609. Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11 (#8 - Part 2) - The Pharisees Focused on the Wrong Things - August 1, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs. Let's open and prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:00:27] Lord, I pray that you open everyone's ears to hear and heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 1, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:43] The Proverbs of Solomon, the Son of David, King of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment and equity to give prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.

[00:01:09] A wise man will hear and increase learning and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

[00:01:29] but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son hear the instruction of your fathers and do not forsake the law of your mother. For they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck.

[00:01:47] My son, it sinners entice you do not consent if they say come with us, let us lie in weight to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

[00:02:02] Let us swallow them alive like sheal and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse.

[00:02:25] My son do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood.

[00:02:38] Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird but they lie in weight for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.

[00:02:51] So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners. Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the sheath concourses at the openings of the gates in the city. She speaks her words.

[00:03:15] How long you simple ones will you love simplicity for scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my review. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you.

[00:03:33] I will make my words known to you because I have called and you refused. I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded. Because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my review. I also will laugh at your calamity.

[00:03:55] I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind.

[00:04:05] When distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

[00:04:24] They would have none of my counsel and despised my every review. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

[00:04:40] For the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them, but whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil.

[00:04:58] Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 15 and proper one verse 15 tells us this, my son do not walk in the way with them keep your foot from their path.

[00:05:17] Friends we will revisit that one verse prior to closing today but what I'd like to do is just recap what we did on yesterday and my desire yesterday was to complete the 11th chapter of Luke.

[00:05:32] And I thought I would be able to do that but time ran out. So what I'm going to do is go back just a bit and I'm going to pick up on chapter 11 verse 47. So let's begin there right now.

[00:06:20] Killing the rest of the prophets. In other words he's asking them to think about what it is they're doing. Let's go to verse 48. In fact you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers for they indeed killed them and you build their tunes.

[00:06:44] So friends I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible and what I'd like to do is read the commentary for verses 47 and 48. You build the tunes of the prophets. Jesus made a biting ironic comparison between the current generation of Israel and the generations of the past.

[00:07:10] Jesus was saying that the current generation finished the job of slaying of the prophets that the previous generation had started. The building and care of tunes was supposed to be an act of honoring the prophets. The Jesus pointed out that something else was really going on.

[00:07:59] We should take lightly. Let's go to verse 49. Let me read that again. The wisdom of God refers to God's knowledge of the people and friends let me just remind everyone that God is aware of every single thing you do.

[00:08:59] In the morning and at noon in the afternoon and in the evening even right before you go to bed God is aware of everything you do.

[00:09:59] The same fate as the prophets of old meaning that they would be martyred. Let's go to verse 50. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. Now let's read the commentary for verse 50.

[00:10:24] Generation seems to refer to the people or nation of Israel. They had received and would receive judgment for the way they treated God's prophets. The judgment here refers specifically to the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 and ultimately to the final judgment of God in the tribulation.

[00:10:55] Let's continue on verse 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you it shall be required of this generation. Let's go to verse 52.

[00:11:17] Low to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you murdered.

[00:11:33] Now friends I am going to pick my third point of this lesson. So the third point of this lesson is Jesus accuses the lawyers of taking away the key of knowledge.

[00:11:49] Now let's look at the commentary for verses 50 and 51. Abel is pictured as the first prophet to be killed.

[00:12:02] And of course if you go way back to Genesis, you remember that his brother Cain had killed him going back to the foundation of the world. So this actually took place in the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis.

[00:12:20] Basically the very beginning of the Bible this is the first recorded murder of the Bible. Zechariah is probably the man described in the book of second chronicles chapter 24.

[00:12:35] He would be the last prophet Slaine in the Old Testament. If one considers the Hebrew order of the books of the Old Testament and that last comment refers to having a chronological Bible.

[00:12:54] Some of you may be unfamiliar with that term but there are chronological Bibles and what they do is put the books in the Old Testament in the order that the events actually occurred.

[00:13:12] So the book of Job is not found right before the book of Psalms. It is found way in the front of the Bible. Many people suggest that Job is the oldest book in the Bible.

[00:13:30] Job actually probably was written about the time of Abraham being on the earth. That is what some people speculate and of course Abraham is found right after Noah in the Bible so around chapter 8 or 9.

[00:13:50] Now let's look at the commentary for verse 52. Jesus charged the lawyers with doing the opposite of what they claimed they're calling to be rather than bringing people near to God. They had removed the possibility of their entering into that knowledge and had prevented others from understanding as well.

