Our sermon text this morning is from Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 12, verses 1 to 12. In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God? Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. And I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. So ends God's word by His Spirit. Let's pray now and ask the Spirit's help. Our great God, we thank you for your word that has come to us through Luke and by your Holy Spirit, and we ask that even as we have read of the promise of the Spirit who will teach us during trial, we ask that your same Spirit would help us now, even as we're not under trial, that even we might be prepared, even now, to give a reason and an answer for the hope that is within us when we are under trial. Teach us now, Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Is fear a good thing or a bad thing? Well, fear is certainly a good thing when it protects us from harm. Whenever we're around something that we fear might be dangerous or threatening to us, we tend to take extra precautions. For example, the fear of flying through a windscreen at 65 miles per hour causes us to put on our seatbelts. The fear of falling to our death keeps us from getting too close to the cliff edge as we're walking along the Appalachian Trail. The fear of being mugged keeps us from taking that shortcut through the alley late at night. Fear can be a very good thing. In fact, fear is a God-given instinct that protects us from harm and danger. And yet in our passage, our Lord tells us that fear is something to be managed and something to be controlled. Five times in our passage, Jesus speaks of fearing and not fearing. And he does so in the context of being put on trial for our faith. Specifically, he tells us not to fear those who kill the body. Well, it can be very easy for us to be afraid and to give in to fear whenever our faith is challenged in some way. You know, when someone asks you about your faith and they're asking you in a group setting and you know that however you answer, it's not gonna go well. They'll ridicule you, they'll mock you. And in that moment, that's what you fear. You fear their rejection. You fear their disapproval. Maybe you might even fear that they'll harm your body. And so you're tempted to fear man more than God, and perhaps you may even fail in that moment to confess Christ. Well, at times, even some of the greatest men and women of church history have faltered under fear. One of the key leaders of the English Reformation was a man named Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was also the author of the Book of Common Prayer. And when the Roman Catholic Queen Mary took the throne, it began a time of great persecution. Cranmer and his colleagues were arrested and also sentenced to death. Cranmer watched as his friends Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake in the very center of Oxford town. You can still go there today and see the plaque in the ground that marks where they were killed. But when it was Cranmer's turn, fear took over. And Cranmer recanted his faith. In that moment, Cranmer did what comes so naturally to all of us. He feared what man could do to his body more than he feared the Lord. And so he saved his skin, as it were, even at the cost of denying his Lord. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our master and our friend, knows our weakness. He knows that at times our courage falters and gives way to fear. And so he takes the time now to carefully instruct us as his disciples. In our passage, he warns us of the danger of hypocrisy that flows from a fear of man. Then he redirects us from fear of man to fear of God. And finally, he provides us with the greatest comfort, that those who confess him now, he will confess before God and the angels on the last day. So let's consider then the fear of man, the fear of God, and finally, the fearless confession of Christ. So first, Jesus warns his disciples about the fear of man. Now Jesus has just finished up his dinner party with the lawyers and the Pharisees, and as you remember from the last two weeks, well, the dinner party didn't go according to plan, at least not for the host. The dinner party host took offense to Jesus for not washing his hands according to their man-made rituals that initiated Jesus' woes against the Pharisees and the lawyers for their legalism and hypocrisy. Jesus likened those men to their fathers who killed the prophets. The scene ended with the religious leaders trying to test Jesus and trap him and trip him up. And now we read in verse one of chapter 12 how thousands of people have been drawn and they're all gathering to maybe hear the commotion and find out more about this Jesus person. Now at first we read that and we might think that this is a good thing. However, in Luke's gospel, the crowds typically represent those who are curious and interested, but uncommitted. Sometimes the crowds are somewhat supportive of Jesus, but other times they can turn hostile. In chapter eight, Luke described the crowd using the same language as he did in the parable of the the soils to describe the weeds that would choke out the seed of faith. And now Luke describes the crowd as trampling one another. And so given the heightened tensions with the Pharisees and religious leaders, and now this massive foreboding crowd that's trampling itself, Jesus sees the danger this poses to his disciples, and he takes time out to carefully instruct them. And so he turns to them and he says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Jesus calls his disciples to beware, be on guard, take care for the leaven of the Pharisees. Now leaven was essentially a kind of bread yeast, and it worked its way through the dough and made the bread rise. And in Jesus' day, leaven was a common metaphor to describe anything that kind of worked secretly and spread like a contagion. Jesus uses the imagery of leaven because