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LOJ #128: ‘The UnHappy Meal: Pt 1’
Andover Baptist Church-December 11th, 2011
Opening
A. Text Luke 11:37-54 for today is and our sermon is titled ‘The
UnHappy Mea: Pt. 1’
B. Scripture NET:
“11:37 As He spoke, a Pharisee invited Jesus to have a meal with him, so He went in and took His place at the table. 11:38 The Pharisee was astonished when he saw that Jesus did not first wash His hands before the meal. 11:39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 11:40 You fools! Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside as well? 11:41 But give from your heart to those in need, and then everything will be clean for you.”
C. Children’s Sermon (SLIDE)
1. Go buy a happy meal
2. 'I got a Happy Meal here anyone want it?' The only
catch is you have to take a bite of it
3. Give it to the first one that (Timmy?)
4. Kids don’t know that there is dirt on the burger, sticks
for the fries and the toy has been smashed with a
hammer
5. Why don't you want it now? It looks good from the
outside, doesn't it?
6. So your telling me if it looks okay on the outside, but
it's bad on the inside you won't eat it?
7. That's the way some people try to act for Jesus
8. They look okay on the outside, they seem to love God,
but inside they hide all this bad stuff and they don't
live for Him
9. Do you think that makes Jesus happy? What do you
think He would say to that?
10. It doesn't really matter if you look like you love Jesus,
if on the inside you don't really
D. Introduction
1. I’m going to warn you, it’s going to be another year
before this sermon ends
a. For the next two weeks we will be looking at
Christmas
b. We will finish what we started today on the very
first day of 2012 (Lord willing)
c. You will then honestly be able to say ‘My pastor
once preached a sermon so long it started in
2011 and ended in 2012’
2. (SLIDE) We used to have this saying posted on our
refrigerator at home, that says 'Christ is the head of this
house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener
to ever conversation' (I know because Tiffany used to
remind me all the time)
3. After this week I’m going to have to cross one of the
words
4. Because today we see Jesus at a meal and He’s not
simply a silent listener (in reality He never is silent)
5. Before we dig into this text let me tell you briefly of
the context
a. Jesus has just warned about rejecting Him and
His message of light just in the prior verses of 29-
36
b. And shortly after, or during the time Jesus was
preaching about this a Pharisees invites Jesus
over to his pad for some dinner
c. Religious leaders likely thought that they were
immune to Jesus' words about the wicked
generation
d. Had they honestly thought that I doubt He would
have gotten an invite
e. In this Pharisee’s mind surely all that Jesus was
saying was directed at others and not them
f. And it is safe to assume he was expecting to be a
very happy meal with some of his friends and this
interesting and popular rabbi
g. But Jesus is going to show them in our text today
that they are not going to get off the hook
h. In fact before this meal is over this Pharisee, his
guests and you and I will have to chew on Jesus'
bitter words about hypocrisy, heartless legalism,
and pride with a garnish against false teaching
i. Like dining on the courses on a meal, Jesus is
systematically describe the religious leaders
failures, ones that we too need to constantly be
checking for within our own selves as well
6. In fact maybe you think that Jesus will let you off the
hook today, but in reality this message of Jesus' is as
much for you today as it was the Pharisees 2000 years
ago
7. (ding a bell) The dinner bell has rang, let’s take our seat
at the table shall we
Sermon
READ: Luke 11:37-41 (Scripture slide)
“11:37 As He spoke, a Pharisee invited Jesus to have a meal with him, so He went in and took His place at the table. 11:38 The Pharisee was astonished when he saw that Jesus did not first wash His hands before the meal. 11:39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 11:40 You fools! Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside as well? 11:41 But give from your heart to those in need, and then everything will be clean for you.”
A. 'a Pharisee invited Jesus to have a meal with him'
1. Jews usually had two meals on weekdays, a light meal
in mid-morning and a main meal in the afternoon
2. A light snack may have been eaten before work as well
3. The mid-morning meal took place after prayers in the
synagogue
4. Likely the early morning or midday meal
5. Now we know from vs. 45, later on, that this is not a
private affair as there is a least two experts in the law
there (says ‘one of the experts’)
6. Someone might say, ‘Knowing how the religious leaders
felt about Jesus, why would He go to one of their homes
for a meal?’
