JESUS ON DIVORCE

Father, sometimes your word talks about things that we don't want to talk about and we don't want to think about.

And sometimes your word says things that just about everything within us disagrees with.

And sometimes your word says things that we might agree with,

but we don't think anybody around us that we know at work or in our neighborhood or maybe in our family would agree with.

And Father, we confess before you that it's very easy for us in these situations to not want to hear your word at all,

to skip over it, to think about something that pleases us or chooses, that pleases us.

But Father, you are God, the true and living God, the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things,

and you are a God who speaks.

And you have spoken to us and you speak to us.

We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would gently but deeply come into our minds and come into our hearts

and come into our wills, come into our bodies, come into who we are,

that your Holy Spirit would fall upon us with gentle power,

that we might hear your word and receive your word,

and that your word would enter into us to the end that we would bear much fruit in our daily lives for your glory.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Amen.

So, some sort of strong texts.

Here's the first thing.

So I'll, if you're a guest here, by the way, first of all, if you're a guest here this morning,

we always have some Bibles at the front.

If you forgot your Bible, you're welcome to come and borrow a Bible or actually take it as a gift.

You don't have to bring it back.

You can take it home with you if you want.

And we're going to look at those Bible texts.

And what we do at this church is we preach through books of the Bible.

So it wasn't as if, George, you know, that's my name's George if you're a guest.

It's not as if I thought one day, what could I do to really sort of just lay a big guilt bomb on a whole pile of people?

So why do I pick this text?

Because that will really, you know, thin the congregation, thin the herd or something like that.

No, we preach through the Bible.

We preach through books of the Bible.

And this was the next text.

And so we're going to look at it.

And here's the thing, which if you don't get anything else, and I apologize that event after event after event happened that I wasn't able to get my points to Andrew.

So if you go on the webpage tomorrow in the afternoon, hopefully, if you need help with the points, they'll be up there on the computer or webpage.

But here's the thing that struck me as I'm trying to wrestle with these texts.

And it's as if the Holy Spirit spoke to me about a fundamental heart issue that only maybe I'm not always aware of, but it's a fundamental heart issue in terms of how I approach the Bible.

And maybe I'm vastly more wicked than you, but I think it's a common heart problem.

Maybe it's always been a common problem, but I think it's especially a problem in an affluent, well-educated city like Ottawa.

And here's the heart issue.

The true God who truly speaks is not a puzzle to solve so that I can be safe and flourish.

I'll say that again.

It's too bad I don't have it up on the screen unless Andrew sort of types it while I speak, which would be sort of funny.

The true God who truly speaks is not a puzzle to solve so that I can be safe and flourish.

And you might say, George, why on earth would you say something like that?

Like, that's not a very Christian thing to say.

You know, we're just supposed to believe God at his word.

We're just sort of to take it and all that.

But, you know, if I think about it, when I was sort of wrestling with this text, studying different commentaries,

not only commentaries that have been written relatively recently,

but commentaries that have been written other centuries where there were other types of perspectives on it.

And, you know, it's very easy for us to try to turn these passages into something that will be safe for us.

As if it's a type of puzzle.

And if we can just sort of solve the puzzle, then, okay, then we can live with the text.

And we can be safe with the text.

And we can be safe with God.

And we can flourish because we're safe.

And, but you know what?

That's not who God is.

And it's not who we are.

In fact, texts like this reveal how we have a God project at work in our own lives.

And that this God project that's at work in our own lives means that we sort of want to set the terms of what God will be like.

And we want to set the terms for what he's going to speak.

And the terms about what he can and cannot tell us.

And we want to set the terms.

We want to have a type of negotiation with God to set these terms up.

And so that once we know the terms of the deal and the terms of the arrangement,

then we can go and we can do the different things that we want to do.

And in fact, that's often what religion does.

Even Christianity, which has been in a sense hijacked by religion.

It creates, you know, like maybe in some churches, there's a whole pile of rituals and rules around Sunday morning,

which means that you have virtually no rules for the rest of the week.

That's very, very handy.

You know, we've worked out some rules with God.

And we agree with these rules with God.

Okay, God, those are good rules.

We agree with them.

