Sermon: The Life of a Disciple (Luke 6:39-49)
The Life of a Disciple
We’ve all seen pictures of the flooding along the Mississippi River. We’ve seen pictures of people wading through their homes removing their belongings. We’ve seen pictures of homes being swept away or a farm under water except for the house and tractor. The flooding in the South is severe. There’s not much that can withstand the power of the great Mississippi, however, if a house is going to survive the flood it must be well built.
In this section of Scripture Jesus is showing us that as we build the house that represents our lives, we’ve got choices to make. Everyone is building this house. We all make choices based on the information we have.
What is the beginning of a strong house? If the house of my life is to be strong, it must have a solid foundation.
The point Jesus is making in this section is really two-fold.
If you are going to be able to stand in this world, you must first take in biblical truth and secondly, you must build your lives on this rock solid truth. Like always, doing the Word is as important as hearing the Word. This is really Jesus’ emphasis here in this section.
Luk 6:39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
Luk 6:40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
Luk 6:41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Luk 6:42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
Luk 6:43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,
Luk 6:44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
Luk 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Luk 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Luk 6:47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
Luk 6:48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luk 6:49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
1. God’s Word Removes Blindness
Luk 6:39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
Luk 6:40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
If we’re going to get this passage, we must turn to Matthew and read the account of Jesus’ saying there.
Matt. 15:14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Jesus spoke these words as a result of the offence of the Pharisees. They would not listen to His Words or believe His doctrine…they remained blind guides because they were supposed to be the teachers of Israel and they had no idea what God commanded. They had led many people astray.
Here Jesus wants us to see that we become more and more like our teachers. We have no innate knowledge. As people, we must get knowledge from somewhere else, from outside of us. We may go various places seeking to understand various issues of life. Our worldview is shaped by the sources we choose to get knowledge from. As our worldview is built, we become more and more like our teachers.
Where do you get the building blocks for your life? We can go to other people and get
there opinions. We can read various books to form our thinking about life. The Pharisees relied on other Pharisees to form their thinking about life. Jesus called them blind guides. Now He speaks to His disciples about the principle of the student becoming more and more like his teacher everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
How do we gain sight for life? We look to Jesus. As we read God’s Word we are taking in biblical truth and our eyes can see more and more clearly. In the end we will be like our teacher, Jesus Christ.
We can see that Jesus’ purpose came to pass…
Act 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
They were uneducated in the school of the Pharisees but in the school of Jesus, they had degrees. The proof was that they were like Jesus. Our Lord took these lumps of clay and fashioned them into amazing disciples. This is hope for us isn’t it? The more we learn from our Master the more we become like Him.
Step one, we must see that God’s Word is the source of true knowledge for our life now and also for the life to come.
2. God’s Word is Meant for Me
Luk 6:41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Luk 6:42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
Step one in being a disciple is to understand how desperate we are for God’s Word. Here, Jesus is stressing the fact that a disciple must practice sincere humility as he learns the Word and learns about his own sin. Without it, Jesus teaches that we are blind. If a person who lacks understanding leads someone else, they both end up in a dangerous place. So the disciple must first see their utter blindness.
Then a disciple must seek to be like their teacher, Jesus Christ. Whoever we decide to follow and listen to we will become more and more like them. If we are following Christ we are in a very good place, we will never fall into a pit.
The third step to becoming a disciple is to understand that all of Scripture applies to me and not to my neighbor. It’s so easy to see the sin of someone else and point it out but often more difficult to see our own sin. We are so quick to see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
We must be in a constant battle to apply the Scriptures and put them into practice.
The Pharisees as Jesus notes later were the ones who thought that they were righteous in themselves,
Luk 18:9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
A disciple must see that they possess ZERO righteousness in and of themselves, that it all is first imputed to them through the death of Christ and then next given to them as they humbly seek to learn from their teacher Jesus Christ.
As disciples, if we see a blatant sin coming from a brother or sister in Christ, we are under obligation to go to them and confront them about it. However, to do this, we must be confronting sin in our own lives and we must approach them in humility and after much prayer.
