In this video, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke discuss the Gospel of Luke and dive into the passage that deals with fear and the fear of God. They explore the tension between fear and comfort, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging Jesus and staying faithful even in the face of persecution. The conversation also touches on the concept of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and offers reassurance that God’s forgiveness and guidance are always available. Join Clint and Michael as they provide insights and encouragement for living a faithful life in a broken world.
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Transcript
00:00:01:17 – 00:00:31:51
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. As we make our way through the Gospel of Luke on this Tuesday or whenever it is that you get to, it will kind of warn you a little bit ahead of time. Some minor bumpy waters today, a little bit of chop in in today’s text, both in what it says and in what people have maybe thought that it says or or done with it.
00:00:31:51 – 00:00:55:01
Clint Loveall
So we’re in the fourth verse of the 12th chapter, and I’ll go ahead and read a little bit of this and then we’ll we’ll move on. I tell you, friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that, they can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him. Who, after he is killed, has authority to cast him to hell?
00:00:55:06 – 00:01:22:08
Clint Loveall
Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are counted. Do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. So again, if you are familiar with other gospels, you can see here that Luke has kind of condensed some things.
00:01:22:08 – 00:01:59:42
Clint Loveall
This this business about counting the number of hairs on your head and the worth of sparrows is in other gospels. Luke combines that here with a teaching on the authority and the fear of God, which is not just fear. It’s also respect in all, but it is fear. I mean, fear is the base of the word. So the thing that’s interesting about this text, Michael, is that it’s easy to get distracted in the fear language and not notice that he closes that section.
00:01:59:47 – 00:02:30:09
Clint Loveall
Do not be afraid. And so this is the polls that Christians live between, right? On one hand, knowing the awesomeness and the fearfulness of God, who not only holds our bodily health and wealth and well-being, but our spiritual well-being, who can cast a person to hell who has authority not just while we’re alive, but in the afterlife as well.
00:02:30:14 – 00:03:02:19
Clint Loveall
That is a fearsome thing. And yet that God cares for sparrows and counts the hairs on our head. And do not be afraid. You are of more value than many spears. It’s easy, I think, to read this with this language of hell and fear and think that that’s Luke’s point. Ultimately, this is a warning, but I think that warning is secondary to the the confidence at the end.
00:03:02:24 – 00:03:22:40
Clint Loveall
You are of value to God, even though God is to be feared because God is loving, you need not be afraid. And Luke is packed a lot into a few verses. And this is a difficult passage, but almost sermon like I think in the way that he delivers us to the conclusion.
00:03:22:44 – 00:03:47:04
Michael Gewecke
This is one of those classic examples of a text where understanding, context and remembering the people who receive this letter matters, and reading it all as a whole thing matters and not picking out pieces. Because obviously in the introduction part of this text, we shouldn’t rush beyond. There is an obvious seam of fear, right? You have in verse four, Do not fear those who kill the body, right?
00:03:47:04 – 00:04:16:48
Michael Gewecke
Who should you fear? You should fear the one who has the authority to cast into hell. Right? But then at the end verse seven, Do not be afraid, which is another restatement of fear. You’re more value than the sparrow. So where does the text land? While as Jesus is speaking to the disciples, which is the context that we’re in right now, the idea is there are those who you may fear are wrongly, when you should rightly fear God, because he’s the one with the power and the strength.
00:04:16:53 – 00:04:44:51
Michael Gewecke
But ultimately, in the ultimate sense, you don’t need to be afraid of God in a vindictive way, though he has the power to throw to hell. You don’t need to be afraid because your life is more valuable than the sparrow. There’s this less than greater than argument that Jesus is making here. So the ultimate outcome of this passage, which has so much thus far dealt with this issue of fear, is moving towards the idea of comfort.
00:04:44:51 – 00:05:08:42
Michael Gewecke
It’s the idea that you shouldn’t be afraid. And so the context of this would make it very easy. Clint And this has happened historically. We know this people have taken the attacks like this to turn it into a God is a mighty giant who you should be terrified of all the times in your life. And unfortunately to the converse, there’s also those who use a text like this to say there’s nothing awe inspiring in God.
00:05:08:42 – 00:05:27:15
Michael Gewecke
There’s nothing that might inspire fear, fear and go, which is also not true. Ultimately, we live in this tension between the fact that God is awesome by the old definition of it, and therefore fear invoking. Now the other hand by the invitation of Jesus Christ. We don’t need to be afraid because of the God who is revealed to us.
00:05:27:19 – 00:05:55:18
Clint Loveall
Right. And I also think, Michael here that Luke is, is partly saying this is a matter of attention and legions and we’ve seen this before it world and God flesh and spirit. Don’t be afraid of the wrong thing. Be afraid of the Creator, the the sustainer of the universe that is the one worthy of of being afraid of.
