Well, good morning. Trinity Bible Church, it is so good to be here this morning. Bring greetings from Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. And it's always a joy to be here. I'm thrilled to be back with you guys. You can meet my family later. They're still sleeping. I was promised to be here before the summer heat hit, but if this isn't the summer heat, I don't know what is. This is just beyond my imagination.
I am so excited for your next season as a church. I know you just had your business meeting in anticipation of what the Lord is doing and what the Lord is doing with bringing Andrew Curry here. I was sitting in the lobby out there and I got excited for a moment because I thought that Stephen Curry was coming to do his installment, but it's Steven Curry who's just as good. Andrew was instrumental in my early development as a preacher when I was going through the Master's Seminary, and so I'm so grateful for Andrew and his family, and I know you will be blessed as he comes to be your next pastor.
I just wanted to remind you all to enjoy this next couple of months. There's gonna be so much to do. There's gonna be pressure you'll feel to make them feel welcome. Enjoy what God is doing in your midst, as he brings Andrew and their sweet family. As far as I'm concerned, them being here at TBC means they're closer to Los Angeles, so it's a win all the way around.
For now, though, we have an appointment with God's Word. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 13. Luke chapter 13, we'll be in the first five verses this morning. Luke 13 verses one to five. We'll start by reading the text and then we'll pray. Luke writes this:
[Scripture] “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Through the words of the living God. [Prayer] Father, would you help us this morning as we look to your word, that your word is truth, and so it would help our hearts and our minds to see the need for repentance and to see your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. [End]
Headlines. In a day and age not so long ago, headlines were not just notifications on your phone. They were printed in the dead of night with real ink and real paper. And along with that, with such an unthinkable and archaic process, came errors, mistakes, misprints. And I'm not just talking about typos or ink smudges, but real big mistakes. Let's try a few on for size. September 20th, 1862. On the front page, “Glorious News. The Confederate Flag Floats on the US Capitol.” December 21st, 1924. “Hitler, tamed by prison, released on parole. He is expected to return to Austria.” November 3rd, 1948: “Dewey Defeats Truman.” And perhaps one of the most disastrous of them all, April 16th, 1912. “Titanic sinking. No lives lost.” Well, as you and I know, over 1,500 lives were lost.
Erroneous headlines mislead us. But when bad things happen, our hearts are what have erroneous headlines. Our hot takes, our immediate reactions, our emotions get the best of us. And what's in our hearts does not often reflect what should be a trust in the Lord in those moments. And in a fallen world, tragedy breaks seemingly every day. And in our hyper-connected world, we get headlines at an alarming rate. We know more than we need to know. And we get to choose what we want to know, and through which lens we want to know it.
And so we think, with all of this tragedy, with all of this chaos, if I could just silence or dial in the feed just right, it will control what's in my heart to please the Lord. But that's not how that works. In God's grace and kindness, Jesus's words in our passage this morning dispel the false headlines in our hearts. Jesus's wisdom in this passage, in the face of real and dire tragedy, is a wake-up call to those who don't yet follow him, if that's you this morning. But it's also a recalibration for the heart of the Christian.
In the face of tragedy, what we'll pull mainly from this morning is one simple sentence from our Lord Jesus that's repeated twice in the text. And Jesus in his infinite wisdom points us in that sentence to God. He says twice, “no, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Friends, this is a sentence that rebukes us, and that reminds us, and that gives us perspective beyond our own ability. This sentence is the classroom of calamity. It teaches us.
And in this classroom, we continue yet another lesson in what Jesus has been teaching us in Luke. The uniqueness and transcendence and immanency of God's coming kingdom. And this morning, these two earthly tragedies show us the greatness of the everlasting kingdom, and the greatness of the God of that kingdom, who calls us to know His Son. And here, His Son calls us to repent, to turn from living in sin, to turn from living for ourselves, and to instead live for Him and for Him alone.
So, let's look at three perspectives produced by tragedy that help us to behold God's coming kingdom. Before we get to those perspectives though, of course, we need to do a little bit of work, a little bit of pre-work. We need to set the stage. Before we get to our perspectives produced by tragedy, the actual points, there are some things that I want you to notice about our text this morning.
