2013 6-16 ‘Jesus Exposes Pride’ Luke 14 7-14

“JESUS EXPOSES PRIDE”
LUKE 14:7-14

I. Introduction
We like to express ourselves in superlatives, don’t we? We love superlatives because they give us a chance to compare and contrast all sorts of things, and quite frankly, super-latives are usually good conversation starters. Who is the best baseball player? What is the worst car? Where can you get the best steak? When was the worst blizzard? Who is the greatest actor? Who was the worst President? Who is the most beautiful woman? What was the worst sin ever committed?

What was the worst sin ever committed? Was it the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ – the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of God’s own Son? Or could it have been the sin that originally led to the crucifixion of Christ – the sin of Adam and Eve – the sin of outright and deliberate disobedience to God’s lawful command?

If it weren’t for that first sin committed in the garden, there would have been no second sin, would there? Cain and Abel would have been born, but they would not have been born in sin. Consequently, they would not have had a sin nature. The point is this: If it weren’t for that first sin, there would have been no subsequent sins and there would have been no need for the crucifixion, would there?

So I suppose a person could argue that the worst sin was the first sin. When they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve did not sin against each other. They sinned against God, and God alone. Now to be sure, I am not saying that our sin has no effect on others. It can have immense effect on others, and often does. For example, murder affects the one who is murdered. But sin, all sin, is committed against God. King David knew that.

Two Sundays ago, before we participated in the Lord’s Supper, we took time to look at Psalm 51 where David confessed his sin and pleaded with God to forgive his adultery, murder, and deception. Do you remember what David said to God about his sin?
Psalm 51:3-4a
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4a Against You, You only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.

David’s sin was against God, but it affected Bathsheba. She became an adulteress. It affected Uriah. He lost his life. It affected the baby. God took him. It affected the rest of David’s family, and it affected the very kingdom itself. In short, David’s sin affected countless people and led to tremendous damage that lasted for decades.

But that was nothing compared to the sin of Adam and Eve. Their sin affected Cain and Abel. Since their parents were sinners, the two boys were born sinners, as were their children after them. Then, down through the centuries, the sin of Adam and Eve affected David. He was a born sinner too.
Psalm 51:5
5 Behold, I was brought forth (born) in iniquity, and in sin my mother con-ceived me.

In this way the sin of Adam and Eve has affected us all. It affects you and me every day of our lives. We are sinners because every generation of our parents were sinners, all the way back to Adam and Eve. The two of them disobeyed God and it has affected everyone and everything, ever since. Therefore, I think you can make at least a plausible argument that their sin – the first sin on this earth – was the worst sin ever committed.

Why did they do it? Scripture tells us, and it only takes one verse.
*Genesis 3:6
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it was a delight to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (the pride of life), she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

That’s how Adam and Eve were trapped into disobeying God. Satan used all three of the weapons at his disposal – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – and they worked. They almost always do.

Think back to David. There’s really no need to comment on how the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes worked together to cause him to commit his sin with Bathsheba. We know well how that works. But how did pride work into it? I think it was something like this: “I am important and I am powerful. I can do what I want and I can have what I want whenever I want it. After all, I am the king. Who is there to tell me I can’t?”

I don’t know that David actually said those things, or that he even consciously thought them. But that’s the way he was functioning when he had Bathsheba brought to him. Pride! I do what I want when I want to do it. I am the measure of all things. Why not – am I not smarter than God? Pride! David’s adultery, murder, and deception – all sins by themselves, but all rooted and grounded in pride. Where did pride come from? It cer-tainly didn’t come from God.
1 John 2:16
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

How did those three things come into the world? How were Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, and David, and you and I affected by those things? Where did they come from?
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life came to earth when Lucifer was cast down from heaven. God cast him down because of the devil’s massive pride and the evil heart that just naturally accompanies it. Lucifer wanted God’s glory for himself. But God has said…

Isaiah 42:8a
8a “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.”

So after Lucifer attempted to usurp God’s glory, he was thrown down to the earth.
*Isaiah 14:12-14
12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”

“I will, I will, I will.” But it isn’t about what “I will.” It’s about what “God will.” God hates the sin of pride. He hates it because, when taken to its limit, pride causes the sinner to think he can replace God. So we may need to rethink what the first sin actually was. I said that the sin of Adam and Eve was the first sin, but it was only the first sin committed on earth. What about the one committed before that. What about the one committed in heaven? What about the sin of Lucifer? It was five “I wills” culminating with, “I will make myself like the Most High (God).”

