Alright, please turn with me now in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. As you turn into chapter 12, I want to say a little bit about irony. I do enjoy a little bit of irony in my literature and also in my life. Irony, if you're not sure, is when what happens is sort of the opposite of what you expected to happen, especially in an amusing sort of way. So I did notice and did enjoy the irony in that the first sermon that I preached in the midst of this coronavirus epidemic last Sunday was from a passage in which there was a controversy about washing hands. and that especially that it was Jesus who was not washing his hands in apparent defiance to the sort of local ordinance of the Pharisees. I didn't plan that. I found that sort of amusing. Well, as we continue on, Look here. We get another dose of ironies because this chapter 12 begins and we're all Practicing social distancing and especially doing everything that we can to avoid crowds Where do we find Jesus but in the very midst of a huge crowd? So somebody needs to alert the CDC. It appears that the Lord is not setting a very good example for us here in Luke's gospel I do want to look at this crowd though. Notice how Luke describes it. It's not a lot of detail, but what is there is significant. He does describe this as an especially large crowd. He calls it an innumerable multitude, literally myriads or tens of thousands of people gathered around Jesus here at the beginning of chapter 12. And Luke also notes there in verse 1 that as they were assembled, the people began to trample one another, which is a sort of thing that crowds, large crowds sometimes do, and it's just a reminder to us how big crowds of people are potentially powerful and unpredictable. I think perhaps the most impressive crowd that I have ever seen was at a music concert in Atlanta known as Music Midtown. It's been going on for a long time. They block off several, I don't know, acres there in the midst of the skyscrapers of Atlanta and something like 300,000 people show up. for a weekend of music. So I went to one of these concerts a long time ago, and I can remember standing on a little hill and just looking out at what appeared to be a sea of men. And I know that's sort of a cliché, but it really was a fitting way to describe the sort of awesome, beautiful, and yet potentially intimidating movement of this great crowd of people. And at times when I found myself in the midst of it, I did realize that I was quite at the mercy of this great crowd of men. We're reminded in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic that crowds can be dangerous. where there are diseases about, diseases spread particularly rapidly, where there are a great number of people gathered together. And the same could be said of dangerous rumors as well. Sometimes, dangerous men, treacherous individuals, are able successfully to hide themselves in the midst of large crowds, men like assassins, or here in this crowd, the Pharisees. If crowds, large crowds of people ever get spooked and become afraid, they can panic and start to run, and you get something like a stampede, and that's when people get trampled. There seems to be something of that going on here in Luke 12. And then maybe, worst of all, if a crowd is gripped by a passion, something like rage, gets a hold of a large crowd of people, then they can go quite mad. and become violent and there can be considerable bloodshed. A riotous enraged crowd is quite an evil force of nature when it happens in our world. There was a man named Charles Mackay who was a Scottish author and a poet in the 19th century who is mostly remembered now for a book that he wrote entitled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. It's quite a title there, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. This is sort of an early foray into what we call now crowd psychology. And as an observer of crowds and the behavior of men in crowds, McKay makes a number of interesting statements. or read a few of them to you. He says in this book, quote, men, it has been said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one. So, McKay is speaking here of what we might call group think. When people think as they think in large crowds of people, they can be very quickly driven towards insanity or madness. And yet, at the same time, being driven to madness, it's very unlikely that if those crowds continue to think as crowds, that they'll think their way out of it. That's McKay's point. I think that's an interesting one. Another thing he says in this book is this, quote, whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in pursuit. So we're seeing that right now, right? What is the object upon which everyone's minds are fixed? Toilet paper. We're pursuing it in a way that really makes no sense. He says, millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion and run after it till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first. So it's almost like in the way that an individual can have an idea, a crowd can have an idea. All these people at the same time are gripped by the same idea and then turn in concert all at once to simultaneously pursue the same thing. So that's another observation that McKay makes in this book, another interesting one. The last thing that he says that I'll read to you this morning is this. He says, quote, three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind, and by impelling us to seek remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and the ignorance of the future. So what he's saying here is that the crowds are particularly inclined to go mad when they get it in their heads that they can fix something that they cannot fix. Or that they can avoid something that they cannot avoid or have something that they cannot possess. And historically, what it is that they're after in these times when