And now that we've agreed to these rules, I can go, whoa, okay, God is sort of, now we have God sort of settled.

You know, like an awkward guest who comes to a dinner party.

We have him or her settled.

This is the awkward guest, not God.

We have God settled.

And now we can get on with, and it's not going to be too disruptive to us having a good dinner party, us having a good life.

And often religion functions like that.

And, in fact, people, and I don't mean to insult anybody.

I'm Canadian, so I don't want to insult anybody.

But often when we say that we're spiritual, not religious, that's often sort of what we mean.

We have a different type of negotiation with God so that we can have God sort of be a certain type of way so that now that he, if we're spiritual, not religious,

we might not know if God's a he or she or an it.

But I'm not saying that to make fun, but it's just a different type of language.

And now he or she or it is sort of settled, and it's all part of our, in fact, now God is actually part of our adornment,

how in our project to flourish and to be safe.

And texts like this that we just read a few moments ago that we're going to read again in a couple of seconds,

it challenges our project at determining how we are safe and how we will flourish,

how I will be safe, how I will flourish, and where I begin and where I end,

and how God is going to fit in with who I am and the choices I want to make and the choices I have made.

And so I want to have God safe.

And so when I come to a text like this, I approach it, you approach it like a puzzle.

And it's a puzzle that if we just click it and shape it the right way,

God's safe.

I can be safe. I can flourish.

Now, I know some religious and spiritual people will use texts like this as a club to bang other people over the head with

and to try to belittle people.

And that's another, that's a separate problem.

That's probably not as much of a problem with most of the people who are here.

Most of us are probably not looking for a Bible text to run into a crowd,

being able to whack people with to make them uncomfortable.

That's probably not our temptation.

I don't know you all.

Maybe some of you will hear that is your temptation.

You need to repent.

It's a different problem.

But for most of us, God is a puzzle.

How did I put it?

The true God who truly speaks is not a puzzle to solve so that I can be safe and flourish.

That's not what God is.

God is, and we're going to see this in a moment,

that God is the creator, he's the sustainer, he's the end of our longings,

he's the end of our yearnings, because he's our helper,

he's the one who redeems us through the death of Jesus upon the cross,

that we can appropriate what he's done purely by faith, not weighing our merits.

That everything about God speaking and all of his words are all designed so that we will come to Jesus.

And when we come to Jesus in faith to trust him as our savior,

and we now receive him as our king,

and we start to learn to live in his kingdom,

that when we start to learn to do that,

we reclaim the authentic humanity that God has intended for us for,

whereby we can be free.

No longer battered by idols and myths and demons,

false gods,

false utopias,

everything in God's word is to funnel us to Jesus,

to realize that we need to accept him as our savior and our Lord,

and that once we give our lives to him as our savior,

that once we start to follow him,

even God's hardest teachings are for us to understand what it means to truly be human,

to truly be a creature in the presence of the living God,

who desires to live with us and be with us,

so that we will go from one degree of glory to another for all eternity.

The God who speaks is the end of our longings and the end of our yearnings.

He's not a puzzle to be solved so we can be safe and flourish.

If you get nothing else out of the sermon, I hope you get that.

Let's look at the text.

George had made some bold claims.

Let's look at the text.

So if you get your Bible out, it's Luke chapter 16,

Luke 16:16

verses 16 to the end.

We're going to read the whole bit that I read before.

We'll read that all before I'm finished.

At different times, we'll stop and sort of look at the text

and try to draw out from it what the Bible is saying.

But remember, Luke 16, verses 16 to 31,

Luke 16:16–31

remember throughout all of it is that in our heart,

because this is one of the things about Jesus,

religion and spirituality, we'll talk about all sorts of things,

but Jesus always attacks the heart.

He always speaks into the heart,

and the Bible understands the heart to be the center of who we are.

Underneath all of our masks, all of our pretensions,

all of our longings, all of our yearnings, all of our fears,

the good, the bad, the ugly, everything in between,

the very center of who we are,

Jesus always goes right to the heart in the context of the living God,

and that's what he's talking about here.

So the text begins like this, verse 16 of chapter 16.

Jesus says,

The law and the prophets were until John.