00:05:55:22 – 00:06:20:55
Clint Loveall
And yet you need not be afraid of that one. But don’t be afraid of the other one’s because of that one. And this goes on here as we pick up the rest of the passage. I think that is undergirded by the next words here, verse eight I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the son of man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.
00:06:21:00 – 00:06:47:30
Clint Loveall
But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God and everyone who speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven. But whoever blasphemed against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven when they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, the authorities do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say for the Holy Spirit will teach you at the very hour what you ought to say.
00:06:47:34 – 00:07:17:31
Clint Loveall
So again, right, Because we are not afraid of the powers of the world, because we’re not afraid of those who can kill the body, but cannot oversee the soul. We are free in in without fear to proclaim Christ whoever does this, Christ will also speak for and who refuses to do it. They will be denied before the angels of God.
00:07:17:36 – 00:07:44:49
Clint Loveall
So our standing, ultimately before God is our behavior and our confidence in the Son of man. It is a life lived toward proclaim, naming and living out the gospel. And again, Luke doesn’t have this isn’t the gentlest way to get us there. Michael. But this is all stuff we see throughout the gospel. I think it’s particularly sharpened here.
00:07:44:54 – 00:07:52:48
Clint Loveall
This is a this is delivered with a kind of a bat, but it’s nothing we don’t see in other places.
00:07:52:53 – 00:08:15:07
Michael Gewecke
So this is where that context is essential, because if you come into this and you read this with an eye towards its devotional content today, you’re likely going to be drawn to this section in verse ten. This language of blaspheme is against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. This is one of those inflection point kind of text.
00:08:15:07 – 00:08:45:45
Michael Gewecke
It’s really an incendiary kind of text for a lot of people. That’s a terrifying thought. This idea or what is a sin against the Holy Spirit? What is blasphemy? What is the thing that will not be forgiven? And man, just countless ink has been spilled on this. This question’s been asked numerous times. In fact, there’s a real possibility that you’re joining this video, that you found this video because you searched for something like that, and that was the thing that you wanted to engage.
00:08:45:45 – 00:09:10:36
Michael Gewecke
And I want to say by way, I think of both encouragement and maybe there’s a little bit of direction in this that if you put this text in the hands of one of the earliest Christians, if you think that Luthe Luke is re counting this story, this particular teaching of Jesus, that begins with the idea of being afraid of someone and Jesus saying don’t be afraid of the one who can kill you.
00:09:10:40 – 00:09:29:27
Michael Gewecke
Be afraid instead of the one who has the power of heaven and hell. I meant to say. And you don’t need to be afraid of him. Then Jesus moves into this and says, The only thing that matters is acknowledging me. And by the way, don’t even be afraid of what you’re going to say. If you are taken before synagogues, rulers, authorities.
00:09:29:36 – 00:09:58:55
Michael Gewecke
Don’t worry what you’re going to use to defend yourself because the Holy Spirit will teach you at that hour what you ought to say. Man, that would be incredibly encouraging news. That would be an incredibly encouraging teaching. If you were someone who was afraid in your daily life of being caught, of being taken before authorities and both to be martyred for your faith.
00:09:58:55 – 00:10:33:36
Michael Gewecke
And by the way, if you think about the context in which Jesus is writing this in the story of Luke, this is before Christian persecution. This is before the disciples even knew to be afraid of this. Yet this is Jesus prophetically looking ahead and saying words that would later be received by the early church, recounted to us by Luke, and given as an encouragement that in the moment of your trial and the moment in which your faith will be tested, in the moment you’re called to give witness to your faith, that is the moment in which you can trust the Holy Spirit.
00:10:33:36 – 00:10:53:33
Michael Gewecke
Will give you words. And there is a warning. There is a fear in in that moment renouncing your faith. And this where we get that idea of blasphemy, the one who renounce his faith in the moment of temptation or trial, that that moment is a moment of unredeemable sin. And what that means and how we tease that out, that that could be a whole conversation.
00:10:53:33 – 00:10:59:01
Michael Gewecke
But let’s not forget the context of what’s happening here, what it might have meant to those who received it first.
00:10:59:06 – 00:11:32:18
Clint Loveall
Yeah, this is certainly a warning against what could be called apostasy In other words, turning back the idea that those who are faced with persecution would give up their faith or would denounce their faith, which the early church took to mean they they largely didn’t have a genuine faith to begin with. But even if we say that that may have been the case, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to deny the very power which grants God’s forgiveness.
00:11:32:18 – 00:12:00:25
Clint Loveall
So you, Jesus says that you could speak against the son of man and then be forgiven when you understand that you were wrong. But to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit puts yourself in the condition of unwillingness or inability to let the Spirit do its work in you. And so this is not a thing that I think most people should spend a great deal of time worrying over.
