildings, and landmarks both openly acknowledge and incorporate religious words, symbols, and imagery into official venues. Such acknowledgments are even more frequent at the state and local level than at the federal level, where thousands of such acknowledgments exist. But now we have leaders at the highest levels of presidents. President Obama famously said, "We are not a Christian nation".
Please understand that when we read the Gospel of Luke, we're not reflecting on history. We're trying to understand what it means to be followers of the Lord. We are rejecting God, and we will face the judgment for these choices if we don't repent. We shouldn't imagine that we can mock God and then demand his blessings, nor should we... presume upon the faithfulness of previous generations to ensure our place in the grace and mercy of God. It occurred to me as I'm listening to that news program that we are very similar to Jesus's audience, who were saying to him, "Abraham is our father".
We can point at our buildings and we can point at our heritage, and we can tell stories about pilgrims and prayers and fasting and national days of prayer and Lincoln or Jefferson or whomever you choose, but the question on the table is what will we do in our generation? What has overcome us? We are more timid in the face of the darkness. We wanna make friends with the enemy and the adversary. I was reminded, I put it in your notes. We read it in an earlier session, but it's Luke 3. This is John the Baptist, but he said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' 'Cause I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire".
Folks, those words are relevant for us. We cannot afford to say we're a nation with a Christian heritage. I won't yield to heritage. I won't allow it to be swept away and I remain silent. I'll do my best to shout it from the housetops. But more importantly is what will this generation do? Will we take those biblical values, that Judeo-Christian worldview, and insist that it be a part of the education of our children? Will we require that it be included in our places of work, in our hospital corridors, in our courtrooms? How dare they tell us our heritage is illegitimate?
And we can't afford to reject the truth of scripture. And we should understand that if we do, the judgment of God will come. Not in my opinion. Jesus said it very plainly. He said it repetitively. We'll look at several of those passages in the Gospel of Luke. In fact, judgment came to the inhabitants of the land because they refused to embrace the truth that was presented. And we should not imagine that we will avoid the judgment of God if we reject his truth. I know it's fashionable to say, "Well, it's the end of the age, and we're all gonna get... there's a big escape clause, and we're all gonna be good to go".
If we're the generation that rejects the truth, if we're the church that presides over unprecedented apostasy and a turning away from a faithfulness to the heritage of our faith, do we imagine the blessings of God will fill our future? It's an exciting time. It is truly an exciting time. We can be one of those pivotal groups. There was a group in Nineveh who repented and changed the future of that, a great city for a season. Why not decide we'll be that generation?
All right, I'm back to Luke. If you were here for the previous session, we've just finished chapter 7. Chapter 7 ends with the story of the sinful woman. Ooh. Doesn't tell us what the sin was. She may have cheated at cards. It just tells us she was a sinful woman. But the biggest sinner in the story isn't the sinful woman. The sinful woman is very busy reorienting her life and bringing alignment with Jesus and is very willing for that to be known publicly, widely, broadly, loudly. The tragedy in that story are the people with great biblical knowledge. They have all kinds of spiritual habits, but they're not interested in listening to what Jesus has to say.
So there's a question on the table as we're walking through this Gospel: to what extent are you listening? Not to me. To what extent are you listening to the Spirit of God? To what extent are you listening to the Word of God? Are we living presumptively like so much of the audience that was listening to Jesus's message? And we're saying, "Oh, we're all good. There's nothing to see here. All of our God business is complete. I've made a profession of faith. I have a baptismal certificate. I volunteer occasionally. I even give some money". Or are we allowing our lives to be transformed? Are we listening? Are we emerging? Are we becoming? Is God moving in our lives?
We get to chapter 8, Luke takes us immediately from that narrative with Jesus and the sinful woman and the Pharisees into a very familiar parable. It says, "After this," after that story, "Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. And the Twelve were with him, and also some women who'd been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; and Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household; and Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means".
I think it's worth noting just, at least briefly, that the message that Jesus is teaching is the good news of the kingdom of God. Again, it's a bit of a deviation from our familiar themes. It's not a message of salvation and heaven. It's a message of another kingdom. It's this dimensional idea I keep inviting you back to. Jesus is inviting us to think of dimensions beyond our material world.
We're not the first generation who turned our backs on God, to have taken his blessings and imagine that we deserve them or even earned them. But we can be one of those generations that turns back to God in humility and repentance. Our challenge isn't the depravity of the wicked. It's the condition of our heart. Let's pray:
Father, forgive us. Forgive us for having been coopted by the world, by having our dreams and goals and aspirations be defined apart from you. Give us a love for your Word and a love for your truth that will write a new future for us. In Jesus's name, amen.