Marks of a Worthy Disciple

Well, let's take our Bibles this morning and open them to Luke chapter 17.

And yes, we are finally going to get back to that book and the study of that book. And we're ready to launch into chapter 17. So find Luke 17 and listen as I read verses 1 through 10.

Luke 17, 1 through 10. Then he said to the disciples, It is impossible that no offenses should come.

Woe to him through whom they do come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, I repent, you should forgive him.

And the apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. So the Lord said, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

And which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and sit down to eat?

But will he not rather say to him, Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?

Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants.

We have done what was our duty to do. Now, to begin with, in terms of context, you know, I'm always talking about context.

It's important when you're studying God's Word. It's important when I'm preaching God's Word, that not only do I get the context right in my preparation, but that you are reminded of the context as we look through this passage.

In this case, I might say the occasion. The occasion. We think about the occasion here. I want to remind you that our text is really a part of a rather lengthy time of teaching for Jesus.

I know it's difficult to remember that because it's been some time since we've been in Luke, and so you might not remember that we're still kind of in the same settings, the same occasion, the occasion for Jesus to be teaching.

And as a matter of fact, it started all the way back there at the beginning of chapter 15. And so we've been kind of in the same spot. And Jesus has been teaching and instructing and telling parables and doing all sorts of things like that.

And during this kind of protracted time of teaching, Jesus has been kind of gravitating back and forth between His disciples and then to the Pharisees and then back to the disciples, kind of back and forth.

And so at one moment, He is directing His attention to His disciples and He's teaching them and instructing them. And then the next moment, He's directing His attention to the unbelieving Pharisees.

And He's, in a sense, teaching them, but mostly rebuking them and revealing them, revealing who they really are and so forth. So back and forth.

And that's His approach from the disciples to Pharisees and back to the disciples. And it is, by the way, a very important thing in our interpretation of Scripture to keep this straight in our thinking.

And so with that said, to whom is Jesus speaking now? Well, it's really very clear, no doubt about it. Verse 1 says so very clearly.

Then He said to His disciples. So He's speaking to His disciples again. I'm not trying to speak down to you. I know you can read for yourself. But my reason for kind of highlighting or emphasizing what is the obvious is this.

Sometimes we fail to allow the obvious to sink into our thoughts, deeply into our thoughts as they ought to be, and allow, you know, these things to have an impact on us, to touch us, to remind us of something.

And what I mean is this. When we read the Gospels, we often act as though we are somehow third-party bystanders. You know, when we're reading the narration.

You know, kind of merely observing, separated by time and space, and sort of eavesdropping on someone else's conversation or someone else's life experience.

You know what I'm talking about? What I'm getting at here? Here, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and who are His disciples? That's right, we are. You are, we are, we are His disciples.

And so what Jesus says to His disciples on this particular occasion is meant also for us. That's really obvious, isn't it? Now, did Luke understand it that way when he wrote?

No, I don't think he did, but that's okay because the Holy Spirit did. He knew that we would be the intended readers here. And we are reading this and hearing this.

And so we ought to take this very personally. Now, this is obvious. I've not said anything that you don't already know, but we need to be reminded of this. That Jesus turned to His disciples, and now He's giving them certain instructions, and He means them for us.

For us also. And so having said all of that, I've titled the message this morning from this passage, Marks of a Worthy Disciple.

Marks of a Worthy Disciple. And in this passage, Jesus is giving you and me, all of us, all of His disciples, valuable instructions designed to make us worthy disciples.

Now, let me qualify that. Not worthy disciples, that is in the sense of worthy of God or worthy of His blessings or worthy of His salvation or anything from the hand of God.

We're never worthy of that. But in this sense, worthy to be called disciples. That's something else, isn't it? Worthy to be called disciples.

Or we could put it this way, a disciple of worth to the Lord and to His church. Can you even begin to imagine a church where every member is a worthy disciple in that sense?

Now, think about it. A disciple of worth in all directions. Of worth to self. Of worth to this lost world.

