This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to the last day of week 4 of our Look Through the Book of
Luke, chapter 20, chapter 16-20 this week, and we're focusing on chapter 20
today. In this chapter, we see Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem, His one-week
ministry before He gives His life on the cross. And much of His ministry is what
we see in this chapter.

Jesus facing His critics head on. He faces their questions, He faces their
traps, He faces their challenges, He faces them all. He faces their questions.

In chapter 20, verse 1, "One day as He was teaching the people in the temple
courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,
together with the elders, came up to Him, 'Tell us by what authority you are
doing these things,' they said. Who gave you this authority? ' He replied, 'I
will ask you a question.

Tell me, John's baptism, was it from heaven or from men? ' They disgusted among
themselves and said, 'If we say from heaven, He will ask, 'Why didn't you
believe Him? ' If we say from men, all the people will stone us because they are
persuaded that John was a prophet.

' So they answered, 'We don't know where it was from. ' Jesus said, 'Neither
will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ' His critics had
questions, but notice instead of answering their questions, Jesus instead
revealed their motivations.

If only we could always do the same things. I don't always know the motivation
of my critics, and you don't always know the motivation of those who are
criticizing you, whether it's somebody in your family or whether it's a broader
criticism that everybody else knows about. You don't know the motivation, but
Jesus did.

And so you can pray. Jesus, I don't understand the motivation, but I pray that
it would be revealed. And Jesus had the wisdom not to go down the road of
answering every question.

You don't have to answer every question that somebody asks you. Sometimes, even
though you're not God, you're not Jesus, you can figure out the motivation. If
somebody's asking you a question in order to trap you, if somebody's asking you
a question, not for the answer, but because they want to be against you, and
they want to use that question as a leverage.

This happens in business all the time. This happens in families all the time. So
Jesus asked another question, and in that question He pointed out their
motivation.

My encouragement to you when you're asked a question that seems to be more of an
accusation is to pray. In that moment, say, "Jesus, I don't understand the
motivations here, but you do, and I pray that they would be made clear. " There
may be a situation where you need to pray that right now.

After this question, Jesus clearly lays out the situation. He tells a long
parable, which I'm not going to read here, a parable about a son who is
rejected. A landowner has a vineyard, he goes away, and some others are brought
in to take care of it.

Every person that the landowner sends back to give a message to those who are
taking care of the vineyard is killed. First the hirelings, and then the son.
First the prophets, and then the son, Jesus Christ.

The Pharisees get it. They totally understand what he's talking about. They know
he's talking about them.

They didn't understand most of his parables. They understood this one. There's
no doubt they understood what he was talking about here.

And so the Pharisees try to trap him because of what has happened. The Pharisees
send some spies to ask a question of Jesus. In verse 21, "So the spies
questioned him, 'Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and
that you do not show partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the
truth.

Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ' He saw through their
duplicity, and he said to them, 'Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and
inscription is on it?

' 'Caesar's,' they replied. He said to them, 'Then give to Caesar what is
Caesar's, and to God what is God's. ' They were unable to trap him because of
what he had said there in public, and astonished by his answer, they became
silent.

" Now notice what Jesus does here. Instead of getting trapped in their either-or
thinking, either Caesar or God, what do we do, Jesus? Jesus talked instead about
what I would call the God option.

Instead of living under the burden of either-or rules, either you do this thing
or that bad thing, there's a lot of people who love to offer you those kind of
options, you're trapped either way, you live your life for the glory of God.
Instead of getting stuck in the here and now, a lot of people want to trap you
there, you look forward to an eternity with him. The glory of God and the
eternity that we're going to spend with him, that gets you out many of the traps
that people try to set in life.

These spies try to trap him, the rulers, they had questions for him. And then
another group, a group by the name of Sadducees, they were the political party
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, and without going way into the politics
of it, the Pharisees were the more religious amongst them, the Sadducees were
the more political amongst them, the more power-based amongst them. And the
Sadducees then try to challenge him.

