THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
(Chapters 18 and 20)
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Kevin Pendergrass.
Welcome to our study on the Book of Luke. This is the seventh lesson in this study. Today we will be studying lessons learned from parables. I want to read three parables, explain each of them, and then discuss the lessons we need to learn from them in order to better ourselves in God’s service. First we need to understand what a parable is. What does the word “parable” mean? The word means “a placing beside” or “a comparison.” A parable is a brief, simple story that has a deeper spiritual meaning. In other words, the people and things in a parable represent things that are more important than they might seem to be on the surface. Therefore, the story teaches an important spiritual lesson. We need to keep this in mind as we study these parables so we can gain the deeper spiritual lessons that Jesus was teaching.
The first parable is the parable of the persistent widow, which is found in Luke 18:1-8.
“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, ‘There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, “Get justice for me from my adversary.” And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, “Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”’ Then the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?’”
Now let’s examine this story so we can see what’s going on. A widow comes to a judge, “who did not fear God nor regard man.” This was an unjust judge. Someone had wronged this widow, and she wanted justice. She comes to the judge to ask for justice. And what did he say? At first he did not give her justice because he did not fear God. But the widow continued to come to him. She was persistent in continuing to ask for justice. She did not give up, but instead “kept on keeping on.” Eventually the judge gives her what she wants because of her persistence.
What lessons can we learn from this parable? In the immediate context, Jesus is talking about prayer and not losing heart. In Luke 18:1 Jesus said that “men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” As Christians, we are to be people of prayer. We must continue in prayer, and be persistent in prayer. We must not lose heart. In James 1:5-8 James discussed the importance of prayer, and how we should not be double minded. We must not doubt when we pray.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
When we pray, we must not be like the double-minded man of whom James spoke. This is a person who prays, but says to himself, “More than likely God is not going to answer me. And if He does, He won’t give me what I want. So I’m just going to give up.” We cannot do that. When we pray, we must pray knowing that if we are faithful children of God, He will hear us and answer. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to “pray without ceasing.” This is the exact opposite of what so many people do today. They say, “I prayed, but God did not give me what I wanted.” How many times did they pray? Were they praying fervently? Did they lose heart? Their attitude may be, “I prayed once, and God didn’t give me what I wanted. So I’m going to give up and quit.” Some people say that they pray and pray and pray, yet nothing happens. Suppose a person prayed that he would find a job, but the job never came through, so he quit loving God, lost heart, and then left the church because he no longer cared about Christianity. That is a person who needs to learn the lesson of this parable. Perhaps you are that person. Perhaps you lost heart and gave up, when instead you should have been persistent. We are to “pray without ceasing.” God will always answer the prayers of the faithful. How will He do that? He may not always answer our prayers the way we want Him to. We might ask God to do something, and it may never come about. In such an instance, God answered our prayer by saying, “No.” But that does not mean that we should give up, stop praying, or quit following God. On a larger scale, we must be persistent and continue to be faithful, not just in prayer, but in every aspect of our Christian life. We must not give up. Paul was someone who never gave up. He always followed the Lord. If someone knocked him down, he got right back up. Toward the end of his life as he was writing to Timothy, he said,
“I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
Here we see Paul writing to Timothy to tell him, “You must keep going. You cannot give up. You must fight the good fight. You must finish the race. You must keep the faith.” We are living in a world today that tells us, “If you don’t get what you want, give up.” If we are going to be faithful to the Lord, we have to keep on keeping on. In Revelation 2:10, as the Lord was giving the letters to the seven churches of Christ in Asia Minor, He said, “Be faithful unto death.” What is the context? Those congregations were enduring persecution. Some people were even going to lose their lives. But they were to be persistent in their faithfulness. They could not give up. How many of us today would not be Christians if we knew that it meant that we would lose our lives? Currently, we do not live in a place where there is a great deal of persecution of Christians taking place. There might be some that comes from friends of family members who make fun of us or mock us every now and then. But as far as true persecution, we don’t have that today. But if such a day was to arrive, would we be persistent? Would we be faithful to the Lord, or would we just give up? We must be faithful, even if it means death. Paul spoke of how we must fight the good fight and run the race to the end. What did Paul go through? Was he persistent? I want to read the answer to that question as found in 2 Corinthians 11:22-28, which shows us some of the things that Paul endured. And as I do, I want you to ask yourself, “Would I have given up, or would I have continued being faithful to the Lord?”
‘Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep.”