We must find the balance between:
Joh 8:7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And
Gal 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
A disciple does not approach someone out of arrogance but out of love and in humility, first examining their own heart for sin as well.
This passage is in fact encouraging mutual loving restoration. Sin must be examined and dealt with on a personal level and then on a corporate level.
The purpose is to get rid of sin in all areas of life, personally and corporately, not ignoring it on both fronts. It could be wrongly concluded that since I’m not perfect that I cannot confront others. That’s missing Jesus’ point all together. We must confront others, therefore, if we have sin then this becomes another motivation to deal with it through faith and repentance, then we can go to our brother or sister in humility and love and help them.
Without God’s Word we are blind, as we study under Jesus we become more like Him, Jesus wants us to apply the Word first to ourselves, rooting sin in our own lives, then we can lovingly help others with theirs.
3. God’s Word Produces Fruit
Luk 6:43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,
Luk 6:44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
Luk 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
As we take in the teaching of our Lord it becomes to us like a root system of a tree. Have you ever wondered at the miracle of trees producing certain types of fruit? What’s different between an apple tree compared to a maple tree? DNA, cell structure? The bottom line is these trees produce what God intends for them to produce.
As we take in God’s Word we will become more and more like Jesus and we will more and more produce the same type of fruit He produces.
A tree with a healthy root system, trunk, and leaves will produce healthy fruit. A sick tree will not produce healthy fruit. Weeds and thorn bushes cannot produce fruit.
As we become healthy disciples, we too will produce the Fruit of the Spirit.
Jesus shows us that one example or display of fruit is our speech. Are we gossips, grumblers, back-biters or are we speaking words that encourage and build up? It’s not the words themselves that are either good or evil, it’s the heart that produces them.
It’s important to ask yourself, What does my speech indicate about my heart?
Mat 12:36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
Mat 12:37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
There is hope in the gospel for all of us. Jesus as our teacher will change your heart. If our speech is to change then our hearts must first be changing.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
King David understood that if he was going to change, he needed God to do a work in him. If we are going to change, we need God to actively be at work changing us as well.
4. God’s Word is the Solid Foundation
Luk 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Luk 6:47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
Luk 6:48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luk 6:49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
To show us how important God’s Word is for our lives and for the life to come, He uses the analogy of two houses that are built.
Whenever I read this text I always think about the houses built along the ocean. What the builders do is drive these huge pipes down in the ground. Some 40-75 feet until the pipe hits solid rock. Then they drive another. They do this until they have enough to be the foundation for the house they’re going to build.
Now, picture with me two houses built from the same blue print along the ocean, one has a sure foundation on the bedrock and the other has a foundation on sand. The houses are very attractive. Both have nice decks surrounding them. Both are located in very nice settings along the water’s edge. You can walk into each one, look around and discover both look just alike. Both are very attractive.
As long as the sun is shining and birds are singing everything is fine. But around August the weather channel begins tracking Hurricane Hector and this hurricane is headed straight for both houses.
Waves and surf begin to wash up around the houses. The first wave washes some of the sand away. The house with sand as its foundation immediately moves. Another wave hits the house and pulls it closer to the edge of the water and finally the house falls with a great crash.
The other house is not built on sand. It just has sand around it. It’s actually built on the rock that is 60 feet below. Surf comes up the beach and washes sand away but this house remains unaffected because it’s not built on sand. After the storm is over the first house is a pile of twisted boards and the second house doesn’t even have a hairline crack in the drywall.
What’s the difference…Foundation. The storm was the same for both houses.
Luk 6:47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
Luk 6:48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Are you building your life and the lives of your family on the rock solid foundation of the Words of Christ?
Everytime we hear or read God’s Word and we begin to live by it, it’s like we’ve laid another foundation stone. Every time we hear God’s Word and begin to do what it says we become stronger and stronger. The storms come and beat against us but because we are no longer blind, and becoming more and more like our teacher, and because we’re thinking about how the Scriptures apply to us first, and because we begin building our lives on the foundation of God’s Word, we stand up under the pressure of life’s storms. God is glorified when every house crumbles around us and we’re still standing. He is honored and we are protected.
The foundation is all the difference.