[00:14:16] And this is a serious accusation that Jesus is bringing against the lawyers and friends even today.

[00:14:26] If you go to Proverbs 1130, the second part of that verse says he who wins souls is wise. If you go to the book of 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 19, the second part of that verse says that God is not willing that anyone perish but that all should come to repentance and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

[00:14:55] He wants every person on the world to be saved. Now let's go to verse 53. And as he said, these things to them describe and the Pharisees began to assail him the hematly and to cross examine him about many things lying in weight for him

[00:15:22] and seeking to catch him in something he might say that they might accuse him. And friends, these people are the ones who ultimately were responsible for having Jesus executed or crucified on that cross. It might not be actual execution but it had the same effect.

[00:15:49] He ended up dying on that cross before we review. Let's go to the commentary for verse 54, seeking to catch him.

[00:16:03] The scribes and the Pharisees began challenging Jesus in the hope that he might make a blunder that would allow them to destroy his ministry and eventually in effect his life.

[00:16:22] Friends, what I'd like to do is go back to our verse of the day. And friends, since this is the first day of August we begin Proverbs all over again.

[00:16:37] So I always look forward to beginning a new month and a new month means that we are in August. So this is actually the 28th month of this podcast I am actually beginning.

[00:16:56] But let's go to our verse of the day and our verse of the day is verse 15. And verse 15 says, my son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path and friends here we are talking about people who are evil.

[00:17:18] And our lesson which began yesterday I'm going to call this part two but basically what I want to get across to everyone is that the Pharisees were basically evil people even though they were the religious leaders of that time.

[00:17:38] While Jesus roamed the earth, they really wanted people to not follow Jesus. They wanted them to continue the traditions which Moses had begun with them. They wanted all of the people to follow the 10 commandments as well as all of the other laws that they had added.

[00:18:03] They did not like Jesus and they were looking to do anything they could do to get rid of him. So friends before we close today I'd like to review the three points that I began on yesterday's lesson and carried over into today's lesson.

[00:18:24] Number one, the Pharisees focused on the wrong things and I cannot over emphasize that I really can't. All they cared about was the law and everyone in Israel following that law to the letter.

[00:18:44] And when Jesus came and tried to upset the apple cart they were indignant. And once they started pestering Jesus, they kept their eyes on Jesus and his 12 disciples and they never gave it a rest once they began doing that.

[00:19:04] Number two, Jesus accuses the lawyers of loading men with burdens that were hard to bear. And point number three, Jesus accuses the lawyers of taking away the key of knowledge. And I mentioned earlier on this podcast that that was key.

[00:19:30] Jesus came to give people the truth. Remember the verse in the Bible where when it says, and the people shall know the truth. And it will set them free. The Pharisees did not want the people to be set free. They wanted the people in bondage to the law.

[00:19:56] I want you to think about that. Why were they so focused on the law?

[00:20:05] Jesus came to give life and to give it more abundantly, it was a supernatural way of thinking that the Israelites up to that point had never heard and the Pharisees and Sadducees simply never bought into.

[00:20:25] Unfortunately, because Jesus a few days later, a few months later actually had to die a criminal's death. And many people may not know this, but not everyone was crucified during that time. This affiction was only for the very worst of the criminals.

[00:20:53] I want you to think about that. Many times we overlook that many times people may be weren't never even aware of that, but only the very worst criminals were crucified. And they put Jesus in that category pretty hard for us to believe today.

[00:21:15] Friends, my call to action. I want you to think about this. Jesus accuses the lawyers of loading men with burdens hard to bear. And then he accused them of taking away the key of knowledge.

[00:21:33] Friends, I sometimes wonder what it would have been like walking the earth when Jesus was there. And I want you to just give this just a moment of thought. Would I have followed the teachings of Jesus and followed him and his disciples?

[00:21:55] Or would I have kept on and clung on to the traditions that they and their descendants had grown up with and follow the law to the letter? Friends, I will never end the podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:22:19] And if there's anyone listening today and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me. Father God, I confess that I am a sinner and in need of the Savior. Jesus, I know that you are the Son of God.

[00:22:40] I know that you came to earth and died on a cross for the sins of all mankind. I ask you to come into my heart. I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:22:57] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make us face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, please join me again tomorrow as we close out the week with wisdom today.