That's John the Baptist.

Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached,

and everyone forces his way into it.

A better translation would be,

many of your versions would have sort of little notes underneath about it.

It might be better to say,

and everyone is forcefully urged into it.

In other words, we urge with the best of our reason,

the best of our winsomeness,

the best of our analogies,

the best of our prayers,

the best of what we can do,

that we try to spare nothing at talking about the good news.

Every analogy we can think of.

That's what Jesus is talking about.

Then verse 17.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away

than for one dot, one stroke of the law.

And here he's referring to what we now call the Old Testament,

to become void.

So here's the first thing.

With Jesus in his kingdom,

I will learn to listen to the living God.

That's what this text is.

Underneath this text,

we want to try to get a positive lesson from it.

What does it mean?

We're going to talk about this more in a few minutes.

But what does it mean when we come to Jesus

and accept him as our Savior

and we desire to follow him as our Lord?

Well, one of the things it means

is that we accept him as our Savior

and we now just don't have a one-on-one relationship with him.

We do have a personal relationship with Jesus,

but it's a communal relationship as well.

It's communal because he calls us into his kingdom

and he's the king.

And what's one of the things that will happen to us

in his kingdom?

Well, as we draw closer to Jesus,

we will learn, he will teach us,

we will learn, the Holy Spirit will teach us

to desire to listen to the living God

and to learn to listen to the living God

who actually speaks.

You know, one of the things in our culture,

many people in our culture are very terrified

with this idea that God speaks.

They think, one of the persons I talk to regularly

in coffee shops, he says,

you know, George, George, George, George,

you know, how on earth can you possibly think

that something that was written 2,500 years ago

or 2,000 years ago,

that that can just continue to speak into our lives?

How on earth can you possibly believe that?

You know, science continues, philosophy continues,

literature, poetry, art continues, technology continues,

everything continues and develops.

Isn't it wiser to get the most recent thing?

And isn't the most recent thing

just going to have to be better?

And it's one of the things he says to me.

And one of the things I try to say to him is,

what if there is a God who really does exist

who actually speaks to us?

Like, what if it is that there is a God

who's created all things and sustains all things,

and this God actually speaks in words

that can be translated into the heart language

of every people group?

Because that's ultimately the claim of the Bible.

See, why am I saying that?

Look at the game.

When Jesus says, verse 16,

the law and the prophets were until John,

but since then the good news of the kingdom is preached

and everyone is talked about it.

And then he says,

it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away

than for one dot of the law to become void.

What Jesus is saying here is that God has spoken

through the law and he's spoken through the prophets.

And because he is the one who ultimately speaks

through the law and speaks through the prophets,

then the words that have come out

are the words that he wants to have there.

And he stands behind these words

as their guarantor, so to speak.

And because they continue to always

and perpetually be his words,

that he chose to speak to our human race

in a public manner that all who can read

or all who can hear can come to hear and understand.

It's why it's because God is the ultimate author

and the guarantor of these words,

that these words have their potential power in our lives,

that they can speak into our lives,

that they can speak to our heart,

the center of who we are.

They can speak to our heart and our heart's longing

for things of the culture and things of our heart

and things of the world

and even maybe potentially things of the devil,

as well as good things that we long and yearn for.

But that these words are words that speak into our heart

about things that are true.

And that's why Jesus says that the word void

can also be translated as fail,

that these words will continue on and on and on and on.

And we're going to see in a couple of weeks

when we go to Luke chapter 21,

Luke 21 · chapter mention

that Jesus says his own words will have that type of power.

And only if it's ultimately God who is the speaker

behind and in the words can something like this be true.

And that's what Jesus is teaching us.

And so the words of God aren't words

that are now going to limit our freedom,

but in a sense unleash freedom and propel freedom.

They're words that will start to form our desires,

our longings, our yearnings, our understandings,

the categories by which we think

as we think about everything else.

Because God made human beings to think

and to write poetry and to compose music

and to develop laws

and to speak to children

and to speak to wives and husbands

and mothers and fathers and neighbors.

And he designed us to be curious and ask questions.