Paul had been shipwrecked. He had been stoned. He had been beaten with rods and left for dead. But Paul was persistent. No one could keep Paul down. Why? It was because he knew where he stood, and he was going to be faithful no matter what. The text continues:
“…in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”
At the end of this long list of all of Paul’s trials and tribulations, he added, “The other things that happen to people daily—I have experienced those, too.” Yet Paul could truly say, “Do not give up. Fight the good fight of faith.” What is interesting about all of this is that even though Paul went through a great deal of adversity in his life (including being stoned, beaten, and hungry), he referred to these things as a “light affliction, which is but for a moment, and is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). We think today that if something happens to us like our car failing to start, it is “the end of the world.” Paul went through so much more, yet was able to refer to his trials as a “light affliction.” Did Paul give up? No. He was faithful to the end. He was persistent. He did not give up. Will trials and tribulations come our way? Yes, they will. But we cannot simply give up on the Lord. We are taught in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God will not give us anything more than what we can handle. If we are going through something, we must know that it we can deal with it. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” You may be enduring something very difficult right now. You may be saying, “It is hard for me to be persistently faithful. There is no one else around me who is doing what I’m doing.” Still, you must keep on doing the right thing. “Please do not give up!,” is the message we read in the Word of God.
In Daniel 3:8-18 we can find great encouragement. There we read of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar had set up an image that was to be worshiped. Everyone was bowing down and worshiping the image—except for these three young men. Someone might say, “I feel outnumbered. No one else is doing the right thing. I’m the only one.” Here, we see only three young men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—who said that they would not bow before the king’s idol. They said, “Even if the Lord does not deliver us from this trial or temptation, we still will not bow our knees.” Talk about persistence! Talk about someone who refused to give up! The king could do whatever he wanted, but these three men still were going to follow the Lord. This is how we, too, must be if we want to go to Heaven. In Luke 8:13 we read about those who “when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.” They received the Word of God initially, but then fell away. We must not fall into this group. These people may get excited at first, but in the end they are not persistent. They fall away—just like Demas in 2 Timothy 4:10. He was a God-fearing man, but he gave up, “having loved this present world.” From the parable in Luke 18:1-8 we must learn the importance of persistence, of being faithful so that we can keep on keeping on, regardless of what might happen—because we know that the Lord is in control.
The next parable in Luke 18 is found in verses 9-14. It is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
“Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’”
What is the story behind the parable that Jesus taught in this instance? We learn of a Pharisee who prayed, but did not short of brag to God about all of his accomplishments. He said, “Look at me, Lord! I fast twice a week. I’m not doing this or that.” It’s almost as if he was saying, “God, are you glad that I’m on Your side and on Your team?” He had a self-righteous attitude. Then we read about the tax collector who realized that he was a sinner who needed God’s mercy and grace. The tax collector knew that he was wrong and needed to change. He told the Lord, “Be merciful to me, a sinner.” He was a Jew, but obviously he had not been following the Lord faithfully. Perhaps he had done someone wrong when it came to collecting money. Tax collectors had a bad reputation for that during that day and age. They would cheat people by overcharging, and by taking money that they knew was not rightfully theirs. Jesus then asked, “Which one of these two men do you think went away justified?” The correct answer, of course, was the tax collector.
What lessons was Jesus teaching? He was teaching, to begin with, that we cannot trust in ourselves. It is not about what we can do, but what we can do for God that matters. Many times people want to trust in themselves and what they’ve always done. Maybe they trust in traditions. Maybe they trust in something because they are doing something the same way their mother or father did it. Maybe they simply do not want to submit to the Lord, but instead want to tell everyone how great they are. We need to understand that according to Isaiah 64:6 we are like “filthy rags” before the Lord. Isaiah said, “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” If we think that we can stand before the Lord by ourselves, then we need to realize that we are little more than “filthy rags.” Romans 3:10 tells us that there is “none righteous—no not one.” We cannot be a righteous people until we submit to God. We cannot be like the Pharisee and say, “Lord, aren’t You glad that You have me on your side?” That cannot be our mentality. We need to humble ourselves and trust in the Lord. In Proverbs 3:5-6 we read, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Is this sometimes difficult? Sure it is. We may have been taught to believe something different. But we must realize that we are to trust in the Lord and His Word. Yes, it may sometimes be hard to do that. It is not enough to say, “I’m a good person.” We must do what the Bible says. We must be people who place our trust in God rather than ourselves.