7. Why? He had an important message for them
B. Jesus 'took His place at the table'
1. The most honored of guests (like traveling sages and
rabbis) would be seated first
2. Not only would they be allowed to sit first but they
would be given the most prominent places at the
reclining table
3. Being that Jesus was a well-known rabbi an popular it is
highly likely that He was given the seat of honor next to
the host
C. 'The Pharisee was astonished'
1. Obviously they were watching Jesus like a hawk
2. And things appear to be going good until Jesus doesn't
wash His hands
3. In prior sermons we have seen the Pharisees get upset
with Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands,
Mark 7:2 (NET) “And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed.”
4. But now their own Rabbi has been caught with dry
hands!
5. The word used here is one that deals with ‘marvel, to be
wondered out’
6. This Pharisee could not get his mind around the fact that
Jesus did not ritually purify His hands before He ate
7. And in his heart this turned into silent criticism (at least
for the moment)
a. He likely was questioning Jesus’ religious
observance
b. He likely was mentally disgusted at Jesus’
apparent lack of respect for the rabbinical laws
c. He likely was thinking about what a poor guest
Jesus was for Jewish etiquette stated that a guest
should conform in everything to the host, even if
unpleasant
d. And likely he was insulted and regretting that he
had invited such an undesirable person to
breakfast for Pharisees were not to eat with such
a perverse person
8. Little did he know that Jesus heard every unmouthed
word
D. What is so appalling in the fact that ‘Jesus did not first wash
His hands'
1. The first thing everyone would do was wash their hands,
before a meal
2. al ne’tilat-yadayim: a ritual and accompanying prayer
for the eating of a meal (literally it is the ‘Raising the
hands for bread’
3. This was not done for cleansing the hands of germs, but
for ritual purity
3. They would sit in chairs and water would be brought to
them to wash with
4. The most honored guest would be offered the water first
(see the apparent problem yet?)
5. (optional) Show the Jewish way of washing the hands
a. Take a pitcher and a bowl
b. Take the right hand and pour the water three
times over the left hand
c. Repeat with the other hand
6. Now this washing of hands was seen by the Pharisees as
required before eating and it was written in the Oral
Torah as such
7. It is described in the OT, but you do not find it
mandated anywhere in Scripture
Genesis 18:4 (NET) “Let a little water be brought so that you may all wash your feet and rest under the tree.”
Judges 19:21 (NET) “So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. They washed their feet and had a meal.”
8. After washing their hands they would go recline at the
table (Jesus simply skipped the hand washing and went
to the table)
9. Why did Jesus no do it? This was a legalistic,
Pharasitical rule not found in the OT and Jesus wouldn't
observe it even in the house of a Pharisee who would be
offended by it
10. For it was not they who had a right to be offended, but
God for their internal uncleanness
E. Jesus responds: 'Now you Pharisees clean outside of the cup
and plate'
1. As I said earlier it appears as Jesus responded to the
Pharisees thoughts
2. Jesus knew that the Pharisees obsessed about the
smallest matter of the law and even made laws up to
make themselves even more obsessed
3. For example they even added a rules saying that you
couldn't touch anything that a Gentile touched!
4. They made rules and worried about coming in contact
with even a dead insect
5. They had a strange obsession for washing things
a. This includes, as Jesus points out, the washing of
cups and plates
b. In the Mishnah (oral traditions written down)
they had 30 chapters on just how to wash pots
and pans
c. One Sadducee quipped that they would wash the
sun if they could
d. Where did all these laws supposedly stem from?
Taking two verses way out of context
Leviticus 11:33 (NET) “As for any clay vessel they fall into, everything in it will become unclean and you must break it.”
Leviticus 15:12 (NET) “A clay vessel which the man with the discharge touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil must be rinsed in water.”
6. Jesus actually touches on an active debate among the
Pharisees of the day when He talks about ‘inside’
‘outside’ of the cups and plates
a. It was between two Jewish schools of thought
b. The school of Shammai (the majority of
Pharisees in Jesus' day held to) said that the
outside of a cup could be clean even if the inside
was not
c.. The other rabbinical school, that of Hillel said
that the inside must be cleansed first before the
outside could be seen as clean
d. Jesus sides with the school of Hillel, but only to
prove a deeper spiritual truth: They were
focusing on the wrong things
F. Jesus tells it straight: ‘but inside you are full of greed and
wickedness.’