The first thing is that in verse 1, this is connected to the previous chapter. Look at verse 1 again. “There were some present,” and look there, “at that very time.” You see, there was some present at that very time, which means, what's that very time? It's the time that Jesus has been talking to the crowds and to the disciples in the previous chapter. It's a continuation of the similar kind of teaching. And let me remind you, this section has a whole in Luke, as we've progressed through the book of Luke.
This middle section from the end of chapter 9, if you look there, all the way to chapter 19. It's what we often will call the Lukean travelogue, or the travel narrative of the book of Luke. And Jesus, in those chapters, in a roundabout kind of way, is journeying from Galilee to Jerusalem. Look at chapter 9, verse 51. “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” And then there's other markers along the way. If you flip back to our chapter, chapter 13, you'll get to this passage in a few weeks. But chapter 13, verse 22 says this, “He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.”
And then all the way to the end of chapter 19, when Jesus finally arrives at Jerusalem, He enters in and then He cleanses the temple. And so here in chapter 13, we see Him going from town to town, and He is teaching and healing and equipping His disciples and interacting with the crowds. He is the Savior and He is the Teacher and the Healer on His way to Jerusalem.
Here in chapter 13, the first five verses, we see a brief interaction. It's an interaction Jesus has with the crowds, and it's a unique and instructive text for us this morning, because it's so short and poignant. It's not an hour-long sermon. But because Jesus is the all-wise God, His words are powerful and perfect. And His words this morning are for us.
Now someone in the crowd informs Jesus of a very recent and tragic event. Something that Jesus was likely aware of, and it's something that we have actually no other record of in either Scripture or with Jewish historians of the day. And so we can work simply with the details that were given here. Apparently, some Jews from Galilee were making, probably, Passover sacrifices, because that was when the commoner was allowed in. They were making sacrifices, and Pilate's men came and slaughtered them. A grisly scene in the temple of all places.
Even though there's no further record of these events, this is not a surprise, knowing what we know about Pontius Pilate, this ruthless Roman governor of Judea, famous for ordering executions without trial, famous for misappropriating temple funds for his own little building projects. Philo of Alexandria said of Pilate, “he was a man of inflexible, stubborn, and cruel disposition,” the opposite of your pastor to come.
This news is from the crowd and perhaps the person who mentions this is trying to get a rise or a reaction out of Jesus. Maybe it's to get His take on the whole thing since he's also from Galilee. Before we talk about His answer, Jesus Himself brings up a second calamity that I want to look at really quick and it's about a collapse of a tower at Siloam. Siloam should ring a bell if you've read the Gospel of John. We know about the pool of Siloam from Jesus's miracle in John 9, when he sends the man born blind to go wash in the pool at Siloam. It was an area outside the city gates on the southeast side of Jerusalem.
And so there at Siloam, there was some kind of tower, maybe part of an aqueduct system, maybe a watchtower, we don't know, some kind of holy city infrastructure, but it had fallen and 18 people had died. And there's, again, no additional historical record of it, but it's an event likely well-known enough for Jesus' audience, and we know that because Jesus, the perfect Teacher, chooses it as His example.
And to both of these situations, both of these disasters, and to both of these tragedies, our Lord poses essentially the same question twice. “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?” And then, “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?” It's not clear whether this is an actual question from the crowd, maybe sort of a self-righteous, self-justifying kind of a question from the crowd, or this might be Jesus's simple choice of instruction, His rhetoric, His reasoning. But regardless, Jesus knows their hearts, and he knows this is what they need. And it's here that we gain the first of our three perspectives that is produced by tragedy. Perspectives that help us behold God's kingdom over and above everything that happens in this world.
In that perspective, the first one is “the perspective of providence.” “The perspective of providence.” Jesus' answer to these questions turns our heart first to God in the face of disaster. These questions embody the popular opinion of the crowd. It's the logic that goes like this, to have died in one of these two tragic accidents must have meant that you deserved it in some way. That because of their sin, God must be punishing them, right? After all, if you're a Yahweh follower, you would know it's what's in Leviticus 26 and again in Deuteronomy 28. If God is the God who blesses those who obey Him and who curses those who disobey Him, then surely here, these two seemingly tragic events are His doing, and therefore they are His instruments for revenge upon the worst of sinners.