And so God reveals this true truth,

not that we will then somehow only read the words of this book

and completely ignore science

and completely ignore poetry

and art and creativity,

but to help us to understand

that we are creatures,

fallen creatures in a fallen world,

that God still exists.

And his words come into our life

to start to help us to orient ourselves

and ground ourselves

so that we can think

in a more completely fully human way

and think and be curious.

And, you know, maybe your thing isn't poetry,

maybe it's physics,

or maybe it's engineering,

or maybe it's math,

but to pursue that

and always day by day

coming back to the God who speaks

and speaks preeminently through his word,

but will speak into our lives.

And that's what's behind this teaching of Jesus,

that with Jesus in his kingdom,

I will learn to listen to the living God.

And as I learn to listen,

as you learn to listen,

as we learn to listen together to the living God,

that he can form and reform our minds

and our hearts and our wills and our souls.

And as our minds and hearts and wills are reformed,

it doesn't mean that our mind stops thinking

and our will stops willing

and our heart stops longing,

but our mind can start to think

in a less fallen way.

And our hearts can long for beauty

in a less fallen way.

And our wills can will goodness

in our lives

and in the lives of our culture

in a less fallen way.

But we are redeemed

to be creatures

created by our creator,

who we were meant to know

and to love and to serve.

And we were meant to do that

not just by ourselves,

but with others.

And this text,

just one other thing about it

before I sort of go on,

it's a profound refutation

of Islam as well.

And it's very important to catch this

because many Christians

think about the Bible

the way Muslims think about the Koran.

And if Christians think about the Bible

the way Muslims think about the Koran,

then Christians aren't thinking

about the Bible truly.

You see, in the Koran,

the Islamic belief,

and I hope I'm getting this accurate,

if you're a Muslim

who's come here this morning,

my understanding is that

God, Allah,

speaks to Gabriel the angel.

And Gabriel the angel

remembers what God says,

and then Gabriel speaks to Muhammad.

And Muhammad remembers

what the angel says,

and Muhammad speaks.

And other people,

because Muhammad was illiterate,

other people write down

what Muhammad spoke.

But it's all dictation.

Gabriel takes dictation from God,

Muhammad takes dictation from Gabriel,

and the other writers

take dictation from Muhammad.

And it's like water through a pipe.

It's just a conduit.

And you'll notice here,

and it's going to come up

all the way through this text,

that Jesus keeps referring

to the law and the prophets.

And he refers to Moses.

And so he refers to the fact

that there are many books in the Bible,

that there are many human authors,

that the books have

different literary genres.

And that the key of all the scriptures

focusing on Jesus.

But you see,

it's very, very radically different

for him to,

for Jesus to say,

you know,

I know the fact that,

you know,

in his case,

that there would be 39 books.

He knew that there would be more books,

as we'll see in a few weeks

when we look at Luke chapter 21.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

And that there,

and he even calls them

different genres,

prophetic literature,

and laws,

instruction.

So he recognizes different genres,

that God chose,

and God,

the Bible,

Jesus doesn't say

this is the psychology

that was going on

in these different people.

All he says

is that Moses wrote

and prophets wrote

and they wrote

in different genres

and they wrote

in different times

and they wrote

in different contexts

and they wrote

the way they were going to write.

But at the end of the day,

what stands behind the words

is God

who ultimately

gets the words

that he wanted

to be written

in the different genres,

in the different times,

by the different authors,

with different agendas,

and different senses

of literary technique

and form.

And God uses

all of these human things,

respecting the freedom

of the human authors,

and without at all

transgressing the freedom

of the human authors,

by the time

the process is finished,

the result is

what God desired

to have there.

And so we,

reading the Bible,

now we read law like law,

we read prophecy

like prophecy,

we read poetry

like poetry,

we read historical narrative

like historical narrative,

and we read it all

within the context

of Jesus

who marks

the change

of an age.

A few weeks ago,

if you go back

and listen to the sermons

I did on John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

you'll see that

in the final sermon

I did just,

I think,

two weeks ago,

is that the Bible

teaches that Jesus

is the exegesis

of God.

He's the interpreter

of God.

And all of God's word

points to Jesus

and is interpreted

by Jesus.