1. They focused on the laws on the outward physical
cleanliness, but neglected the laws that dealt with their
moral center
2. Things on the outside were not how they were on the
inside
3. Their bodies were clean, but inside their soul was rotten
and filthy to the core
4. Jesus tells them that they are full to the brim with greed
a. Literally their hearts are full of ‘plunder’
b. They were robbers of God and man
c. Because they are more concerned with the wealth
of the world than the things of God that equate to
riches in the next
d. Could this not be an indictment of our societies
way of celebrating the celebration of Christ’s
birth? It has become a time to consume and
receive instead of praising the One Who came to
pay for our sins!
5. Jesus tells them they are full to the brim with
wickedness
a. Literally they are filled with ‘evil purposes and
desires’
b. From the heart flows the fruit of life, and they are
wicked
6. Jesus is offended because the Pharisee's have placed the
washing of hands above the inward cleanliness and
righteousness
7. These men who should have been symbols of integrity
were extortionists and wicked!
8. You see to Jesus what made a person really unclean was
not from outside of them (i.e. dirty hands) but what
was inside of them, who they were, their relationship
with God and men
G. Jesus calls them for what they are: ‘You fools!'
1. A fool is one who is senseless and fails to respond to
God
2. Jesus calls such people who place externals over
internals 'fools'
3. If you value how you look outwardly over who you are
inwardly, Jesus has two words for you as well, ‘You
fool’
4. We need to make sure that we don’t major in the minors
and minor in the majors
a. First problem I got into in the ministry
b. Preaching a sermon, and a guy ran a kid out of
church basically over wearing a hat
c. That kid didn’t know Christ and he never came
back (Thank God, he came to know Christ later)
d. What’s more important a hat or the Gospel?
4. Jesus is concerned with true purity, not perceived purity
5. These Pharisees on the other hand were focused on
external things instead of being internally focused
6. The cups and platters on the table were clean but the
owner wasn't, Jesus used what was available for an
object lesson
7. Hand washing had become more important than loving
the Lord and people!
8. What good is it to have a bowl that glistens like the sun
on the outside but is full of e coli on the inside? It's just
as foolish for someone to appear right with God over
being right with God!
H. Jesus challenges ‘But give from your heart to those in need,
and then everything will be clean for you.”
1. If your right with God your right with people
2. ‘I don’t understand James, how can giving to those in
need mean they are clean? Isn’t that works?’
a. Jesus isn’t meaning that the actual act of giving
to those in need makes one clean
b. What it means is that these Pharisees no longer
worship money as their true god
c. They would realize that money is a gift from God
and they would gladly serve Him by helping
those in need
d. If they did this it would mean they have chosen
to follow Jesus!
e. Remember the rich young ruler that Jesus told to
sell all his possession, give them to the poor and
follow Him? Did he do it/? No he went away sad
because he had great wealth! The man actually
preferred his money over being a disciple of
Jesus’!
f. Like many people today, that man’s god was his
pocketbook!
g. Giving to those in need shows that self is not
ones focus
Matthew 5:7 (NET) “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
2 Corinthians 9:7 (NET) “Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.”
3. Lottie Moon Christmas fund
4. false piety = true fool
5. If this is you, listen to what God says people like you
and the Pharisees in Isaiah 1:10-17
Isaiah 1:10–17 (NET) “1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word, you leaders of Sodom! Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, people of Gomorrah! 1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” says the Lord. “I am stuffed with burnt sacrifices of rams and the fat from steers. The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats I do not want. 1:12 When you enter my presence, do you actually think I want this – animals trampling on my courtyards? 1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless offerings; I consider your incense detestable! You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations, but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! 1:14 I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies; they are a burden that I am tired of carrying. 1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I look the other way; when you offer your many prayers, I do not listen, because your hands are covered with blood. 1:16 Wash! Cleanse yourselves! Remove your sinful deeds from my sight. Stop sinning! 1:17 Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! Take up the cause of the orphan! Defend the rights of the widow!”
Application (slide)
A. If the inside is clean the outside will follow
B. The Pharisees looked good on the outside, but Jesus knows
what they look like on the inside (their inner being)...on the
inside they are greedy and wicked
C. What makes one unclean is what is inside of you!
D. What good is it to look clean externally and be filthy to the
core internally? Do you not think God knows?
E. You cannot compartmentalize your life!
F. To place a higher priority on the out looks than the inner life, is
as Jesus states, foolish
G. Is your spiritual life a charade too?
H. Christ is not just a silent listener to your life, He knows it!
Invitation
Let us sing our last song # ,
[pic]
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