That's probably what many in the crowd thought. And Jesus, knowing all, picks up on the self-righteous attitude whether in their words or not, but certainly in their hearts. And to both of these questions found in our text, in response to each of these tragedies, the answer is just the first word of his answer, “no.” “No.” Just that single word of his answer, “no.” It points us to God.
You see, Jesus has been warning of the coming kingdom, and so now this crowd, all educated and juiced up from His teaching about the kingdom, they think they've got it. They think they understand. They think they know how the kingdom works and how you get into it. You just aren't the worst of sinners, you're a better person and you survive all the way until God establishes His kingdom, right?
No, but Jesus is zeroed in on how they're thinking about sin and suffering and how they're one-to-one and how judgment comes. And instead, He wants them to see the only one who can is the same one who is working. The only one who can know exactly why these people died is the one who is working through these tragedies. And it's with that one wise word, “no,” that Jesus completely dispels their misunderstanding.
Jesus said in the passage you looked at last week, you've got no idea. You're able to discern the weather in the sky, but you don't know anything about what's happening now and about the coming kingdom and how soon it will be. And so, Jesus here in chapter 13 is showing them, you think you know how God's kingdom works, you think you know it's vindictive. You think you know it's retributive. You think you know God does pay back. There's some kind of one-to-one mathematical relationship between sin and suffering. That if you sin, God smites you. That if you offend Him more than other people do around you, that He'll take care of you.
And Jesus says, “no,” that's not how it works. It's one of the many things that we learn from Job. As Job's friends reasoned through, by their rather finite knowledge, what must have been true of Job's sin, based on what God had apparently done to him, in chapter 4, and chapter 8, and chapter 22, they construct a formula, and they say, well, the righteous aren't punished. You have sinned, Job. God must be punishing you.
And there's this fulcrum in their minds of divine retribution. That sin is always punished by God exactly. They think they know that suffering is always a result of sin. And it's the same issue at hand in John 9. The passage I mentioned earlier with the man born blind. It says there in John 9, the disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus answered, “it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
We don't have time to fully unpack this theologically, but Job and John 9 and Jesus' double no here in Luke 13. All are an affirmation that when suffering or disaster comes, instead of simply jumping to a conclusion in our hearts about what's happening, there are matters of providence and purpose for us to consider as human beings with an almighty God who runs the world. Delroth Davis says this, “human tragedy is no index of immense human sinfulness.”
You see, Jesus is saying to us this morning, when something bad happens, when something happens in the news that's maybe not bad, but you disagree with it, or if something in the news happens and you are so overjoyed by it, but something of the world, Jesus is saying, slow down, slow your roll. You cannot, as a human being, make a judgment that is only God's judgment to make. When your heart rushes to judgment in the face of suffering or something else, look instead to God. Look to the providence of the God of the universe.
There are so many other divine dimensions to every earthly reality. And so, the point is, is that calamity should cause in us an instinct not to rush to judgment, but to be reminded that even you and I, as the crowning part of God's creation, sometimes we just don't know. Sometimes the best thing to do is to look to the Lord immediately. We just don't know sometimes. And I think that's a good thing because we serve a God who does know all and uses all things for the good of those who love Him.
His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. And that's a beautiful thing. Friends, how little we make God to be when we think that we are so in tune with what he's doing that we put ourselves on the throne that can only be His. When something happens and we know exactly why it happens, but when you think about it twice, it actually is only God who knows that. We ought to slow down just a little bit and heed Jesus's wisdom here.
We need the perspective of providence when bad things happen, with the news of earthquakes or elections or evil empires. Let's look up to God on His throne and rest assured in His providence. Because friends, when bad things happen, that's the worst that could happen. You see; to look at tragedy this morning is an argument of greater to lesser. You see, if in the face of the worst possible scenarios, we can learn to instinctually trust the providence of God, then in every waking moment and with every situation in your life, you'll be able to trust God. That the God who created the earth and all that is in it, and the God who has not walked away from that, but who oversees everything that happens under His good command. There are so many crazy and sad and terrible and awful things happening in our world every day. And the wisdom of our Savior taps us on the shoulder, slows us down and fixes our gaze on a sovereign God.