It was that sin against God that ultimately led to the serpent’s temptation of Adam and Eve, the sin that caused the fall of man, and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, it’s easy to see why God hates pride and why He will judge it.
Proverbs 16:5, 18
5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; assuredly, he will not be unpunished.
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.
James 4:6b
6b God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

That pretty well sums it up, doesn’t it? God is against us when we are prideful, when we say, “God says, but I will.” We commit sin and we break God’s laws – “God says, but I will.” Then when we’re caught, we try to excuse it and say we made a mistake. But sin isn’t a mistake. 2+2=5 is a mistake. Rather, “God says, but I will” is deliberate disobe-dience, and it’s no mistake; it’s sin. Nothing drives sin like pride. And God hates pride.

Look, pride keeps sinners from receiving Christ and the salvation He offers. Pride de-ceives people into thinking they’ll get into heaven on their own merit. Pride deceives people into thinking they don’t need forgiveness for their sins because they don’t really believe they have any. And pride deceives people into thinking they aren’t really sinners at all, but even if they are, they’re not as bad as the next guy.

C. S. Lewis, in his classic book, “Mere Christianity,” rightly called pride “The Great Sin.”
Here are just four things Lewis said about pride.
1. “It was through pride the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: It is the complete anti-God state of mind.”
2. “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.”
3. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”
4. “As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people, and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

But then Lewis raised an important question, and it is a question that will lead us back to Luke’s gospel and to a dinner party Jesus is attending at the home of a certain leader of the Pharisees. (quoting again from “Mere Christianity”)

“How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worship-ping an imaginary god. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the pre-sence of this phantom god, but are really all the time imagining how he approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people…”

“Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil…”

“It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices (pride) can smuggle itself into the very center of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes). But this (pride) does not come through our animal nature at all. It (pride) comes direct from hell. It (pride) is purely spiritual: Consequently, it is more subtle and deadly.”

Well, all that I’ve said sets the stage for this morning’s text in Luke’s gospel. Jesus has been dealing with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Now He will deal with their pride. In the process we will see another of the traits of false teachers. Not only are they hypo-crites, but they are proud hypocrites. They persist in exalting themselves, not just above those allotted to their charge, but above God Himself.
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II. Review
Today’s text is Luke 14:7-14. Jesus had been invited to a meal in the home of a leader of the Pharisees on the Sabbath. But hospitality wasn’t the Pharisees’ motive. It was a “set-up.” Also in attendance was a man suffering from edema. The Pharisees hoped Jesus would heal the man and thereby violate another one of their laws against working on the Sabbath.
Since they defined healing as work, they could accuse Jesus of wrongdoing. This would add to their list of Jesus’ “crimes” and give them yet another reason to condemn Him.

But Jesus would turn the tables on them. His hosts wanted Him to break their laws. Jesus obliged them, but not before He confronted them with a question He knew they would refuse to answer. He asked them if it was legal to heal on the Sabbath. If their answer was, “Yes, it is legal to heal on the Sabbath,” it would be an admission that their laws added to, and thereby violated, the real Law of Moses.

Conversely, if their answer was, “No, it is not legal to heal on the Sabbath,” they would have displayed the emptiness of their religious traditions and the coldness of their sinful hearts. But beyond that, if they answered that it was not legal to heal on the Sabbath, a new question would have arisen: “Then why is this so-called unclean man here in the first place? Your law makes it clear that such a one cannot be present at a meal, doesn’t it?” The Pharisees were in a box and they refused to answer Jesus.

So Jesus healed the man and sent him away. Then He asked the Pharisees another ques-tion. He asked them if they would violate their laws to save the life of one of their own sons on the Sabbath. They refused to answer that question too.
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III. Text
And so, we come to the text. Jesus has already confronted the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. Now He will confront their pride.
*Luke 14:7-14 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
7 And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table; saying to them,
8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,
9 and he who invited you both shall come and say to you, ‘Give (your) place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.
10 “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.
11 “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
12 And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you.
13 “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jesus has been invited to this dinner so He can be watched by His hosts. But now the tables are turned and He is watching them. And what He sees is an almost comical dis-play of their self-importance and personal pride.
*Luke 14:7-8a
7 And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table; saying to them,
8a “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor…”

Try to imagine the scene. Tables were typically U-shaped with the host at the head and the guests arranged on either side of him with the most prominent or honored guest being closest to the host on either side. When the meal was ready it must have looked like a game of musical chairs as each man busied himself trying to get to a position where he could be seated next to, or at least near the host. Such was their desire to be seen and thought important in the eyes of the others in attendance. But they were fooling no one.
Matthew 23:5-6
5 “…they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phy-lacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments.
6 “And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues.”

