Today’s Reading: Luke 6:39-7:10
Key Verse: “”Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46
The great issue that Jesus confronts us with here is HIS LORDSHIP in our lives. Jesus has just finished delivering the greatest sermon in history – His famous “Sermon on the Mount”. He’s talked to the great crowd before Him about the Kingdom of God and how to inherit it; about the weightiest matters of time and eternity; the most profound truths, yet always in the simplest of words and ideas. But He is acutely aware of those in His audience who are “onlookers.” They nodded their heads in agreement, they even said “Amen!” in the appropriate places. If you asked them what they believed they would most likely answer “We follow the great Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth”. BUT FOR ALL OF THAT, Jesus teaching (which they enjoyed) had no real impact on their lives.
Jesus knows the frustration that many preachers experience most Sundays. Looking out on a group of nodding believers who say “Amen!”, and thank him at the door, but then never DO anything with the truths they’ve been presented.
Jesus knows that frustration not only on Sundays, but every day of the week in fact, as dutiful Christians open their Bibles and read the portion suggested by their daily reading guide, say “Thank you Lord”, close their Bibles and head off to work – forgetting all that they’ve read by the time they reach the front gate.
And so, as Jesus ends His great sermon, He closes with “the appeal.” “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do the things that I say?” If Jesus IS Lord of our lives, there must be obedience to what He has to say!
In Matthews account of this, Jesus says: “MANY will say to Me”. (The word here in Greek is “polloi” – the same word used to describe the multitudes that flocked to hear Jesus. “MANY (multitudes) will say to Me ‘Lord, Lord’. Many people are happy to follow Jesus if they don’t have to allow him to be Lord. If they can just add Him on without the need to change anything.
To do what Jesus commanded will take all of your attention and energy and for the whole of the rest of your life. What is the glory of the new covenant? Jeremiah 31:33 … “I will put MY law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
God is leading His people in an exact walk of true discipleship. It’s all about obeying him and following His direction.