Of worth to others in the church. Always of worth to God and to the growth of His kingdom. And on and on and on I could go.

Now, you may be thinking that, well, pastor, I am a worthy disciple. And perhaps you are. I hope you are. But Jesus is the judge of that.

He's the judge. Not me. Jesus is. His word is what establishes the standard for that. And that's how we ought to prepare ourselves as we approach the instructions that Jesus gives in this particular passage.

He gives to disciples. And so in this passage, this morning, Jesus provides three points of instruction. Three points of instruction.

That if obeyed and continuously obeyed will mark us as worthy disciples. Worthy to be called disciples. Disciples of worth in regard to all things that really matter.

Three things. And here's the first one. A worthy disciple, or rather, worthy disciples are careful. Worthy disciples are careful specifically of self.

Careful of self. Verse 1. Then he said to the disciples, It is impossible that no offenses should come.

Now, I want to stop right there. That's an axiom of life. It's a self-evident truth. It's impossible that no offenses should come.

Now, the word offenses, as it's translated in the New King James, and that's, of course, what I'm reading from, this word is from the Greek word skandalon. And if that sounds a lot like our word scandal, or scandalous, then rightfully so, because that's the origin of it.

Skandalon, or scandal. And a scandal basically is something that occurs in a person's life to disrupt the course of that person's life.

You know, you're just kind of rocking along in life and going this way and maybe progressing and everything's going fine. And then a scandal comes up and it just disrupts your life. We hear about scandals all the time.

And that's somewhat the idea here. The Greek word, and this is always the case with the Greek language, is very picture-oriented. And so, have you ever seen a, you know, one of these small animal traps that is constructed using a box, a stick, a string, and some bait?

Have you ever seen a trap? Perhaps, maybe you've constructed something like that to catch some small animal. And you know how it works. You know, you pop one end, prop one end of the box on the stick, and then you attach the string to the stick, and perhaps you hold the other end of the string while hiding behind a bush, you know, waiting for the rabbit to come along.

Or you might even attach the string to a piece of bait that's underneath the box. And then when the rabbit, of course, comes along, or whatever it is you're trying to trap, takes the bait, the trap is sprung, that is, the string pulls the stick out, and the box falls, and you've got, have you ever tried doing that?

I have. It didn't work for me. Maybe it worked for you. But this is the general principle. Now, this is the picture word here, because the Greek word skandalon literally means a trap stick.

That's what it means. A trap stick. The Greek lexicon defines the word as the movable stick or trigger of a trap. Skandalon.

Now, from that origin of the word, it came to refer to any impediment that might be placed in the way of a person that might cause that person to stumble or even to fall, and that's why some versions of the Bible have it translated stumbling block.

And that's really the idea. Something placed in the way of a person that might cause him or her to sin.

It's a stumbling block. It's a skandalon. And Jesus says what? He says, these things are inevitable. And they are, aren't they? Not the sin necessarily.

The sin is not always inevitable, though most of the time with us it is. But the idea is that the stumbling blocks are inevitable. It's impossible to live a life free of stumbling blocks.

It's an axiom of life. It's a self-evident truth. There are always stumbling blocks and we face them all the time and it's common to every single one of us.

In fact, remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10, 12. He said, no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. It's just inevitable.

All right, now that's how he introduces but that's really not what he's talking about here. That's not his real point. He just uses this to introduce his point. So what does he say next? He says, but woe to him through whom they do come.

that is stumbling blocks to sin are inevitable. We face them every day.

It's common. It's inevitable. But shame on you if they come upon someone else through your actions. That's very clear what he's saying.

Now, Jesus does not elaborate on what will happen to you if you do indeed cause someone to stumble and fall into sin. He only tells you what would be worse.

Did you see it? He says in verse 2, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck. You know what a millstone is, right?

Big rock, big round rock grinds the grain and so forth. It would be better for one of those to be hung around his neck and he were then thrown into the sea or cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones.