When Jesus told the dinner guests (and us) not to vie for the seat of honor, He was not advocating for false humility. You can be sure that when Paul said that he was the “fore-most of all” sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15, it wasn’t false humility. He meant it.

Listen, false humility is nothing more than a form of pride where the one displaying it seems to think everyone else is too stupid to perceive the truth. What Jesus is saying is that each of us should seek the lowest place or the last seat, because we believe in our hearts that, before God, the lowest place or the last seat is where we belong. So Jesus says, “Don’t take the best seat…”
*Luke 14:8b-9
8b “…lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,
9 and he who invited you both shall come and say to you, ‘Give (your) place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.

Awkward! The more we grow in grace, the more we grow in humility. And the more we grow in humility, the more we know that whatever we have is purely a gift from God.
1 Corinthians 4:7
7 For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Biblical humility is the polar opposite of the self-esteem movement that floods our public and private institutions today. The whole ideology of self-esteem is prevalent in our schools, and now it’s pouring into our churches. We’re told that lack of self-esteem is the core of our problems. But self-esteem is our problem. Our whole culture is sinking to a place where people think so much of themselves that they don’t even need a Savior. Where is humility before God? C. S. Lewis was right. “It was through pride the devil became the devil: Pride…is the complete anti-God state of mind.” (back to Luke)
*Luke 14:10-11
10 “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.
11 “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” (repeat)

Do you want to be honored? Then humble yourself. If you take nothing else with you today, take Luke 14:11.
*Luke 14:12-14
12 And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you.
13 “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jesus has dealt with the pride of the guests. Now He turns to the host(s). The social out-casts mentioned in v. 13 would never be invited by the Pharisees. Why? How could the poor, the crippled, the lame, or the blind repay the Pharisees in kind? They couldn’t. And since the Pharisees couldn’t be repaid for their “kindness,” they had no intention of being kind. But there’s a lesson for us in v. 14. We’re not to concern ourselves with being repaid in this life because God will repay us in the next. “Do we believe that?”
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IV. Conclusion
What will become of pride? God will put an end to it. It will be destroyed, just as Luci-fer (Satan), the one who first exhibited it, will be destroyed.

In Ezekiel’s prophecy God issues a warning to the king of Tyre. Like many human kings Ittobaal II thought he was a god. So THE God gave Ezekiel a prophecy for Ittobaal. In it God tells the king what will become of him. But the prophecy is about much more than Ittobaal II. It is about the power and influence behind Ittobaal. It is really about what will happen to Lucifer, the author of pride.
*Ezekiel 28:12-19
11 Again the word of the LORD came to me saying,
12 “Son of man (Ezekiel), take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wis-dom and perfect in beauty. (already you can see this isn’t speaking of Ittobaal.)
13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl (aquamarine), the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli (an opaque blue gemstone), the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and soc-kets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
16 “By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned (there is the real first sin); therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wis-dom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you.
18 “By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you.
19 “All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become terrified, and you will be no more.”’”

Lucifer, a beautiful cherub, a high-ranking angel, had incredible privilege, even a special place before the throne of God. He had it all, but his pride destroyed him. Adam and Eve had nearly as much – they walked with God and enjoyed perfect fellowship with Him in a perfect creation, the Garden of Eden. But they bought into Lucifer’s lie that says, “You can be like God.” And their pride destroyed them and they died.

Of course, they didn’t die right there, but they began to die. They were separated from God, locked out of the garden, and kept from the Tree of Life.
But God still loved them and had mercy on them. So He provided a way back for them and for all generations of their children who would lay aside their pride and turn to Jesus for salvation. And how did Jesus accomplish our salvation? How did He do it? He humbled Himself. You know the passage.
Philippians 2:5-9a
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becom-ing obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

There was no pride and no self-exaltation in what Jesus did.
9a Therefore also God highly exalted Him…

Would you be exalted today? Then humble yourself before God and you will learn the truth of Luke 14:11 – “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

But if you still feel the need to boast about something, I have just the thing for you. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1 and we’ll close.
*1 Corinthians 1:26-31
26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,
29 that no man should boast before God.
30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
31 that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the LORD.”

~ Pray ~