he recognizes that the Pharisees are like that. You know, the Pharisees have a sort of a gravitational pull. You see them walk into the marketplaces with their hands in the air, or whatever they're doing, and all these gesturing, and they're saying these wonderful sounding prayers, and they've got long tassels, and they seem to make great sacrifices for the Lord. And, you know, as someone who wants to be a good law-abiding Jew, you look at that and you say, wow, if I could only be half of what these men were. And so Jesus knows that their influence is contagious, it's infectious, and it can even spread among the disciples like a leaven. What is their leaven? Jesus says their leaven is hypocrisy. Again, hypocrisy is what? Hypocrisy is essentially having dual identities. Hypocrisy is like wearing a mask before others to conceal who you really are. You remember from the dinner scene how Jesus laid out his woes against the Pharisees for all of their hypocrisy. He likened them to a bowl that is clean on the outside and nicely polished, but within is caked with dirt and filth. Their hypocrisy could be seen in how they carefully tithed everything right down to the herb plants that grew on their windowsill. Meanwhile, they had no love for the orphan, the widow, the stranger. No, their piety and their purity was only skin deep. It was only a mask. But within, they were filled with greed and wickedness. But why is this hypocrisy like leaven? Why is there a danger that this will spread to us? I mean, as we read Jesus' woes against these guys, we think, oh, I wouldn't want to be anything like these guys. Why is their hypocrisy attractive to Christ's disciples? Well, Jesus explains that in verse two. when he says, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Hypocrisy or wearing a mask before others is attractive because it appeals to our fear of man. It tells us that we can have a hidden identity, a concealed part of us that no one will know about us. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees tells you it's okay to be one person in church and another person at home and maybe another person again in the workplace. Hypocrisy tells you don't worry about the things that you're ashamed of or the things that you don't want other people to see. You've done a good enough job hiding them and concealing them. No one will ever know. Fear of man keeps us from committing external acts of sin But hypocrisy allows us to nurture those same desires in our hearts where nobody can see them. For example, fear of man will keep us from actually murdering someone and actually committing adultery most of the time. I mean, imagine the social shame. Imagine what other people would think if you did those actual things. Imagine what the neighbors would think. But hypocrisy says, don't worry, you don't have to act out those desires, but just keep them in your heart and nurture them there, where nobody can ever see. And so, while the outside of the cup is clean for fear of man, the inside is filled with lust and hate and hypocrisy. Alternatively, Maybe what we fear most is being rejected for following Christ, and so the mask we wear in school, at family dinners, or the workplace, is actually the mask that hides our Christianity, because we fear what others may think of us. This is the leaven of the Pharisees. This is the powerful appeal of hypocrisy, and this is why Jesus warns us about it, because it is dangerous to our souls. But Jesus makes clear that all will be revealed as he continues in verse three. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on housetops. He couldn't get more emphatic, could he? Those secret things we whisper, those things we've concealed from everybody else, or maybe a certain group of people in our lives. Jesus says, someone's going to have a loudspeaker shouting those things from their rooftops. What is in our hearts and what we think we've concealed will be exposed. Beloved, this is a warning that is not directed to the crowds. It's not directed at this point even to the Pharisees or the scribes or the lawyers. No, Jesus is directing this to his disciples and we are his disciples. And so each one of us must examine our own hearts. Have you been infected with the leaven of the Pharisees? Do you have a dual identity? Do you have a dual internet identity? Where perhaps on social media, you're sharing sermons and sharing Puritan quotes and all these kinds of things. And on your Instagram account, you've got the pictures carefully set up with your coffee, your morning coffee and your daily devotion open or your Bible. But then with your hidden identity, you're gossiping in private chats, or worse still, you're visiting the online brothels of the dark web. We can all manage our revealed identity before others. We can all polish the masks that we may choose to wear. But the question is, who are you when you're alone? Young people, who are you when your parents aren't home? Are they're not around watching you? Who are you when your spouse is not around or your pastor? Well, even if no one else is around, God is always around. And that's because we live all of our lives quorum Deo, before his face, in his presence. No matter who we think we fooled and how secret we think our actions are, we always have an audience of one. And that's why Jesus says, all that we think is hidden will be revealed. As the scripture says at the very end of Ecclesiastes, God will bring every deed into judgment and every secret thing, whether good or evil. The reason why living a double life is so attractive is because we're driven by the wrong kind of fear. Hypocrisy is driven by the fear of man, but the Christian is to be driven by the fear of God. And that's the second thing Jesus teaches us about, the fear of God. Well, Jesus now as our master and as our friend says to us, I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after have nothing more that they can do. Well, the