On Account of Him

Luke 6:17 – 26

 

Everybody tries to build their life on something, anything, that makes them feel secure. We strive for good paying jobs because, well, this life costs money, and it sure has become expensive. Many thrive on stability, success, good health, good reputations, good relationships, control, the approval of others, and comfort.

 

For me, that was my old life in the dairy industry. A few months ago I got a random text out of the blue from an old coworker of mine from up in Idaho. As we were catching up, I told him I had not only left our former employer, but that I had left the dairy industry altogether.

 

When I told him that and that I became a pastor he was utterly shocked. He said, “Hard to imagine you not being involved with dairy though, you always knew your way around any conversation we found ourselves in.”

 

You see, I had many of those things that I listed that made me feel secure in dairy. My job paid well, I had stability, I was successful, I had relatively good relationships, and above all I was comfortable.

 

I was really good at what I did. It was in my blood, it was what I knew, and it was what I had devoted my life to, more than that it was my comfort zone. I was safe in that arena. But something was missing, rather something was misplaced.

 

In that world, I was entirely self-dependent. I relied fully on myself, my abilities, and my experiences to live what seemed like a happy, comfortable, and prosperous life. Many would’ve called me blessed. But being so dependent on myself meant not depending on God.

 

Zero dependence on Christ. When it came to my work in the dairy industry, truly in any capacity, Jesus was an afterthought. I didn’t rely on Him to help me through my day, I didn’t rely on Him to help me through my struggles, I didn’t find my joy, my satisfaction, my provision in Him.

 

Not until the last few years that I worked in the dairy industry at least.

When I began devoting my life to Christ and studying God’s Word instead of cows, God started to change me. Slowly at first, but eventually He asked me to do something terrifying, something that flipped my whole world upside down.

 

He called me to leave the dairy industry entirely, and to depend on Him fully. That calling meant leaving what I was good at, what I’d known for most of my life, and giving up the security of that income. All things I had come to depend on instead of Christ.

 

That made me realize that my focus, my priorities, my dependence was horribly misplaced. Hearing that call on my life from God forced the question: What if the things that make you feel most secure are actually keeping you from depending on Christ? That demands an answer.

 

Today’s passage in Luke we see a massive crowd of Jews and Gentiles come to Jesus because they have needs that they recognize that Jesus can meet.

 

But most importantly, when faced with such a large crowd in desperate need of real, earthly, human relief, Jesus begins teaching His disciples and anyone listening about the realities of being His disciple, realities that begin with where our dependence is placed. Let’s read God’s Word together, Luke 6:17 – 26.

 

Last week we saw Jesus go up on a mountain to pray, and He prayed all night demonstrating His complete and full dependence on God before choosing twelve less than ordinary, unimpressive men to build His church through. Now, He comes down together with His twelve Apostles from where they were, and Jesus stops and stands on a level place.

 

And there on this level place, stands Jesus with three distinct groups around Him. His Apostles, a great crowd of His disciples, and an even larger group, a great multitude of people from all over the region. Luke specifies that there were people from Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coast of the Mediterranean sea cities of Tyre and Sidon.

 

In the parallel records of this moment in Matthew and Mark we also get that people came from Idumea (even further south), and the Decapolis and TransJordan (all Gentile land east of the Jordan).

People came from far and wide, and it didn’t matter if they were Jew or Gentile, they all came to see Jesus, to be healed of their diseases, and most importantly, they came to hear Jesus. Word of what Jesus was doing had already spread all across the region, and it didn’t matter who they were they had very real needs that they believed Jesus could meet even if they didn’t believe in who Jesus is.

 

And look, Jesus met those needs. Those who were tormented by demons, by unclean spirits, were cured. Jesus again drove out demons because He has the power and authority to do so. And the whole crowd just thought if they could touch Him, they’d be healed of whatever they were suffering from.

 

And they did, they didn’t wait for Jesus to touch them or to speak to them, they reached out and touched Him because Christ’s divine power flowed from Him. And look, He healed them all. I don’t know how big that crowd was, but by the adjectives in these verses it was a massive crowd, and He healed them all.

 

But I want you to underline the phrase in v.18, “who came to hear him” and circle the word “hear.” That’s placed before the desire to be healed on purpose. Its placement tells us that what’s most important here, what is the priority here, is not the physical healing but rather hearing what Jesus has to say.

 

Jesus’ ministry was always two-pronged, healing and teaching. But physical healing is temporary, even if it came from Jesus, it’s relegated to the earthly realm because it’s healing of our earthly bodies. But Jesus’ teaching, the truth that Jesus speaks, has an eternal impact. Pursue Christ’s eternal truth over temporary relief.

 

People need more than physical healing; they need Jesus Christ Himself. The people surrounding Jesus understood something that I had failed to understand, something that many people, many self-sufficient people often miss, that they desperately need Jesus.