And not just Jesus

in general,

but in particular,

the reason and the purpose

that Jesus came,

which is to help us

by dying upon the cross

to redeem us.

And that's

what scripture teaches us.

I never turned on

my stopwatch.

I can press it now

and I can speak

for another 40 minutes.

No, just joking.

So that's what's

happening in these words.

So you say,

okay, George,

that's all very,

very, very interesting.

It's very,

very interesting

that you've stopped

and you've spent

a long time now

on verses 16 and 17,

you clever fellow,

leaving you no time

to talk about divorce.

Just keep in mind

the first thing, right?

The first thing

is that as we read

the Bible,

we have to realize

about a heart issue.

And the heart issue

is that we treat God

like a puzzle

to be managed

or solved.

And once it's managed

or solved,

I can continue on

in my life

safe and flourishing.

And that's

the God

who really speaks

and really exists

isn't like that at all.

Right?

The God,

the true God

who truly speaks

is not a puzzle

to solve

so that I can be

safe and flourish.

So let's listen

to this next text

which sort of

jumps out at us.

Probably if we were reading,

if we went back

in a time machine

and read this text

in 1954,

people would just say,

oh, the really interesting

thing is the next text.

In fact, actually,

for most of us,

the next text

should be more important.

Last time I checked,

so I'm using 2012 data,

less than 20%

of Canadians,

less than 20%

of Canadians

give enough money

to charity

to ask for an income tax,

like to be able

to ask,

to put a line item

that they've given

money to charity.

I think it's only $100,

$150.

Less than 20%

of Canadians

give even that amount

of money to charity.

The next text

should be far more shocking

to us

than the divorce text.

Let's look at the divorce text.

Let's listen to it again.

Verse 18.

Everyone who divorces

his wife

and marries another

commits adultery.

And he who marries

a woman

divorced from her husband

commits adultery.

I'm married to Louise

for 33 years.

Neither of us

are divorced.

My hope

and my prayer

is that if

Jesus tarries

that I'll have

another 33 years

with Louise

and that we'll only

grow closer

as the years

go on.

That's my hope.

That's what I pray.

That God will give us

a long life together.

That he will regularly

incline my heart

towards her

and incline her heart

to me.

And that Jesus

will be the savior

of my marriage.

The Lord of my marriage.

And that's what I pray.

And that's what I hope

will happen.

So can I just say

well,

it sucks to be other people.

I'm fine with this text.

No,

there's,

here's the thing

behind this text.

Um,

with Jesus

in his kingdom,

I will learn

to be sexually

whole

and free.

With Jesus

in his kingdom,

I will learn

to be sexually

whole

and free.

Um,

if we don't sort of

understand that

behind

and

overall

and underneath

and at the end

of all of the different

scriptural texts

around sexuality

and around marriage,

if we don't understand

that,

then all of these texts

will become very,

very complicated

and hard for us.

And if we're honest,

texts like this

are very hard

in our culture

because on one hand

we agree with this text

but on another hand

we don't agree with it.

On one hand

we agree with this text

because,

um,

we,

we,

um,

those of us

who enter into marriage

don't want to have

the marriage end

in divorce.