00:12:00:30 – 00:12:28:25
Clint Loveall
As a young person, I was sure I had done whatever this was and I couldn’t somehow be forgiven. And I think many Christians have that experience. That’s not what this text is about. I do want to point out to your point, Michael, verse 11, when they bring you the text, doesn’t say if when they bring you before the synagogues, the scripture assumes that a life of faith in Christ will put us at odds with the world.
00:12:28:30 – 00:12:49:50
Clint Loveall
Now, in our day in time, at least, where we are, most of us watching this video live, we are not dragged before authorities. That’s not the context we live in, though It is in other parts of the world. But the gospel still assumes that when we are faithful to Jesus, we are at odds at some level with the world.
00:12:49:55 – 00:13:34:46
Clint Loveall
And those are the moments where we have to choose. Perhaps it’s either safety in some cases or it may just be comfort and the gospel is always going to push us toward choosing Jesus, honoring his name, doing evangelism, which doesn’t necessarily mean preaching out loud. It may be doing the right thing for the right reasons, but this is one of those texts that, again, was pretty was pretty challenging language pushes us to move the next steps of our faith and to stay the course, when ultimately that will prove difficult because that’s what it means to follow Jesus.
00:13:34:46 – 00:13:53:52
Clint Loveall
Following Jesus is hard. Following Jesus in a broken world is hard. Being faithful in a world that doesn’t want faithfulness is hard, and that will bring moments of difficulty. And when it does stick with Jesus, that’s if you’re going to summarize this. I think that’s what I hear it saying. Michael.
00:13:53:57 – 00:14:16:21
Michael Gewecke
It is a very hard, good news cleanse. Yeah. The good news is that God is faithful and in fact, in the moments where we don’t feel like we have words of faith, the promise in this text is that it’s God inside us who will bring those words that that’s great. Good news. But the hard nature of the good news is that it calls us to the edge of ourself.
00:14:16:21 – 00:14:47:28
Michael Gewecke
The difficulty of faith is that it brings us into a relation with the world that is, by definition, counter to the world’s values. Because at the end of the day, the world is interested in the stuff that flows out of human brokenness. It’s interested in self advancement, it’s interested in power, it’s interested in consuming all of these things which are just natures of essentially they’re the codified human nature within the world around us.
00:14:47:33 – 00:15:22:57
Michael Gewecke
When the Christian comes in to engagement with that Jesus wants to make it very clear that as long as we are open to the leading of the spirit, open to correction, as you were pointing out, an open to God being able to work within us and to instill within us spirits of true, contrite hearts of honest repentance, If that is able to happen, then we can trust in what we see in verse 12 of the Holy Spirit will teach us at the very hour of our need what we ought to say that is supposed to be going back to the first section of the study.
00:15:23:02 – 00:15:44:22
Michael Gewecke
That’s supposed to be comforting. That’s not supposed to leave you in fear. It’s supposed to be good news. Hey, when bad stuff happens and it will, then you can rest easy knowing that the God who lives in you by the power of the Spirit, will not forsake you, but give you the strength, the words, the resource that you need in that hour to be faithful.
00:15:44:34 – 00:16:01:49
Michael Gewecke
And if you’re seeking to follow Jesus Christ, you can dispel the anxiety and fear about the so-called unforgivable sin. And you can instead lean into this promise that the one who we should and can fear is ultimately the one we don’t need to fear because of his promise to be with us.
00:16:02:04 – 00:16:35:53
Clint Loveall
Yeah, And to that end, Michael, I think maybe we should just leave with a word about this idea of the unpardonable sin this is, you know, Bible for one. These are confusing words. They’re they’re strange passages, They’re harsh sayings. And while they should give us pause, I don’t think they’re intended to give us uncertainty. I don’t think they’re intended to give us a club to wield against others or a sign to point at others.
00:16:35:58 – 00:17:08:35
Clint Loveall
If you take the references to things like this in the Scripture, there are a couple, There are a few. If you take the references to the unsurpassed grace of Christ, to the living God’s mercy, there are hundreds. And so just keep that in context. If if this is troubling language to you, I think you have to understand balanced against the rest of scripture, it shouldn’t be.
00:17:08:40 – 00:17:35:06
Clint Loveall
These are harsh words. These are words to be aware of and cognizant of, but these are not words to live under as some kind of threat that the promise given to us. Right. Do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. If you’re going to take one thing that you hold on to from this text, let it be that do not be afraid.
00:17:35:11 – 00:17:43:01
Clint Loveall
That that I think is the best thing that we can learn. The rest of it is interesting, but it should not be a hindrance to us.
00:17:43:06 – 00:17:59:31
Michael Gewecke
It’s well said, and that’s where we will end today’s study. Thank you for being with us. Hope this has been meaningful. If you’ve been encouraged, maybe even you found some peace in the interpretation of this text. Certainly give this video a light that helps other people find it. Subscribe to the channel for more studies here and look, we’ll see you tomorrow.
00:17:59:34 – 00:17:59:48
Michael Gewecke
Bye.