they go crazy is the avoidance of death, of work. and of walking blindly into the future. When people get it into their heads that they can avoid these things, when great crowds of people are gripped by the idea that they can avoid one or all three of these things, watch out, because people are going to start acting crazy in large numbers, and that is a dangerous thing. Now we're returning then to Luke's Gospel and to the story of Jesus of Nazareth and I'll note here that Jesus it seems had a complicated relationship with crowds. He was actually born under the sign of a crowd and I'm referring to the great multitude of angels that appeared over Bethlehem on the night in which Jesus was born. But when those angels receded back into the night, it seems that Jesus maybe didn't see crowds in the world very often for a long time, living as he did in obscurity in the little town of Nazareth. But at about the age of 30, that's when John the Baptist came on the scene and began drawing large crowds out into the wilderness of Judea to hear his preaching. And from that point forward, crowds were definitely a regular feature in Jesus' life, as Luke testifies by referring to crowds 49 times in his Gospel. The crowds in Luke's gospel are always looking for Jesus. They're always seeking Him, following Him. He steps out of a boat onto land, they are there. He turns the corner, they are there. They want to hear Him, what He has to say. They want to touch Him, to know something of His rumoured power. And so Luke describes the crowds in his gospel as being thickly gathered about Jesus and pressing upon him and thronging him. Those are some of the verbs that Luke uses in his gospel. And Jesus, it seems, was not entirely comfortable with these crowds, felt a need, in some sense, to distance himself from them. I get a sense of this in the Gospel of John, chapter 2, verses 24 through 25, so pretty early in Jesus' engagement with these crowds. It says there, but Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men, and had no need that any one should testify of men, for he knew what was in man. So you get the idea here that Jesus was somewhat suspicious of the men in these crowds, and for good reason. And so we do see him at times seek to slip away, get away from the crowds and be alone for a time. As in Mark chapter 1, we learn sometimes Jesus had to get up pretty early in the morning to make this happen. It says, Now in the morning, having risen for a while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed. So sometimes Jesus just wanted to be alone. But the crowds always find him, they always found him. And when they did, Jesus returned to the crowd. He had things he wanted to say to them, to teach them. He had things that he wanted to do for them. On occasion he fed them, fed them lunch, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. And he also was always eager to heal the sick that they brought to him. As at sunset in Capernaum in Luke 4, It says there, when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. So Jesus taught the crowds, and he did things for the crowds, and he wondered about the crowds. In Luke chapter 9, he asked his disciples, who do the crowds say that I am? Not who do men, but who do the crowds say that I am? There's a question that Jesus had on his mind. And so here in Luke chapter 12 we find Jesus yet again in the midst of a crowd, not too much of a surprise. And why is he there? Why is Jesus there? It is to show the crowd who he is. by his teaching and by his deeds. And as he does so here, it seems that he is beginning to prepare his disciples to do something of the same in their own ministry. The time will come when he will send them in his name out into the world. You notice that he addresses them first with his crowd as the background, this innumerable multitude beginning to trample on each other. Jesus turns to his disciples first to speak to them. You remember that at the lake of Gennesaret where Jesus performed the miracle in which the disciples cast their net into the lake from their boat and drew up such a great multitude of fish that their nets were breaking. It was on that occasion that Jesus said to them, fear not, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Where are we going Lord? They might have asked. out there into the crowds, you and I. In the midst of this coronavirus epidemic, as I said, we are avoiding crowds, I am, you are, and yet in spite of the weirdness and the inconvenience of that, perhaps you're finding that you sort of like it. You just sort of like staying at home and not being around people. If that is true, if that is you, and I'm speaking to you as the disciples of Jesus Christ, the message today is, don't get used to it. This coronavirus will pass, and when it does, we who follow Jesus Christ will be heading back out into those crowds. Our sermon text is Luke chapter 12, verses 1 through 12. Hear now the Word of God. In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another, Jesus began to say to his disciples, first of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear and inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear him. For not five sparrows solve for two copper coins, and not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. May God add His blessing to the reading of this His Word. So about those crowds, three things that I want to say to you in the name of Jesus Christ this morning. The first is, those crowds you know are your fellow human beings, and therefore you should not trust them. Jesus' first words, verse one to his disciple, is beware. Beware, take heed. Be careful, pay attention. It is as Jesus said in sending out the twelve in Matthew chapter 10, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but beware of men. I am sending you out there into those crowds. Be careful. Beware of the men in those crowds. That's a sad thing to hear, isn't it? That we cannot trust our fellow men. Even those fellow men to whom Christ would send us, whom we desire to do nothing but good. Shouldn't we be able to trust them? Jesus says no. You cannot. And do not. Beware, especially, he says in this passage, the leaven of the Pharisees. Leaven, of course, is yeast, and as a metaphor in the New Testament, yeast signifies that which is hidden and which hiding spreads. And so here, particularly, he's talking about the leaven of the Pharisees, whom you remember he excoriated at the end of chapter 11. The leaven of the Pharisees was, Jesus says in another place, their teaching, their doctrine. And along with it, of course, their immoral practice and their insidious influence, in a word, their hypocrisy. That's what Jesus says here. Beware of those men. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, hiding, exerting its influence, spreading out in that crowd. Jesus goes on in verse two and says, But there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. In this context, I take Jesus to be referring here not specifically to his disciples, but speaking generally of men. So in verse 3, Therefore whatever you men have spoken in the dark, The point seems to be this, we cannot hide. I cannot hide, you cannot hide, they cannot hide. We do things in the dark, we say things in secret that we think stay there, but they do not, they will not. And so if you'll pay attention, as you're watchful and wary of the men around you, if they are dangerous men, if they are religious hypocrites like these Pharisees, they will make themselves known to you. They will betray themselves. They are wolves in sheep's clothing, but you will know them by their fruit. And you should also remember as you look at them and they seem to be doing well in the world and getting away with these sorts of things for which Jesus condemns them. Then remember therein that while they may be able to hide themselves now, they will not be able to hide forever. And then woe to them when it is all brought out into the light and they are made to answer to God. And furthermore, I think Jesus is saying to his disciples here especially, and you be careful. My disciples, lest those bad men should corrupt even you. Because their teaching, their example is like leaven. It hides itself and yet it spreads, it corrupts. And there's a chance, if you're not careful, as you go out amongst them, that as Barnabas was carried away by the hypocrisy of Peter in Galatians 2, so you in one way or another will be carried away by the hypocrisy of those men. So be wary of them. You cannot and you should not trust them. Second thing I want to say to you about those crowds to which Jesus sends us, is that they are potentially murderous, and yet we must not fear them. They're potentially murderous, but you must not fear them. My friends, he says in verse four, do not be afraid of them. Be wary of them, but do not be afraid of them. There's a difference. You see that here. Do not be afraid of those, he says, who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. So their intent is murderous, but their powers are limited. Specifically in that, yes, while they can kill the body, they cannot kill your soul. And when they have killed your body, furthermore, then there is nothing more that they can do to your body. They have done to it the worst that they can do. They can do no more. This is meant to take away fear, what Jesus says here. Can you imagine, you go to Jesus and you're afraid of the coronavirus and you say, Lord, tell me something, comfort me, take away this fear. And he says, okay, consider this, the worst thing that the coronavirus can do to you is kill you. That's the worst thing it can do to you. And by kill you I mean, you know, kill your body. But it can't do anything to your soul. And when it has killed your body furthermore, then that's the worst that it can do. It's done all that it can do. So be cheerful. Do not be afraid. What do you think? Would you be comforted? Well remember, when you and I, when we find ourselves faced with murderous men, in the crowds, murderous men in this world whose intent is to kill us. And we look to Jesus and say, Lord, comfort us. This is what we get. Not, I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you one way or the other. That's not the answer. But it is, my disciples, the worst that they can do is kill you. By which I mean kill your bodies. And having done that, They've done all that their power enables them to do. If that doesn't comfort you now, if that thought doesn't comfort you now, then guess what? It's not going to comfort you then. And so if you've got some time on your hands in the midst of this coronavirus quarantine, you might want to think about that. And we point out that what you're thinking about are these two doctrines. One, the dichotomy of man. We are not just bodies. But we are bodies and we are souls. There are two parts that constitute the human being. And so while things like coronavirus and murderous men can kill our bodies, they can't touch our souls. And you need to think about just how wonderful and freeing that is. And then secondly, the second doctrine you need to consider is the doctrine of the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ and then the resurrection of all of us when Christ returns at the end of the world. These things, the coronavirus and murderous men, they can kill our bodies and lay them in their graves, but there's no more they can do to them. And so when Jesus comes again to raise them from the graves, there's not anything that the coronavirus or the persecutors of the church will be able to do about that. And so we shall be raised bodily. We shall be restored to health, to life, and our bodies reunited unto our souls. And so we will follow Christ into eternal life where we