scene that Jesus imagines is where the believer is being put on trial for their faith. And notice what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say, my friends, do not fear because God won't let anything bad happen to you ever. Do not fear because no one will ever reject you for following me. No one will ever want to kill you for following me. No, that is not something he promises. Quite the opposite. Recall the previous scene where Jesus recalled the long line of prophets from A to Z, from Abel to Zechariah, and how they were all killed for their faith. And so Christ's disciples must prepare, at the very least, to be rejected for following Christ, and at the most extreme, to be martyred. What Jesus does say then is that he reminds us that the worst that man can do is harm our bodies. And even if they do the worst thing they can do and they kill us, that's all they can do. Now, that's still quite scary, isn't it? The thought of being tortured in China or North Korea, the thought of being martyred, that is a scary thought. Of course, what Jesus is doing is he's reminding us that this life is not all there is. And this body, when it dies, there is more beyond this life and beyond what this life holds and what death can do to us. We are body and soul, and when we die, if we die confessing Christ, well then our souls will be safe with him. And there is nothing that man or devil can do to separate us from the love of Christ and our union with him. And so, in essence, Jesus is telling us, when you are put on trial, do not fear what man can do to you, for what does that compare with the eternity that awaits you? Well, Jesus not only tells us not to fear man, but next he tells us what we are to fear as he continues. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. So Jesus redirects our fear from man to God. There is only one judge of all the earth. Man thinks that he is the judge and the arbiter of all things. Man wields his threats and his malice against others, and we are prone to fearing him because of that. But Christ reminds us that there is only one judge of heaven and earth, and therefore there is only one judgment we should fear. There is only one opinion we should care about, and that's the judgment, the opinion of God. After all, only God has the authority to cast into hell. You know, there's a set of words that the Bible uses to describe the general place of the dead. In the Old Testament, that's Sheol. In the New Testament, that's Hades. Well, Jesus doesn't use Sheol or Hades to describe the general place of the dead. No, he uses the word Gehenna, which is that place of eternal torment. It is hell. That is what Jesus is describing. And who can compare with the God who has authority over life and death and eternity. How foolish are we when we fear man's judgment and man's threats in light of the all-powerful God who has the power to cast man into hell for eternity. Indeed, as the Proverbs say, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, of wisdom. So we are not to fear man, we are to fear the Lord. But Jesus is very careful to clarify that it's not the same kind of fear. Why is it that we fear man? Well, we're afraid of man because we're afraid that he'll lash out against us, he'll treat us unjustly, unfairly. Not so with God. Our fear of the Lord isn't that kind of fear. It's a different kind of fear. We don't live in the fear that he'll lash out at us at any minute, or even that he'll send us to hell as his children. No, we fear God with a fear that is a reverence and awe, an obedience, a trust, and love. We fear a God who is, yes, majestic and has authority over heaven and hell, one who has drawn us close to himself through Christ. We fear a heavenly father, as Jesus shows us in verse six. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God? Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you who are of more value than many sparrows. Now, perhaps you bird watchers want to appreciate this so much, but in Jesus' day, sparrows were so numerous, they were like pests. They swarmed around like flies. And in fact, the poor who couldn't afford maybe other sources of protein and meat would actually buy these at the marketplace. And apparently, they were the cheapest things you could buy at the market. You could buy them for next to nothing. And so, in other words, they're some of the most insignificant of creatures. And yet Jesus tells us, even though you can buy them in five packs, not even one of them is forgotten by the Lord. He reinforces this point with hair. And if sparrows are of little value, how much less value is hair? Apparently, the average person loses 50 to 100 hairs a day. Some of us have completely stopped losing hair, but that's for another reason. But God even knows the hairs of our heads. Well, Jesus' point is clear, isn't it? And it's comforting. If God remembers sparrows, and if he numbers your hairs on your head, how much more does he care for you? And so he says, fear not. You are of more value than many sparrows. And friends, whom do you fear? Do you fear man or do you fear the Lord? What are some signs that we are not living in the fear of the Lord? One sign is when we allow the leaven of hypocrisy to infect our lives so that we live one way before others, but within we harbor some unrepented sin. I mean, think about it. Any time that we think we have fooled God and that there is no consequences for our sin, is that a sign that we're fearing the Lord? That we think we've pulled one over Him and there's no consequences? No, that is a sign that we are not fearing the Lord when we harbor unrepentant sin. Another example is in our attitude to worship. We're called to offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. Why? Because God is a jealous God and a consuming fire. Well, if God has determined how He is to be worshiped, And why do so many Christians today introduce innovation to worship? Why do we