By the way, the Sadducees didn't believe there was a resurrection of the dead.
So they had questions of Jesus about it. In verse 27, some of the Sadducees who
say there is no resurrection came to Jesus with a question.

"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies," see if
you can follow this, "if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children,
the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. " Now there were
seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless.

The second and then the third married her, and in the same way, the seven died
leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection,
whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?

Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage, but
those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in that
resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. " You
see what's going on here. These guys have figured out this awesome question that
proves there can be no resurrection.

Moses' law says this has to happen, that a man's brother should take the wife of
the brother who has died. What if it happened seven times? What if there were no
children?

Who's going to be married to who in heaven? Jesus says, "You don't get it.
There's not going to be marriage in heaven like there is on earth.

" I've got to admit, I don't get that. Marriage is the most wondrous
relationship. It's not always wondrous, I understand that, but it is the most
wondrous relationship we can have on this earth when it goes right, and I sure
understand that.

But in heaven, relationships are going to be so much better, so much beyond that
we can't even fathom it. Jesus listens to their silly question, but he doesn't
stop there. He goes on from this silly question to challenge their thinking
about the resurrection.

In verse 37 he says, "But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed
that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob. " He's not the God of the dead, but of the living,
"For to him all are alive. " Jesus just simply says to these Sadducees, "Look,
God says he's the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

He didn't say he was the God who used to be of Abraham. No, Abraham's still
alive. Isaac's still alive.

Jacob is still alive. " These questions, these challenges, what do they mean for
us? I mean, it's great that Jesus answered them well.

It's awesome to watch and to be encouraged by the way he was able to face these
challenges. What do they mean for you? What do they mean for me?

Jesus tells us at the end of the chapter, he uses this day, all that happened
this day, to warn his disciples, to warn his followers, to warn you and I about
religious pride versus 45 to 47. While all the people were listening, Jesus said
to his disciples, "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around
in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most
important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be
punished most severely. " The warning to me here is history is filled with
stories of those who've been trapped by their religious pride.

Now if history is filled with something, I better take warning. And this
religious pride attitude, they love to have flowing robes. They love to be
greeted.

They love to have the most important seats. I have to look good. I have to be
noticed.

I have to be important. That is religious pride. The point of this entire
chapter is be a disciple, not a Pharisee.

It sounds so simple, but it is not always so simple. It is just easier to lean
in the direction of self-importance and self-promotion and self-interest,
especially when you see somebody else being advanced because of their
self-importance and self-promotion. And it doesn't seem right.

It doesn't seem fair. Well, in this day, those who had the greatest religious
pride were the greatest leaders. And Jesus says they will be most severely
punished.

Don't get caught up in what's happening just here and now. The danger of
religious pride is great for me. It's great for you.

And it can be done in a thousand little ways that grow into bigger ways. So
let's talk to Jesus about it. Jesus, you see our hearts.

You know us better than we know ourselves. And you know the little things that
can trap us. The thing that was an enjoyment the first time, but then it becomes
something that we expect the second time.

The notice that we felt like advanced your kingdom the first time, but that
somehow we need to make ourselves feel important the second time. Or just the
little thing that we got, a gift that somebody gave, a blessing that was given,
some money that met a need, the little gift that came into our lives. We began,
Lord, to depend on ourselves or on the person who gave that rather than
depending on you.

Lord, there's so many ways to fall into this. But we are grateful together that
there is a way to never fall into religious pride. And that is to humble
ourselves at your feet.

He who humbles himself will be exalted. To humble ourselves and realize, Jesus,
it's all about you. It's all about following you.

So help us not to get trapped by the trappings, but instead to decide once and
for all, right here, right now, and then make that decision again the next hour
and the next day and the next month and the next year, Jesus, here's what it's
all about. I'm following you. I'm following you.

Whatever happens, you have the words of life. I'm following you. In your name, I
pray.

In your name, I make this commitment. Amen. Next week, we look together at the
two greatest moments in all of history, the cross and the resurrection.