will have nothing ever again to fear. Not in the least. There's your comfort. I do hope that comforts you. Jesus says, do not fear the men. I'll show you whom you should fear. Verse five. And that is God. He who, when he has killed, has power to cast into hell. So God can kill the body, but having killed the body, that is not the end. He's not come to the limits of his powers. But He can destroy both soul and body, casting both into the eternal fires and the torments of hell. Twice, Jesus says to His disciples as His friends, whom He's sending out into the crowds, fear God. I tell you who you should fear, fear Him. Don't fear hell and don't fear these men, but fear Him who alone can cast your body and your soul into hell. Fear God. So it's like if you find yourselves here in between two fires. On the one hand, you have a house that is on fire, consumed in flames and about to collapse. And on the other hand, you have a little colony of fire ants, all scurrying about and all their fire ant rage there. And you're in a situation where in fleeing from the one, you have to run into the other. So what are you going to do? Are you going to run away from the fire ants by running back into that burning house? I hope not. That would be foolish. But rather, if you know what you're about, in running away from that house, you're going to take your chances with the fire ants. There's really no comparison here. So that's the thing. What Jesus is teaching here is that it is the greater fear of God that makes you Christians fearless in the face of murderous men in the crowd. So fear God, he says, twice. And then on the heels of this, you'll notice that Jesus, to sort of round it out, to bring the balance back, says one of the most wonderful things that he ever says about God. In verse six he says, to his disciples, there are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins, and not one of them is forgotten before God. So in other words, this God that we're talking about, the Almighty, he cares for the least of his creatures, those who are worth the least in the marketplaces of this world. And his providence extends to them too, and he does not forget them. And then speaking to his disciples as men, he says, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. I don't even bother to number the hairs of my head. I don't care that much. But God does. This reminds me of a man I met recently. The family and I went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. It's an incredible mansion that was built by George Vanderbilt at the beginning of the 20th century. So there's this amazing palace practically and all of these beautiful garden grounds and then in one little corner of the garden there's a an extraordinary greenhouse that they call the conservatory. And in that conservatory, or that greenhouse, there's hundreds of orchids. There's all different kinds of species of orchids. It's just absolutely breathtaking display. And there's a man, the gardener in there, who's responsible for all those orchids, and they actually call him, the staff calls him the Orchid Man. not the orchid man, that's an exterminator, but the orchid man. And so we got to spend some time, about 20 minutes on a tour with the orchid man of the Biltmore state, about, I don't know, 65 years old, white hair, white beard, sort of a jolly old elf. But his knowledge of those plants was extraordinary. He knew every last orchid in all, about them in the minutest detail, all about their anatomy and their physiology and how much water each one needed and all the details of their little lifestyles. And he just delighted in all those details and sharing it with us. I really think the orchid men loved all those orchids. And that's who God is to us. He's the orchid man and we're the orchids. and he loves us and it manifests itself in the care with which he cares about all the little bitty details of our lives. So verse 7, do not fear therefore Jesus says on behalf of his father in heaven for you are more value than many sparrows that is in the eyes of God. Fear him but if you are right with him you need not fear anything. not men, nor the fires of hell. The last thing I want to say about those crowds to which Jesus sends us is that those crowds are perishing and that's why you have to speak the truth to them. Don't let them intimidate you because they'll try, so that you don't speak the truth to them. They need to hear the truth and they need to hear it from you. Jesus stirs us on in verses 8 and 9. Or He says, I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be benign before the angels of God. Don't let anything in this world keep you from confessing Me before men. Great shall be your reward on the last day if you tell those men out in those crowds that are perishing all about Me. Verse 10 is interesting in this particular context where Jesus says there, and anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. We think here of Peter. Peter denied his Lord three times when he was overwhelmed with the thought of Christ's humanity and humiliation and suffering and his death. And he did, he denied his Lord three times and yet he was forgiven. So there's some allowance for weakness among the disciples of Christ. But it is another thing altogether to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and especially where the Spirit is manifest in all of His glorious power in Jesus and through the life of Jesus, as He was when Jesus cast out a demon before the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12. Still, they were ready to deny Jesus in spite of all that they had seen, and all that was manifest right there before their eyes. And only the reprobate do that. And Jesus said, there will be no forgiveness there. So verse 11 reminds us that among the things that this world will do to the church and to Christians who confess Christ, is that