approach worship on the basis of what I like or what I dislike? Well, I like this thing. Well, I don't like that thing. Is that the measure of acceptable worship? Not according to Hebrews or Leviticus. Why has worship become so casual in many churches? It's because there is no fear of the Lord. Why are Christians so anxious to have the approval of the world? Why is it becoming more common to hear Christians affirming certain sins like homosexuality? Why are Christians in the name of love affirming homosexual marriages? Why do we compromise and give in to that pull and that pressure to be like the world and to be liked by the world? It's because we're fearing people and their opinions more than we fear the Lord. So often we're guilty of fearing man more than God. But beloved, God through his word and by his spirit is giving you the motivation and also the grace to stand for him and to fear him in this right kind of all reverence in all kind of way. He's giving you the grace that you need by reminding you that he is the judge of all mankind. He is the only one who is able to make a final judgment. He even has the power to cast into hell. And yet, the same God who holds the power of judgment, of heaven and hell, is also the God who knows you, and loves you, and values you, and calls you his friend. And because of that, you do not need to fear the worst that man can throw at you. Let's be honest, what's the worst that can happen in the workplace? Lose your job? Yeah, that's pretty bad. But it's not being martyred for the faith. What's the worst that can happen really? Being ridiculed, mocked? What is that when we have a God who holds the keys of heaven and hell in his hands and who has promised us that he loves us and will not let us go? And so then, let us fear the Lord and not man, and let us seek to live and to do everything for his good pleasure. Let us say with the psalmist, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? To fear man and to be inflated with hypocrisy may lead to hell, but to fear God leads to a fearless confession of Christ. And that's the third thing we'll see. Well, how can we fearlessly confess Christ when we are put on trial for our faith? How can we find the courage to confess Christ before others? When doing so, we'll lead to rejection, and ridicule, and mocking, and slander, and maybe even losing our jobs. Well, Jesus tells us how in verse eight, where he says, And I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will confess before the angels of God. The word that the ESV translates as acknowledge is better translated as confession. That's actually how the King James Version translated it as well. It's the same word that Paul uses in Romans 10.10 to describe the public confession of Jesus as Lord. So when we are put on trial and we're questioned about our faith, Jesus promises us that if we confess him before others, he in turn will confess us before the angels of heaven. What a comfort this brings to our souls. What courage it should give us to boldly confess Christ, to know that on that day of judgment when all men will stand before God and all secrets will be revealed and shouted from rooftops, you, dear Christian, will not hear the voice of the accuser accusing you of your sin. Instead, you will hear the sweet clear, judicial voice of Christ saying, this one is mine. Hell and death have no claim over this one. This man is mine. This woman is mine. And this, beloved, is why you do not need to fear those who can hurt your body but who can do no more harm after you are dead. The torture of man might be horrendous, but it is only momentary, compared with the glory of Christ that lasts forever. Knowing this, you can endure the rejection of men and their disapproval, because through faith, you already have the assurance of heaven's approval. However, Jesus also warns us of the sin of denying him before men. He continues in verse nine, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. So Christ warns us here that if you do not confess him before men but deny him, then he will deny you before the angels of God. The question that arises then, probably for many of us, is, what if I have already denied Christ? Maybe in your workplace, some colleagues were ridiculing Christianity and profaning Christ, and then they kind of turn to you and say, wait, don't you believe all that nonsense? Aren't you a Christian? Didn't you talk about going to church at one point? And in that moment, fear overwhelms you. and you shake your head and say, no, no, no, that wasn't me, that was someone else. Or maybe it was your first week starting out at a new university and everything's new, it's maybe your first time away from home and you're excited, you're a little bit nervous, and all you wanna do is just get along and you wanna fit in and you wanna make friends and not be the oddball. And you get to know a group of people, a few girls, a few guys, Then over lunch, this group that you're getting to know, they begin to mock the faith, and they begin to mock Christ and Christianity. And in that moment, you're gripped by fear. And what you fear most is the fear of their rejection of you, and to know that you'll have no friends, that you'll be lonely and abandoned. And so you join in a little bit, or maybe you don't. Maybe you just put your smile and you chuckle along with them. Or maybe it's as simple as wanting to make a good impression with this fancy new neighborhood you've just moved into. And someone outright asks you, hey, I saw you getting up and leaving early Sunday morning, where'd you go? And you blow it. In the moment, fear takes over, and you say, oh, no, nowhere. Or you make some excuse, anything to keep them from thinking you're a Christian. Most of us have probably been guilty of this at some point in our Christian lives, where in the moment we fear man more than God and we deny our Lord. We deny our Lord, either by what we say or by what