There's a second perspective we need to see at the heart of this passage, and it's “the perspective of repentance.” “The perspective of repentance.” You see, while the focus of the crowd in front of Him is on these current events, these two things, Jesus not only gives us the wisdom that we just saw in regards to providence, Jesus's focus is also on sin and judgment and repentance and salvation. This is the very heart of what Jesus is saying here in this passage. “No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
You see, with this thinking that Jesus addresses, this automatic correlation between sin and suffering, that is not true, Jesus addresses the self-righteousness of the crowd. The self-righteousness that is so often in all of our hearts. And He calls all to repentance. He calls all to recognize that death reminds us of eternal death.
We live out in L.A., and one of the things we need in our 85-degree weather is ice. Ice and ice water are my best friends. You can tell I run hot. Recently, we ran into a few problems with the ice maker on our refrigerator. And that wasn't the first problem with that refrigerator. I have a tendency, when I run into household issues with appliances or backyard things, Google, YouTube, Ace Hardware, try it, and then call somebody to come help. It's my MO, helps my humility and my pride at the same time.
A bunch of little issues with this refrigerator, one by one over the past year, made me realize in my brilliant moment the other day, “honey, we should just get a new refrigerator.” And so, we did. But for the past year, I've been so focused on all the small little problems, the gasket and the water line and the electrical, all these little problems that were overhauled simply by pushing place order.
It's a silly example for what Jesus is saying here. We focus on, yes, the devastating tragedies of this world, but that are small little problems compared to the one big thing that faces every human being at the end of history, and it's judgment before a Holy God. Friends, I don't want to make light of what is going on in your life, or in your city, or in your world, or in your existence, but every tragedy is a reminder of the coming judgment.
The coming judgment before a Holy God. And the wisdom of Jesus points us to this ultimate reality. This ultimate reality of coming judgment for those who reject Christ. And it's far more tragic than even the worst tragedy on this earth.
Flip back to chapter 12 and look with me at what Jesus has already said. Look at verse two of chapter 12. “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”
Let's skip down to verse 35. Jesus says, “stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
What we're reading about here and what's described all throughout the entirety of scripture is the day. And it's a day that is not just a temporal, this earthly disaster, as terrible and terrifying as those can be. This, what's coming, is an eternal judgment for sin where everything that you and I have done or said or even thought will be exposed. It will be proclaimed on the housetops.
And what Romans 3 helps us to understand is that “no one is righteous, not even one.” All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And Romans 6 helps us to understand that the “wages of sin is death,” the payout for all that you and I have done, our rightful paycheck for even one sin against a Holy God, let alone all that we have done, the paycheck for that, what we get rightfully for that is death, eternal death. Separation from God.
And so, Jesus's words here are a straightforward call to repent. Literally to change one's way of thinking. To turn 180 degrees away from sin and turn to faith in Him. And so let the reminder that comes with a tragic event, like the two in this passage or the ones that happen in our world every day, let those be for you an impetus to think about your standing before God.
And you don't even need to wait until the tragic event because we have God's word for us this morning. The Philippian jailer in Acts 16 after an earthquake asked, “what must I do to be saved?” And the answer, “believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” Believe in the Savior who in our passage in Luke 13 beckons you, calls you to turn from life being about you and turn toward life eternal in Him.
There's one final perspective we need to consider this morning, and it relates to the last, but it's thirdly, “The Perspective of Grace”. The perspective of grace. You see, when calamity crosses your path, or it dings on your phone, you ought to be reminded of grace. You're reminded of providence. You're reminded of repentance. And you're reminded of grace. The grace of God in Christ for you.
You see, it's this preacher, Jesus, who would not only here preach, repent, but who would pay the ultimate price so that you and I could be made right with God, so that you and I would have the opportunity to repent. You'll get there in Luke somehow, someway, someday, but flip over and just take a sneak peek at where you'll be in a few years, maybe, if the Lord wills. Luke 18. Look at Luke 18 verse 31.
“And taking the twelve, He said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished for He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him. And on the third day, He will rise.”