they will stir up the crowds. And stirring up the crowds against us, they will incite the powers of state to prosecute Christians. Jesus says, when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you shall answer or what you shall say. We think about the Pharisees among the crowds in Jerusalem and how they stirred up the crowds against Jerusalem and how the crowds releasing Barabbas cried out for Jesus' blood, crucify Him, crucify Him, pressuring Him. The powers of the Roman state to extend their arm and to put the Son of Man to death. Oh, those fickle crowds, you better be wary of those crowds and the mischievous, the murderous men amidst that leaven as it spreads and incites and stirs them up into a violent passion. Be wary of them, Jesus says, but do not fear them. Do not be afraid to speak, even then. For those very men are perishing, you understand. Their bodies, their souls are perishing, and shall be cast into the eternal fires of hell. And they need to hear the truth about Jesus, and they need to hear it from you. And if you're afraid in that situation that you won't be able to speak, and won't be able to testify to what you know, Jesus promises you here to give you His Holy Spirit, to give you the words at the critical time. Look at us, we're cowering in our homes before this coronavirus, aren't we? Cowering in our homes because we don't want to die. We don't want anybody to die. That seems to be the first principle. of our national response to the threat of the coronavirus is that this much we know, that nothing matters more than preserving our lives, meaning our bodies in this world. Christian, that's a false premise. We don't reason from that premise. Jesus teaches us here that that's not actually true. There's something that matters more. And it's another sort of multitude, the multitude that John saw in the revelation on the Isle of Patmos in chapter 5. He said, I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, all saying together with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. What is that multitude, Christian? That is the multitude of God's elect. And where are they now? Look out and see, they are scattered across the globe, out there among the crowds of men, and there are myriads and myriads of them, and each one is like a little zykeus in the crowd, straining his ear to hear, straining his eye to see Jesus Christ. Oh, you may like this quarantine, You may like just staying at home and avoiding people. I for one must confess, I kind of like it. And apparently one of the reasons that I kind of like it is I'm kind of an introvert, or maybe more than kind of an introvert. I took a personality test recently and I scored an 85%. on the spectrum of introvert and extrovert. 85% in the introvert category. That's getting pretty close to the red zone there. That's pretty introverted. What does that mean? Does that mean that I don't like people? No, that's not what it means, but it does mean that I really like being alone. I really do. I like being alone. And it means that one of the most interesting conversations to me in this whole world is the conversation that's going on in my own head. And so I kind of like be alone, and there's a lot of people like me, apparently. I read an article that was written recently by a fellow introvert, a man named Andrew Ferguson, writing for The Atlantic. I thought it was amusing. It's entitled, it's about the coronavirus epidemic and this strange phenomenon, and he entitled his article, Springtime for Introverts. He says in that article, I'm not usually one to see a glass as half full, especially when any idiot can see that it's half empty, as it is right now. But the new quarantine regime that's forcing even the most outgoing person indoors does, to combine metaphors, gild the glass with a silver lining. It has relieved considerable pressure on the introvert community. The world has caught up with us, at last. He says, when newscasters tell Americans that they're entering a strange new life, or a new normal, or moving into unfamiliar territory, I know they're not talking to me. For I and millions like me have been trying to self-isolate for years. We are the hopeful practitioners of anti-social distancing. Millions like me, he says. There's another multitude, a great multitude of people who do not want to be around other people. They call them introverts. There's a lot of them out there, including a lot of them in the church. Apparently I'm a one of them. And so this is a message, at least, maybe especially for us. Look at Jesus here in Luke chapter 12. Where is he? He's among the people. He's right there in the midst of the crowd. And what is He saying to His disciples? He's saying, fear not and follow me. We say, Lord, where are we going? Where are you going to lead us? This much I can say, and I think you understand. It's back out into those crowds. Because as disciples of Jesus Christ, the truth is, that's where we belong. Shall we pray? Lord, we ask you now to help your church to remember what it means that we are the salt of the earth. That we are something and have something without which the world must go without. And so it's important that we not be silenced. It's important that we not be secluded. It's important that we be in the world, even though we are not of the world, in order that we might speak the truth of Jesus Christ to the church, to the world, and especially to your elect who are out there waiting to hear, waiting to be called unto Christ. We pray, Lord God, that all of the motivations to this that have been mentioned in this sermon today would be sufficient to compel us out of our comfort zones, out of our secluded homes, as much as we may love them, and back out into that ministry among men where we always find Jesus and where we must be found if we are to be His followers indeed. For it's in His name that we pray. Amen.