It doesn't really qualify you know what will happen to you other than to say what will be worse. and I don't know that we could dream of anything quite as horrible quite as terrible as having a millstone hung around or tied to your neck and then you're just thrown into the deepest part of the sea.

Now that would be bad but what will happen to you if you offend one of these little ones is worse than that. It's worse than that.

I don't know what it is. And again offend he says there in verse 2 should offend one of these. The word offend again is the same form of the word that we talked about a moment ago.

It is this time it's the word scandalizo. It means to scandalize. to scandalize or to put a stumbling block in the way of another.

And these little ones he mentions here are not just children alright. They're not just referring to children. Generally speaking Jesus is talking about any and all believers who are younger in the faith than you are.

Woe to you if you put a stumbling block in their way. And then Jesus says in verse 3 take heed to yourselves.

By the way this is a verb of course and it's a present tense imperative. That means it's present tense in the sense that it's something that's continuous action.

Keep taking heed of yourself. Be always careful. And it's active voice. That means you take the initiative in this. You take the initiative and it's imperative.

That means it's a command. So he's commanding us here. Always always always be on your guard. Always always pay attention to yourself lest you be an offense or do something that offends.

Something that would put a stumbling block there in the way of a younger believer, younger in faith, where that believer might trip and fall and be trapped into sin.

Always watch yourself. That's what he's saying. He's commanding us. Worthy disciples are careful of self. Of self.

Careful that is not to place any stumbling block of sin in the path of one who is weaker in the faith. And you surely notice that Jesus also did not elaborate on some possible stumbling blocks, did he?

We wish that he could just kind of spell these things out. Kind of list the things that we might do that would cause a person, a brother or sister, to stumble and fall and fall into sin.

But the fact is it could be any number of things. Any number of them. And you'll know it when it happens or hopefully before. It could be reckless theological error.

I'm not just talking about being wrong about some theological doctrinal point but being recklessly wrong. It could be that. It could be careless misinterpretation of the scriptures.

And again, you know, we don't always interpret scriptures right. But if we are careless about that, just kind of flippant, just kind of loosey-goosey with the scriptures, we can lead someone who's looking up to us and following us and admiring us and trusts us.

We can lead them in the wrong direction. Woe to you. It could be inconsistency between words and deeds. It could involve that.

I mean, you say what you say and then you do what you do. And you can be a stumbling block. It could be moral failure without repentance. And sometimes believers fail and fail miserably and they fail publicly.

And if there's no repentance, then it can be a kind of stumbling block that can, in a sense, rob a person of his or her faith.

It could be just simply a faithlessness in life. It's not walking according to faith. And it leads to someone defaming Christ or discrediting the faith or degrading the church or whatever it may be.

It could be careless, thoughtless Christian liberty. I mean, there are some things that we're free to do.

We have liberty in Christ. But if that very same thing would cause a weaker brother or someone who's not yet grounded in the faith to sin, then I don't care if it is okay to do it.

It ought not to be done. We don't want to be a stumbling block in any way. We don't want to offend. This is what Jesus is saying. Worthy disciples are careful. Careful not to offend the little ones.

And I think the implication could also cross over into offending unbelievers as well. I mean, we can, by our actions, offend an unbeliever, be a stumbling block to an unbeliever, so much so that the unbeliever might turn away from the gospel, might turn away from Christ, or form a certain opinion that is a wrong opinion about what it means to follow Christ.

We don't want to offend unbelievers either. And J.C. Ryle said, he said, the cross of Christ will always give offense. There's no avoiding that.

But let us not increase that offense by carelessness in our daily life. So, worthy disciples are careful, careful of self.

And now, second, worthy disciples are merciful to others. Careful of self, not to offend, that is, be a stumbling block, but also merciful of others.

In this sense, not to take offense. Not to take offense. And so, Jesus' first instruction, don't be offensive.