You see, this Jesus who set His face like a flint to Jerusalem knew exactly what would happen to him. And it would happen to Him because it was the will of God to crush him. Look at Luke 23. Luke 23, verse 44. “It was now about the sixth hour. And there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And having said this, he breathed his last. And when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “certainly this man was innocent.”” The greatest tragedy in the history of the world was the innocent slaying of the sinless Son of God.
And yet because He died this death that you and I deserve to die for our sin, He took our place, He bore our sins, and all you must do is repent, turn from your sin, and place your faith in Christ and in Christ alone. You see, in Jesus's words in Luke 13, we find the grace that there is an opportunity for us to repent.
The words in Luke 13 themselves are a grace to us. They are what God has given us to realize how gracious He is to give us His own Son. Nowadays, it's wedding season, right? When you go to a wedding, what do you make sure to do? You bring the present or you, buy it on the registry and get it sent.
But because you think, okay, the little card that comes in the Amazon box is kind of a weak way of saying we're super excited for the lifetime y'all have together. You think, I gotta bring a card. And so you bring a pretty little card and you get to the wedding and you drop the card at the table. And sitting next to the card box is a guest book. And you think, in a couple of days, I want this couple to remember that I was at their special day. And so, you sign the guest book. Everyone does.
Luke 13 has a guest book. And it's a guest book that gets signed every time this passage is read or preached or thought of because it's the guest book of God's grace. You see how the perspective of providence helps us? It is that God uses these words every time eyes pass over them to wake us up to the need for repentance and a realization of His grace in Jesus.
The sovereign purposes of God are a little less mysterious in these two tragedies because we get the result of the classroom of calamity, seeing repentance and grace through Christ who gave Himself for us on the cross. And we get to sign that guest book too. You may be saved this morning and think, well, maybe signing the guest book this morning isn't for me.
But to you too, I point you to the grace of repentance. You have the opportunity this morning to resolve in your life to repent in whatever areas are lacking gospel integrity, to believe yet again in every sin and shortcoming in your life that there is grace in Christ in full supply and grace to grow in that area and to repent again and again and again, however many times is necessary and to grow all the more into the likeness of Jesus.
Friends, I'm no prophet or the son of a prophet, but unless the Lord Jesus comes, we will face calamity. And sooner than we might like to think. And whether that will be something across the world somewhere or in your own backyard, classroom of calamity, if you let it, produces these perspectives, that of providence and repentance and grace.
Trinity, may we be sensitive and receptive to all that God might be doing in all of life, even when disaster strikes. Just last summer, disaster struck in my hometown. There was a series of wildfires. And those wildfires happened in a few different places. And when you live in a sprawling metropolis like Los Angeles, this thing starts to go off because of emergency services.
I was sitting in seminary classes during those two weeks where it was the worst for those fires. And every person's phone went off dozens of times every day during class. And it got real old real fast to think that across town, people's homes were burning down, and yet we were annoyed by the notifications on our phones.
We began to laugh a little bit when all the phones went off, to see if the lecturer would continue, or he would pause, or we would silence them, or go into the setting during lecture and pay attention still, turn the notifications off. A few of us, present company included, found the fake one on YouTube and started playing them out loud on our computer. Got funny. All in the midst of tragedy.
I think sometimes it's how we like to think about tragedy. We laugh it off, change the channel, dismiss the notification, and we never deal with it in our hearts. We never think about what God might do if we thought about that disaster just a little bit longer and cared a little bit more and thought about what God might do in our lives or in the lives of others because of it.
What if for you, in every situation in life, even the most difficult and dire, what if those situations became fodder in your life for these three perspectives? No longer an emergency alarm that you laugh at and silence and ignore, but one that you let ring just a little bit longer than you'd like normally, and one that you let produce the perspective of providence, the perspective of repentance, and the perspective of the grace of an almighty God.
Let's pray. [Prayer] Father, thank you for Your Word. Thank you for Jesus and His wisdom for us this morning. Tragedy happens so much, and You are a God who saves, and You are a God who grows us through tough times, and You are a God who sees us through. God, You are sovereign and good, and so as we face trial and suffering and tragedy, would we learn much? Give us perspective, God, we ask in those moments. Help this church, God, in this next season. We ask your blessing, in Jesus' name, amen. [End]