Furthermore, we need to realize that in the context of this parable, self-righteousness does not mean that it is wrong to take a stand for the truth. Some people accuse individuals who take a stand for truth as being self-righteous or thinking that they are better than everyone else. When someone takes a stand for truth, that does not make him self-righteous. In fact, it shows that the person is submitting to the Lord. We need to be careful about this. If we take a stand for truth, that does not mean that we are being self-righteous. It means that we are being righteous before the Lord because we are putting our trust in Him. We must be humble, and turn to the Lord so that we can seek His face and do His will. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read about this very thing: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” What a wonderful summarization of repentance and true humility we find in this verse. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, which is another lesson we learn from Jesus’ parable. In James 4:10 James wrote, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Have you ever met someone who does so much bragging about what they have done that they do not really do anything but brag about themselves? Someone might say, “Look how great and wonderful I am.” If that person used that same energy, and instead of telling others how great he is, he told them about the Lord and how great He is, think about how many people could be converted to the truth. We must humble ourselves and realize that we need God’s mercy. We need His grace. But we also need to submit to Him. And the only way we can do that is to meet the conditions He has set forth. The lesson from Jesus’ parable is that we must be sure that we are humble people who are not self-righteous or who trust only in ourselves. Rather, we must be righteous before God and trust in Him.
The last parable we want to study is the parable of the wicked vinedresser, which is found in Luke 20:9-19.
“Then He began to tell the people this parable: ‘A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.” But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.” So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.’ And when they heard it they said, “Certainly not!” Then He looked at them and said, ‘What then is this that is written, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”? Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.”
These people understood Jesus’ point. What was that point? Jesus had been foreordained. Some people had been preparing the way for Him. Think of what people had done to God’s prophets under the Old Law. They persecuted them, beat them, and killed them. What happened when John the Baptist came on the scene (Jn. 3)? He was preaching and teaching, and got his head cut off. The prophets before Christ had been persecuted. Then, when Jesus, the Son of God, arrived, what did humankind do to Him? People crucified Him! Jesus said, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Until Acts 2, the Jews had missed this important point. But when Peter preached to the Jews in Acts 2, he told them that they, with lawless hands, had crucified the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They were cut to the heart by Peter’s message, the Bible tells us. They realized that they had been wrong, and they asked, “Men and brethren, what must we do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter told them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
Maybe you have rejected Christ and His church. Maybe you realize that you need to follow the Lord, and cannot continue to reject Him. Maybe you are persecuting His followers today in some fashion because they have stood up for the truth. You need to be like those in Acts 2 who had their hearts pricked. In Romans 10:17 we learn that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. That is the source of and authority for our faith. We must hear God’s Word. Then we must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Jn. 3:16). We must repent of our past sins (Acts 3:19). We must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Rom. 10: 10). Then we must be baptized in water for the forgiveness of ours sins (1 Pet. 3:20-21). If you have yet to obey the truth, we pray today that you will obey the Gospel of Christ.
Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
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1. What does the word “parable” actually mean?
2. What is a parable?
3. What parable did Christ present in Luke 18:1-8?
4. Summarize briefly in your own words the content and lesson to be learned from Christ’s parable in Luke 18:1-8.
5. What especially important statement did Jesus make in Luke 18:1 that still applies to Christians today?
6. In James 1:5, what specific thing did James mention that all Christians may routinely ask of God?
7. According to James 1:6, how are Christians to offer their prayers to God?
8. In James 1:5-8, what did James urge Christians not to be like when it comes to their prayer lives?
9. What does 1 Thessalonians 5:17 admonish Christians to do?
10. According to Revelation 2:10, what should Christians be?
11. What parable did Christ present in Luke 18:9-14?
12. Summarize briefly in your own words the content and lesson to be learned from Christ’s parable in Luke 18:9-14.
13. According to Isaiah 64:6, on our own our “righteousness” is like what in God’s sight?
14. What message is found in Romans 3:10?
15. What does Proverbs 3:5-6 admonish us to do?
16. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, what did God say to His people?
17. What parable did Christ present in Luke 20:9-19?
18. Summarize briefly in your own words the content and lesson to be learned from Christ’s parable in Luke 20:9-19.
19. In Christ’s parable in Luke 20:9-19, who does the “owner’s son” represent, and what group of people is represented by the “vinedressers”?
20. According to Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:36, how did the Jews of Christ’s day receive Him during His time on Earth?
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