And his second instruction, don't take offense. Don't take offense when someone sins against you. Verse 3, take heed to yourselves. And by the way, this applies to the second point of instruction as well as the first.

If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. That's very simple of it.

Very simple, very straightforward. And yet, we are such miserable failures at this most of the time about forgiving others. So, here's kind of how it goes.

A fellow Christian, a brother, a sister in Christ, sins against you. Greek word here, by the way, says, sins you. Many of the other translations don't bring this out.

In fact, they just kind of say very generally if he sins. I mean, there are instructions in the Bible for how to take care of those issues. You see a brother or sister in Christ sinning, not necessarily sinning against you, but just sinning.

And we have an obligation to go to that one and to try to correct that one. All right? That's true from Scripture. We read that even this morning. But in this case, he's talking about offending you, sinning against you.

If, he says, your brother sins against you, doing what? Well, he doesn't say what this is. It could be any number of things.

Maybe defames you publicly in some way. Offends you publicly. Or lies to you. Or lies about you.

Or maybe verbally abuses you. Or cheats you in something. Or robs from you in some way. Or even hurts you physically.

Whatever it is. I mean, the list would be a mile long of the possibility. It just simply is a brother or sister sinning, transgressing against you.

And that happens, doesn't it, in the church? Yes, it does. The problem is we don't deal with it the right way. That's why we have church problems and broken fellowship and so forth.

All right, so here's what happens. Fellow Christian sins against you. What are you supposed to do? Rebuke them. Now, I know that sounds like a very harsh and strong word to us.

It just simply means that you speak to his or her face about the sin. You go to that person. You've sinned against me.

Now, you bring it to the person's attention. Otherwise, maybe they don't know. Or otherwise, they're going on in sin. It's up to you to get that thing right.

Get that offense taken away. They're in broken fellowship with you. Whether they realize it or not. And so you go to that brother or sister face to face and you bring that person's attention to the sin.

You reprimand him or her in the Lord, in the word, in love, and so forth. And by the way, you bring it to the sinning brother and sister or sister privately, don't you?

Is that what we normally do? Usually, we go and tell somebody else about it. Oh, yes, we do. Huh? Don't look at me like you're so holy.

We have a tendency to tell other people about it. You know what so-and-so did to me? I just can't wait to tell you. No, Jesus says you go to rebuke that person, that one who has sinned against you.

That's what you do. So, here is the process. Jesus commands this process, that we follow this process. There are imperatives, there are commands all throughout this.

He says, first of all, pay attention to yourself. That's a command. It's in the form of a command. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him or her.

Another command. It's an imperative verb, a command. Third step, there is genuine repentance. If there is, there isn't always. I suppose we should say, well, what if there is no repentance?

repentance? I think in most cases, we're to forgive them too. They say it doesn't change the process. We're still to go to them. All right, so repentance.

And this is the word metanoia, oh, and it just means repent. And I like this kind of old definition. To change one's mind for the better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's sin.

Don't you just love that definition? That's kind of cut to the quick here. To change one's mind for the better. We understand that.

That's straightforward. Heartily, that means this is a heart decision that you're making. A heart decision to do what? To amend or to change.

But not just simply to change, but to change with actually with a hatred for one's sin. That's a good definition of repentance in whatever context.

All right, so this person repents. And then finally, you forgive. By the way, there's the third of three commands that Jesus gives in these instructions.

You are to forgive. To forgive. That is, to forgive and to forget the sin. And if you can't forget it, then always remember it forgiven.

As though it had never happened. I mean, this is just so simple. I mean, what do you need this knucklehead up here telling you? You just read it for yourself. It's just very clear, very straightforward, very simple.

I mean, you don't need to get out the commentaries, find out what Jesus is meaning here. You don't have to read MacArthur and find out what this means. It's just very straightforward.

And what is the goal? Reconciliation. The goal is always restored fellowship. Restored fellowship between the believer and the other believer, the sinning believer, certainly, because, you know, the offense has then been removed.