And,

um,

if anything,

um,

for those of us

who are in a marriage

and,

and we want to have

the marriage

continue to,

to have our hearts

inclined to our spouse

and to grow into it

and all,

um,

we don't want

our spouse

to think that

for frivolous reasons

they can break up

the marriage

because,

uh,

you know,

frankly now I'm

33 years older

and,

and Louise is,

uh,

very attractive

and she could find

a younger model

and a more attractive model

or a richer model

or a more handy model,

uh,

or a whole pile

of other types of things

and,

and,

and so on one hand

our culture agrees

and understands

that marriages

shouldn't just break up

that,

um,

we might want to say

that in our understanding

of our culture

we should be able

to have a variety

of sexual relationships

and then at some point

in time we decide

to marry

but when we marry

on one hand

we go into the marriage

in our culture

worried that our marriage

will end in a divorce

and the other hand

hoping that it doesn't

end on a divorce

and,

and partially because

of,

of what's going on

in our culture

we have a lot

of ambivalence

and longings

and yearnings

around marriage

and so in the midst

of all of that

the Bible teaches

that God's intent

is that,

um,

God calls,

we are,

some men and women

are called

to,

uh,

to marriage

uh,

of a man

to a woman

or a woman

to a man

and,

um,

and that when God

calls us to a marriage

of a man

to a woman

it's to be the intent

of a lifelong union

and that outside

of that

uh,

we are called

to abstain

from sexual knowing

and that,

and that in fact

while it's counterintuitive

to our culture

it wouldn't have been

counterintuitive

to our culture

in 1954

or other times

but in our culture

right now

that's a very

counterintuitive

statement

that it's human

flourishing

happens within the

context

of either a

lifelong marriage

of a man

to a woman

where sexual

knowing

uh,

where sexual

knowing

takes place

and is part

of it

where sexual

abstinence

sexual knowing

being abstaining

from that

in singleness

and that human

flourishing

can be accomplished

in both

and that's the

consistent

overarching teaching

of the Bible

so what's this

thing about divorce

uh,

you'll notice

in the bulletin

uh,

now that the

Christmas holidays

are over

every week

I put in

something called

going deeper

and uh,

going deeper

I also have

something called

growing in grace

and going in deeper

I usually have

some extra

Bible verses

that people can

look at

by themselves

or with others

to go deeper

into the topic

and I've placed

in there

the six other

primary texts

about divorce

and remarriage

in the Old

and New Testament

here's what I'm

going to say

about the text

remember I said

to you

that um

one of the things

that Jesus teaches

is he says

that uh

that ultimately

God is the one

responsible for the law

the prophets

and when we see

in a few weeks

Luke chapter 21

Luke 21 · chapter mention

that God is the one

responsible

ultimately

for the writing

of the New Testament

he stands behind

the word

he gives it

its power

so if Luke

Luke 16:18

chapter 16

verse 18

was the absolutely

only text

in all of the Bible

that talked about

divorce and remarriage

then we would have

to take that

as having no

other type

of context

and it would mean

exactly what it says

but given

that God

is the author

of all of scripture

a very fundamental

principle of interpreting

the Bible

is that we read

the Bible

every particular

verse of the Bible

within the context

of the larger Bible

that that's one of the things

that you can pray for me

it's one of the things

for our ministry interns

is that as they have

experience

preaching different

parts of the Bible

that they are also

trying to learn

the whole sweep

of the Bible

and so that

and part of my mentoring

with them

is that they don't

interpret one part

of the Bible

in such a way

that it makes

other parts of the Bible

be contradicted

or look foolish

or look ridiculous

and that's part of the task

of everything

so in this particular case

there's no other case

in Luke's gospel

where Jesus talks about this

we're going to talk about

the context in a moment

but if you

it's very puzzling

on one hand

that Jesus says this

immediately after

he said that nothing

in the law

will ever go away

and Deuteronomy 24

when you look at it

later on in going deeper

you'll see that

Deuteronomy chapter 24

Deuteronomy 24 · chapter mention

allows remarriage

after divorce

and when you look

at some of the other texts

you'll see that

in Matthew chapter 5

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

and Matthew 19

a different book

but Jesus allows

remarriage after divorce

when there has been

pornea

in the marriage

pornea to the extent

that it causes

a break in the marriage

and the wronged party

does not believe

the marriage can be healed