we fail to say. Well, what then? What now? Have we, have you at that point committed the unpardonable sin? Well, Jesus continues in verse 10, distinguishing between two kinds of denial. He says, and everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Well, to give you the conclusion up front, there are two kinds of denial. The one kind of denial, which is the spoken word against Christ, is a momentary act of sin that is repented of and forgiven. The other is blasphemy. It is a deliberate, permanent, unrepentant denial, and therefore it is unforgiven. So first, there's the denial referred to as speaking a word against the Son of Man. And Jesus says, it will be forgiven. This first kind of denial is the momentary act. It's the person who, under trial, is being put under tremendous pressure. And under that pressure, they cave, they give way to fear, and they deny Christ. And this is a serious, serious sin. And yet amazingly, Jesus promises that he will forgive us if we repent of this sin. Can you think of anyone who falls into this category? Peter, right? Peter said to Jesus, I will never deny you. But then in his moment of trial, he denied Jesus three times. And yet, Peter repented. Peter went to Jesus, or rather, Jesus went to Peter and forgave him. and restored him. Well, the second kind of denial is one that is deliberate, permanent, and unrepentant. Jesus refers to this as the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Now, it isn't that the Holy Spirit is higher than the Son or the Father, and that's what makes it so unforgivable. Rather, the reference is less to the person and more to the Spirit's work. The Spirit, after all, is the one who applies to us the accomplishments and the merits and the grace of what Christ has earned. And thus to blaspheme against the Spirit is to reject all that Christ has accomplished and all of his redemptive grace. It is to reject God's work of salvation accomplished by Christ and applied by the Spirit. An example of this can be seen in the religious leaders who knew their Old Testaments and knew the prophets and should have seen how the prophets were pointing forward to Christ. And even then when Christ came and they saw all of his works, they rejected him and they attributed what had been done in the power of the Spirit to Satan. This is not an accidental or momentary sin that we slip into in the course of the week or even the course of a Christian life. No, this is an informed, deliberate, willful, malicious, and unrepentant rejection of the grace of God. And farthest, there is no forgiveness. So what do you do if you have committed the sin of denying Christ in the workplace, in the classroom, around the family dinner table. Well, first, acknowledge that you have sinned grievously against Christ by denying him. You have denied the Lord of glory, the one who was sent from heaven to earth to save sinners, the one who says he is not ashamed to call you his brother, and yet you are ashamed to identify with him. Second, Go to Christ, confessing your sin, repenting of your sin, and asking for his forgiveness. But pastor, what if I've committed the unpardonable sin and he won't forgive me? If you are repentant of your sin and remorseful and seeking the forgiveness of his grace, then you have not, you have not committed the unpardonable sin. And he will say to you, my child, I forgive you. I paid for your sin, just like I did Peter's and so many other saints who have denied me throughout the years. You have been faithless in that moment, but my child, I am your faithful Savior and I forgive you." Ask God for the courage to fearlessly confess Christ the next time you're on trial. And this is something that the Spirit provides us as we see in verses 11 and 12. Jesus goes on to say, and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say. Why? For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Now this has maybe direct and specific application to what the apostles would experience, but it is no less true that the Father who values you more than many sparrows and the one who knows every hair of your head will not abandon you in your moment of trial. He will send the Holy Spirit who will assist you and give you courage and even give you the words to say. This grace of forgiveness and this help of the Holy Spirit is something that Thomas Cranmer came to experience. Eventually, Cranmer did repent of his sin of denying the faith, and then Cranmer was sent to his execution, making one last courageous confession of his faith in Jesus Christ. In his farewell remarks, he exhorted the people to care less for this world and more for God and the world to come. Well, beloved, you may not be tried to the point of death like Cranmer, but you will be. You will be called upon to confess Christ in some measure. And when this happens next, remember who God is and fear him more than man. Remember that you can endure the rejection of man because you already have the approval of Christ in heaven. Know that you can endure even the threat of physical harm and even death because you have the assurance of the resurrection through Christ's resurrection. And remember that in your trial, you are not alone, for the Spirit will be given to you and will help you in what you are to say. And to this, we say, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this warning, this call to faithfulness, but the reminder that even where we have been faithless, you are an ever-faithful God. Lord, help us even now in these next moments to make that good confession according to the pattern of sound words. Help us, Lord, as we go tomorrow into the workplace, the home, the various places in which our faith will be tested and tried. Cause us to go with these promises until remembering that you are our God, and that you are with us, and that Christ is our friend, and the Spirit is given as our guarantee. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.