And there's sweet reconciliation, fellowship with one another, as it ought to be between all believers within the church. There should never ever be broken fellowship within the body of Christ.

None. And if there is, it's because we're not following the instructions of Scripture. But also restored fellowship between the believer and God.

That's part of this as well. Because sin always breaks fellowship with God. It puts something between us. Sin always separates.

And so there needs to be that offense. That sin needs to be removed in the biblical way so that there is fellowship between the believer and God.

And not just simply the believer who has done the sinning, but also the one sinned against. Because the offense is there and it disrupts everything.

And you can't have the kind of fellowship with God that you need to have and want to have and God intends for you to have as long as there is some broken fellowship.

You know, when you bring your offering and then remember that you have ought to or someone has ought to get, you go and get that right and then offer. Bring your offering to God.

So it's restored fellowship. Now, is there any sin that we have permission not to forgive? No.

You know that, don't you? No. There's no qualification there. And what about this? Is there a limit to how often you are required to forgive in the case of a repeat offender?

No. Thank you. No. And that's clear from the passage in verse 4. And if he sins against you seven times in a day.

Now, get that. Can you imagine that? Seven times in one day. And Jesus says, if he sins against you seven times in one day.

And seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent. You are to forgive. You shall forgive him. Do you think you could do that?

It would be pretty hard, wouldn't it? Seven times in one day, this guy, this gal sins against you. Seven times in one day.

And seven times in that one day, he or she comes to you and says, oh, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. And we're saying, forget it. I mean, this is ridiculous.

You've got a major sin problem. I mean, you've reached the limit, bub. No more forgiveness from me. I mean, my goodness.

Seven times? I think we'd probably be thinking that after the second time. That is, if we've handled it right the first time. But seven times in one day, it's just too much to ask.

Well, let me ask you to think about something that's probably very obvious. How many times do you sin against the Lord in one day? Well, let's see. One. Yesterday, it was one, two, three.

Well, today. One. I assure you, many more than seven times a day. Well, do you expect God to forgive you every single time?

Yes. And we have good reason to believe that and have that expectation and to know that that will happen. Scripture tells us so. No matter how many times we sin.

See, that's Jesus' point here, isn't it? When he commands us to forgive those who sin against us seven times in a day, he's not referring to some kind of limit out there above which you no longer have to forgive.

He's not talking about that at all. Obviously, you forgive every time. Now, you remember when Peter asked a similar question, he said, how many times do we forgive? Seven times? And Jesus said, no, 70 times seven.

Which is just a way of saying every single time. Every time. You forgive. Now, that explains the request from the apostles in the very next verse.

Lord, increase our faith. You know, I can't do it. I mean, that's an immediate response. I've got to have faith.

And that leads to the final mark of a worthy disciple then. You want to be a worthy disciple? I mean, a disciple of worth, of worth to self, of worth to others, of worth to God.

Worthy disciples are careful of self because we're always thinking about others. And worthy disciples are merciful to others.

And then finally, worthy disciples are faithful. Faithful to God. Verse 5, And the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

And why did they say that? Well, obviously, because they had come to the critical realization about themselves and about what Jesus was teaching. They realized that faith was required in order to be able to obey and do what Jesus was talking about.

And they didn't have enough of it. Or so they thought. So how does Jesus respond to their request?

Verse 6, So the Lord said, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it will obey you.

Isn't that interesting? I'd say to you that this is one of those famous passages that we often misunderstand and therefore misapply.

Mustard seed, and you've heard this before, it is the smallest of garden variety seeds. It is. But what about the mulberry tree?

Mulberry tree, if you've ever had one, actually, for me, I think it should have been a holly bush.

But a mulberry tree, they say, has one of the toughest and broadest root systems. And you can't just go over there and jerk it out of the ground. It's very hard, very difficult.

So, so what does Jesus say? Might not be exactly what you're thinking. Because we're thinking about the mustard seed, we're thinking about mulberry bushes and such.