and pornea

it's a Greek word

is any type of sexual knowing

or sexual stimulation

outside of the marriage

of a man to a woman

or the woman to the man

and Jesus says

that pornea

can cause a break

in a marriage

in such a way

that the wronged person

can desire to remarry

and in 1 Corinthians 7

there is a second case

where in the case

of basically desertion

or abandonment

or a massive rejection

by the non-Christian

of the Christian

the marriage is broken

and by implication

a person can remarry

so what is Jesus

saying here

I would take it

that we have to

interpret these words

in a way that doesn't

contradict those other words

and so I think

it's referring to

two particular types

of things

and remember how I said

that what we often do

in our understanding

of the Bible

is that we want to try

to solve the riddle

of God

and the riddle

of his word

in such a way

that it allows us

on our terms

to flourish

and on our terms

to be safe

I meet somebody

different than Louise

and I decide

that I want to spend time

with that person

who's different

than Louise

and I don't want to

violate the biblical command

against adultery

so I divorce Louise

so that I can

marry this new person

and God cuts

right through that

Jesus cuts

right through that

and says

what you've just done

is adultery

don't play fast

and loose

with the Bible

and don't play

fast and loose

with religious rules

and being able

to manipulate

religious rules

don't claim

that you didn't

fully intend

everything in your marriage

and a full sense of it

and therefore

there's some type

of an exemption

from it

what you've just done

is adultery

in fact

obviously

in our culture

with prenuptial agreements

and other things

like that

there is a great fear

of many people

in our culture

that people will enter

into a marriage

with the intention

of divorce

not most people

most people

especially those

who are victims

of desertion

abandonment

violence

which is a

particular

heinous form

of rejection

of the other person

people who

enter into

extramarital affairs

but the wronged

person

in these things

who really did

desire

to love

and cherish

and draw close

to the other person

then all that's

happened

is a great

violation

and a great

wounding

but some people

use laws

and exceptions

and wealth

and personal interest

and personal desires

for projects

to cast away

their promises

and their commitments

so they can move on

to the next stage

of their project

in life

and if some of you

are here

feeling wronged

and picked on

because I've said that

all I'm trying to explain

is what the Bible teaches

and your quarrel

is ultimately

with Jesus

not with me

and I'm not trying

to bang you

over the head

in Islam

although I think

in most cultures

it's not really

practiced very much

but in Islam

in there are

I've been told

there are some places

where

you can

a man can sleep

with a prostitute

and

to get around

the problem

of adultery

within Islam

they marry

the prostitute

sleep with a prostitute

and then divorce

the prostitute

and therefore

they have not

committed adultery

texts like this

would speak

in a very powerful

sense of rejection

that would be

an extreme case

of using religion

to avoid

the clear intent

of God

that God

intends

marriage

and he intends

it

as something

that will last

forever

until Jesus

comes

or until

death

of one

or both

of the

partners

and that's

his intention

but the Bible

recognizing

that it's

sinful human

beings

who enter

into the

holy estate

of matrimony

provides

some cases

whereby

due to

sin

the marriage

comes to

an end

and the wronged

person can enter

into a new

marriage

marriage

and I think

there's great

wisdom in the

Bible

a wisdom

that our

culture needs

and a wisdom

for which we

should not be

ashamed

because the

Bible is

wise

I only have

a few minutes

to talk about

the last text

George

what about

the rich man

I'm going to

say two

things

maybe I'll

say three

things relatively

quick

because I'm

very conscious

of the

time

the first

thing

is that

with Jesus

in his

kingdom

I will

learn to

open my

eyes and be

generous

okay

as we're

going to

read through

this

parable

because

the time

consists

I'm going to

sort of

give you

the two

points

I'll be

online

if you

want to

write

them

down

okay

one of

the

things

about

this

parable

that we

come to

that's

very

shocking

is that

the rich

man in

the

parable

he's

not

said

that

he did

a single

thing

wrong

in terms

of doing

something

wrong

it's not

wrong

to have

a party

it's not

wrong

to have

a feast

it's not

wrong

to have

somebody

take you

to an

expensive

restaurant

and because

they just

want to

honor you

and love

you

they buy

you

a really

expensive

meal

that's

not a

sin

if we

think

those

things

are

sins

it's

not

because