 

And so, Jesus then looks up to His disciples, and begins to teach them. Don’t miss that. There is a huge crowd present, but Jesus’ teaching is directed at His disciples. He’s teaching them about being His disciples, and He begins by describing who truly belongs to the kingdom of God.

 

He doesn’t address and pronounce blessings on the rich, the powerful, the admired, or the comfortable. He says the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated and rejected are blessed. Blessed here doesn’t mean healthy, wealthy, or without any troubles. Blessed means to stand under God’s favor and belong to His kingdom. Don’t miss that.

 

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Look at that. Blessed for being poor? The reality is that most, not all but most, of Jesus disciples were indeed poor. They either came from poor backgrounds or they gave everything up to follow Him.

 

But also, the reality is that being poor isn’t always about wealth. Often times in Scripture being poor is also about having humble and lowly circumstances and position in life. That doesn’t sound like a blessing though, yet Jesus calls them blessed because of it. Why?

 

Circle the word “is” in your outlines or in your Bibles on that first beatitude. Throughout the NT, and especially in the Gospel’s, there is this tension between “now” and “not yet” when talking about salvation and eschatology, the last things, the end times.

 

The poor and humble have favor with God, and because of that God’s kingdom belongs to them now. The people that the world would never regard as blessed are indeed blessed because they belong to the kingdom. You are as much a part of God’s kingdom, a child of God, now as you will be in heaven.

 

You just don’t get to experience the heavenly part yet while on earth, but it’s as much a reality, a possession, the hope of every believer now as it will be then.

 

Jesus goes on, “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” More unexpected people being called blessed. Being hungry, while is very much about physical hunger, is also about being hungry for more than just food, especially spiritually. Weeping comes from sadness, the hardships in life, and grief, and sometimes that grief is over our own sin.

 

The phrase “you shall” is a what’s called a divine passive. The divine passive means that the hungry shall be satisfied and their weeping turned into laughter because God Himself satisfies and comforts.

While the beatitudes about being hungry and weeping build upon the first one about being poor, the fourth one begins to bring Jesus’ teaching into focus. “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!”

 

Blessed are you when people hate you, leave you out, insult you, and reject you? That doesn’t sound like a blessing. None of these beatitudes sound like blessings!

 

No normal person would call being poor a blessing, they wouldn’t call being hungry and weeping and being hated and rejected blessings. Yet, that’s precisely what Jesus says. But notice, He doesn’t call those circumstances blessings themselves. Jesus is not saying that suffering in and of itself is a blessing. Suffering for suffering’s sake is not what Christ is teaching here.

 

The truth of what Jesus is teaching is right here at the end of v.22. I want you to underline, circle, whatever you need to do to highlight this truth right here, “on account of the Son of Man!” You are blessed, you have favor with God, on account of the Son of Man, on account of Jesus Christ who died for you.

 

In all of this, in Jesus calling His disciples blessed for being poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, reviled, and rejected, He isn’t promising to change that, to take His disciples out of those situations. Rather, He is teaching that because they are in those situations because of Him, they are blessed, they are favored by God.

 

The poor that are blessed are at the most fundamental level those who recognize their need before God and depend on Him fully. The hungry are those who long for what only God can provide and trust Him to provide it. The weeping understand the brokenness of this world and hope for the day that Christ makes everything new.

 

The common thread here is complete dependence upon Jesus. His disciples, those of you who follow Jesus, are blessed, you have favor with God, and the reality of your lot in life is flipped upside down on account of Jesus when you rest in Him, when you trust fully in Him, when you depend completely on Christ. This is the Great Reversal seen throughout the Gospel of Luke, and it’s all on account of Jesus Christ.

God’s kingdom reverses the reality of our fallen world. Believers are rejected on account of the Son of Man and everything changes on account of Him. The blessings are not disconnected from Jesus. The kingdom of God belongs to those who belong to Him.

 

And as He tells them to rejoice in that day, when they are persecuted, to leap for joy, he tells them to do so because the reward in heaven is great. That reward is as much a future reality as it is a present hope, and we ought to live in that joy now while we suffer and wait.

 

Rejoice not because of anything you’ve done, rejoice not because you’ve earned your reward, rather rejoice in the face of hate, in the face of exclusion, in the face of insults, in the face of rejection, because of what Christ has done. Rejoice in poverty and in humble circumstances, rejoice in hunger, rejoice in your grief, because of what Christ has done.

 

Rejoice, because suffering on account of Jesus is assurance of indeed being God’s people, because God’s people, the prophets, suffered similarly. They were treated horribly by the very people God sent them to warn, they were treated horribly, some even killed, for their faithfulness.