Here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying that the hardest of things I require of you can be done with the smallest of faith. that puts it in a little different light, doesn't it?

Because that means this is very encouraging. Disciples say, we don't have faith for this. We can't do this. You know, always careful not to offend and, you know, you know, sometimes we, how do we do it and always forgiving.

We can't do it. That's what they're thinking. And Jesus says, faith is a mustard seed. That's all that's required here. You can do all these hard things.

You can do all of them. He's not rebuking them with this thing about a mustard seed faith. He's actually commending them for their request in this sense.

He's saying, you're asking about the right thing here. You've nailed it. This is what you need. Faith. And He's saying, you've understood.

You've understood what is needed to do the things that I have commanded you. It's faith. But the real, issue here is not the quantity of faith or even the quality of faith because even the smallest faith can accomplish the biggest and hardest things.

That's what He, what He means. And so the real issue is the reality of faith. Well, that faith is true. Do you trust Jesus?

Do you trust Him? He's the one commanding you. Do you trust Him? Well, if you do, and I don't doubt you, Wes, then two things are true of your faith.

Dependence upon God and devotion to God. And that's what's required. Dependence on God is the point of verses 5 and 6.

Excuse me. The apostles say, Lord, increase our faith. And Jesus says, in effect, trust me. Trust me. That's all the faith you need.

Trust me. Do you find it hard to always live in such a way that you would never lead anybody astray? Do you find it hard to lead people always in the right way and never be a stumbling bugger?

Do you find that hard? Just say yes. Do you find it really, really hard to forgive people who sin against you? Not just once, but multiple times.

Do you find that hard? You bet. Well, do you trust Jesus? Do you trust Him? Then you can do it.

This is pretty encouraging. You can do it. Your dependence upon Jesus makes it so you can do this.

But it's not just dependence, also devotion. And that's where we get to this parable at the end here that sometimes causes us to think in all different directions and we miss the simple point.

He says, verse 7, And which of you having a servant, a slave, plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and sit down to eat.

which of you would actually say that? Well, you wouldn't say that. That's the implication. You wouldn't say that. But will he not rather say to him, Prepare something for my supper.

Why? Because he's your slave. He's your servant. Prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drank, drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink.

Now, by the way, just as a side note here, Jesus is not advocating slavery. He's not advocating acting this way. He's just telling you what's the norm.

I mean, this is just true to life. You have a slave. He's out working all day and when he comes in, you don't say, Well, you just go ahead and have your supper first. No, you say, Fix my supper and then you can have yours.

That's just the norm. All right, so the parable is kind of highlighting what is generally accepted, generally seen. Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?

I think not. I mean, that's just the norm. Then Jesus makes the application. So, likewise, you, my disciples.

So all along, see, the slaves, who are they? It's us. Servants of the Lord. So, likewise, my disciples, when you have done all those things which are commanded, and I've commanded some pretty tough things here.

He didn't say that, but that's reading between the lines. You say, what? You say, We are unworthy servants. That's exactly what the disciples said.

We increase our faith. unworthy disciples or servants. We have done what was our duty to do.

See, here it is. You can do all that Jesus commands you to do because you trust him. Dependence on him.

and you will do all that Jesus commands you to do because you devoted to him.

An unqualified, selfless devotion to the Lord. Your duty to serve him.

and you're not serving him because you think that's somehow going to commend you to you're doing something over and above. I mean, forgiving someone who's trespassed against you, you can't afterwards say, you know, I'm a pretty, pretty good Christian.

it was your duty to do that. Or if you're living a life and you, you know, you're just so careful and not offending and you're leading people always and you say, I'm just one of those, you know, one of those special Christians to the Lord.

You're doing what is your duty. That's your faith. That's what he requires. A kind of limitless dependence upon him and a selfless devotion to him.

That's the mark of a worthy disciple. Faithful to God. Careful of self. Not to offend, not to be astounded.

merciful to others. Don't take offense. And faithful to God. A disciple of earth.

Thank you.