of

the

Bible

but

because

of

a

type

of

religion

or

spirituality

which

emphasizes

asceticism

and

denigrates

and puts

aside

the body

it's

not

a

sin

to

sit

down

and

enjoy

a

big

steak

with

sorry

Baptists

with a

nice glass

of red

wine

and mashed

potatoes

with lots

and lots

and lots

of gravy

it is

not a

sin

to do

that

and for

vegetarians

it's not

a sin

to have

a really

nice

big piece

of tofu

deep

fried

with a

cheesy

sauce

and

quinoa

okay

and I

also know

I'm married

to a

vegetarian

those of

us who

had

the steak

we're

going to

be in

heaven

to see

Jesus

quicker

than

the

people

who

had

the

tofu

and

the

quinoa

okay

so you

have to

temper it

but it's

not a

sin

okay

and here's

the terrible

thing

the shocking

thing about

this parable

what

damns

the man

is not

a sin

of

commission

but a

sin

of

omission

it's

not

that

he had

lots

of

great

food

it is

that he

knew

Lazarus

by name

and he

knew

Lazarus

his

poverty

and he

didn't

do

anything

it is

the sin

of

omission

that

damns

him

not a

sin

of

commission

and so

part of

the

positive

lesson

of the

text

is that

with

Jesus

in his

kingdom

I will

learn to

open my

eyes

and be

generous

and the

other thing

that we'll

see

is with

Jesus

in his

kingdom

I will

learn

good

helplessness

in the

context

of the

helper

this is a

very very

frightening

idea for

those of

us who

want to

see God

as a

problem

to be

solved

a riddle

to be

solved

that we

manage

and solve

it so

that we

can be

safe and

flourish

on our

own

terms

but the

Bible

is

constantly

trying to

undercut

our

sense

of

self

dependence

to say

there's a

type of

helplessness

which is

good for

us

and the

type of

helplessness

is always

in the

context

of the

presentation

of help

it's like

going to

some of

these

leadership

and

management

things

where they

do

things

like

ask you

to fall

backwards

and trust

that your

co-workers

will catch

you

that one

of the

things

that drives

people

into the

ground

is the

sense

that they

have to

be in

control

all of

the time

and not

trust

that people

will

help

them

the

Bible

is wise

let's

listen to

the

parable

there was

a rich

man

who was

clothed

in purple

and fine

linen

and who

feasted

sumptuously

every day

and at his

gate was

laid a poor

man named

Lazarus

covered with

sores

who desired

to be fed

with what fell

from the rich

man's table

this is

verse

now we're up

to verse

21

where over

even the

dogs came

and licked

his sores

just pause

there

do not

think Walt

Disney

do not

think

Cinderella

singing a

song

while the

birds come

and help

with the

dishes

I think it was

Cinderella

where that

happened or

was it the

seven dwarves

I can't

remember

anyway don't

think Disney

the original

the word

for dogs

here is

wild dog

not pet

but wild

and it's

portraying

Lazarus as

being so

helpless

that he

can't

stop

a wild

dog

from

violating

his

person

giving him

even more

infection

while they

lick his

sores

that's the

image

massive

helplessness

and unclean

massively

helpless

verse 22

the poor

man died

and was

carried by

the angels

to Abraham's

side

the rich

man also

died and

was buried

and in

Hades

being in

torment

he lifted

up his

eyes

and saw

Abraham

afar off

with

Lazarus

at his

side

they called

out

father

Abraham

have mercy

on me

and send

Lazarus

see

I'm going to

tell you in a

moment but

this is very

the only

parable of

all of

Jesus's

parables

where anybody

has a

name is

this

parable

only

parable

everybody

else

says man

was going

down to

Jerusalem

there was

a father

with two

sons

there was

a woman

who lost

a coin

it's always

just

something

this is

the only

parable

where

somebody's

named

and it

has several

reasons

for it

and one

of them

is here

that now

it reveals

the rich

man doesn't

say

Abraham

you have

a whole

pile of

former

street

people

up there

could you

pick one

of those

street

people

and just

you know

help me

out here

a bit

okay

all those

days he

was feasting

he knew

who the

guy was

did

nothing

his

omission

is

revealed

his

omission

is

revealed

verse

25

but

Abraham

said

child

remember

that

you

in

your

lifetime

received

your

good

things

and

Lazarus

and

like

man

are

bad

things

but

now

he

is

comforted

here

and

you

are

in

anguish

and

besides

all

this

between

us

and

you

a

great

chasm

has

been

fixed

in

order

that

those

who

had

passed

from

here

to

you

may

not

be

able

and

none

may

cross

from

there

to

us

and

the

rich

man

the

formerly

rich

man

said

then

I

beg

you

father

to

send

him

to

my

father's

house

for

I

have

five

brothers

so

that

he

may

warn

them

lest

they

also

come

into