Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20091021.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part L: Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Warning To Repent
(Luke 13:1-9)
  1. Introduction
    1. If Jesus is God's true Savior of the world, then He should have a great concern for the eternal destiny of the lost who stand in peril of eternal damnation, and so reveal it in His teaching in His earthly ministry.
    2. One of the clearest indications that Jesus certainly did have a great concern for the unsaved was seen in His teaching about the great need for them to repent and be saved in Luke 13:1-9 (as follows):
  2. Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Warning To Repent, Luke 13:1-9.
    1. The teaching Christ gave in Luke 13:1-9 came at the time He had finished making His remarks in Luke 12:54-59 about the need of the lost around Him to repent before the judgment of God fell:
      1. Luke introduced his thirteenth chapter with a reference to people who were present to make a report to Jesus "at that time," (Luke 13:1 KJV, NIV; "at that very time" ESV).
      2. Accordingly, the comments He made in Luke 13:1-9 are associated with His Luke 12:54-59 comments on the need for the lost to repent before God's judgment fell.
    2. As such, Jesus responded to news of people present who had reported to Him that Pilate had slain some Galileans while they were sacrificing their animals so that their blood mingled with that of their animals, an horrific event in the minds of ceremonially ritualistic Jews, Luke 13:1.
    3. His response was unusual: the Jews thought Jesus might express outrage at Pilate for his desecration of Jewish worship in this atrocity, but Jesus implied God had allowed this event to occur to warn the rest of Israel to repent concerning Him or suffer a similar terrible judgment, Luke 13:2-3:
      1. Having warned His listeners to repent before God's judgment fell in Luke 12:54-59, Jesus used the news of Pilate's atrocity toward the sacrificing Galilean Jews to reveal that they were not more sinful than the rest of the nation's Jews, a thought many Jews might believe, Luke 13:2.
      2. Rather, Jesus claimed God had allowed the vicious, unscrupulous Pilate to perform this atrocity as a warning for Israel to repent lest she as a nation face a similar fate in grave divine judgment, Luke 13:3.
    4. Driving His point even further, Jesus referred to an apparent earlier tragedy, the collapse of a tower in Siloam that had killed eighteen people, making the same solemn application, Luke 13:4-5:
      1. Christ added that His hearers ought not to assume that the eighteen people upon whom the tower of Siloam had fallen and slain were more wicked than the other people in Israel, Luke 13:4.
      2. Rather, He claimed that God had allowed that tragedy to occur as a warning to the rest of the nation that they needed to repent concerning faith in Jesus or face a similar tragic end in judgment, Luke 13:5.
    5. To put this sense of urgency in perspective, Jesus added an explanatory parable in Luke 13:6-9 as follows:
      1. He told how a man who had planted a fig tree in his vineyard three years before had come expecting to find fruit on it, but found this goal to be unrealized, Luke 13:6-7. Fig trees take three years to bear fruit ( Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 240), so this parable typifies how God had unsuccessfully sought righteousness in Israel in terms of repentance and faith in Christ a result of Jesus' earthly ministry!
      2. Accordingly, the owner told His vinedresser to cut the tree down lest it needlessly burden the ground's nutrients that the rest of his vineyard plants needed for their welfare, Luke 13:7.
      3. The vinedresser interceded for the tree, asking for another year to work the ground and fertilize the tree's roots to get it to bear, Luke 13:8-9. If that failed, the vine dresser suggested the tree be cut down.
      4. In application, Jesus was giving a warning that Israel was already ripe for judgment, that the atrocity by Pilate against the Galileans and the tragedy of the tower of Siloam were but sample events God had permitted to occur for the whole nation to heed, and to apply immediately through trusting in Christ!
Lesson: Jesus exhibited a STRONG concern for the NEED of His LOST hearers to REPENT and to BELIEVE in Him lest God's TERRIBLE JUDGMENT FALL, and He URGED such repentance by using SHOCKING events they had witnessed as SIGNALS of GOD'S DIRE WARNINGS to REPENT!

Application: (1) May we believe Jesus is God's Savior due to His intense concern for the perilous state of the lost. (2) May we repent as needed, and (3) testify to the lost as God gives opportunity, Col. 4:2-3!