 

It is pure grace from God, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, that God rewards His children. Rejoice not on anything you’ve done, even in the face of trouble, but rejoice on account of the Son of Man, on account of Jesus.

 

The world says blessed are the comfortable, the self-sufficient. Jesus says blessed are those who know they need Him and depend on Him. Blessed are you on account of Him.

 

Then Jesus turns from blessing to warning. Woe here is a divine, prophetic warning, it’s a “you better watch out before you find yourself under God’s wrath” kind of warning. It’s the same kind of warning the prophets of the OT gave to God’s chosen people.

 

The dangerous part is that the warned people don’t appear spiritually endangered. They appear successful, comfortable, satisfied, admired, secure. They appear blessed by the world’s standards. It is possible to build a comfortable life that slowly convinces you that you don’t really need Jesus. I’ve been there. But to those folks, Jesus says “Woe.”

Jesus warns the rich, they’ve already received all they’re gonna get. He tells the full and satisfied now that they will hunger and those who laugh now that they will mourn and weep. Not because money, meals, laughter, or encouragement and admiration are inherently sinful.

 

It’s what they signify, it’s the threat they pose to the believer. It’s because earthly security can, and often does, produce self-dependence. The danger is not the wealth, the food, the laughter, the recognition, the worldly possessions themselves.

 

The danger is becoming satisfied in and dependent upon worldly things instead of a deep dependence upon Christ. To be a disciple requires complete and utter dependence upon Jesus. It means leaving everything behind, denying yourself, picking up your cross, and following Him.

 

And that final woe, that one hits hard, that one really humbles me. Verse 26, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” Being well-spoken of, is a sign of relying on your own gifting and the approval of others instead of relying on Christ’s power and God’s approval and favor.

 

And about that last part, false prophets were universally praised because they never confronted people with the truth. They were beloved by all, especially kings, because they told them what they wanted to hear.

 

Those folks willfully ignored and persecuted the true prophets because they did not want to hear the truth that God’s impending wrath was coming for them unless they repented. The world will often celebrate the message that promises great worldly blessings and that requires no repentance from sin.

 

The issue in these woes, the real thing that Jesus is warning against is self-reliance, especially for salvation and access to the kingdom of God. You cannot earn your way into heaven; you cannot buy your way into heaven. Dependence on yourself, your possessions, and this world is what Jesus is pronouncing woes against.

 

Here’s the truth of our passage, Jesus reveals that God’s kingdom belongs not to the self-dependent, but to those who depend upon Him.

 

 

Because God’s kingdom belongs to those who depend upon Christ, you must learn to find your security and satisfaction in Him rather than yourself.

 

What if our worldly security is hiding spiritual danger? What if the things we trust in on this earth, our money, comfort, entertainment, health, success, approval, etc., what if they are just distractions from recognizing our deep spiritual and real need for Christ?

 

The answer is not to become poor, hungry, or weepy. The answer is not to go seek out hate and suffering. The answer, is to depend on Christ entirely. The blessed are blessed because their need drives them toward Jesus. The warned are warned because their self-sufficiency blinds them to their need for Him.

 

Now, you’ve got to personally wrestle with what Jesus is saying yourself. So my first application is this, bring your need to Christ. The crowds came to Him because they knew they needed Him. Weakness is not the barrier to Christ and His kingdom. Self-sufficiency is.

 

So this week, begin your days and decisions with prayerful dependence upon Jesus instead of immediately relying on yourself. People who know they need Jesus keep coming to Jesus.

 

Ask God to show you where you’ve trusted in yourself, your possessions, and the world more than you’ve trusted in Jesus, and repent of that. Then ask God to give you opportunities to live in full dependence upon Christ.

 

Second, find your satisfaction in Christ. This week, I want you to identify what you instinctively run to for comfort, security, or control, and intentionally turn your heart and mind toward Christ instead.

 

Instead of being anxious about finances, pray. Instead of constant entertainment and endless doom scrolling on social media, turn to Scripture. Instead of busyness, seeking approval, and relying on comfort habits, turn to give gratitude and worship to God.

 

Trust to Christ intentionally. Anything that slowly convinces you that Christ is unnecessary becomes spiritually dangerous.

 

Lastly, follow Christ even when it costs you. This week, choose faithfulness to Christ over comfort, over approval, or over convenience in at least one clear area of your life.

 

Confess sin, initiate reconciliation, refuse to compromise with the world, speak God’s truth graciously, stand for biblical conviction, serve even when inconvenient, and share the gospel. The world may reject you on account of Him, but the kingdom belongs to those who belong to Him.

 

The question isn’t whether your life appears secure, rather the question is whether your security is rooted in Jesus Christ. Because the worldly things that make you feel most secure may actually be keeping you from depending on Him.

 

And Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs not to the self-dependent, but to those who know they need Him.