Jesus In Luke: The Overflow of the Heart
November 6th, 2011 (AM). By: Rob Frame
A while back I was on way to church on a Sunday morning I was speaking and was a little bit later than I ‘d planned. While I was waiting in traffic a car sped past in the right hand lane, I knew what it was going to do, it was going to tuen left even though it was in the wrong lane – I was really angry but just about held off sounding my horn and so arrived at church happy to have restrained myself. I was even happier when I saw that car in the car park!
But as I sat in the car I realised that the mask had slipped, I realised that in a few minutes I’d be speaking to someone that just a few minutes earlier I’d been cursing under my breath. Have you had a moment like that, a moment caught in anger where the real you is revealed and it’s not pretty?
Over the last chapter or so that’s what Jesus has been doing; uncovering what is really in the hearts of those around him. We’ve seen him unmasking the hypocrisy of the religious elite; the Pharisees and we’ve also seen him challenging the crowd to live in a seemingly impossible way: free from hypocrisy and condemnation and instead full of mercy and love, even loving those who hate us.
All of this is coming to a head now as Jesus makes clear what is required of us in order to truly follow him. We’ll see in this passage two things which are needed in order to follow Jesus:
- Following Jesus requires a new heart.
- Following Jesus demands practical obedience.
1. Following Jesus requires a new heart.
In order to follow Jesus and to live as his disciples we need to undergo a fundamental change in our nature.
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers.
A good tree produces good fruit, a bad tree bad fruit Jesus says. Simple enough you might say the scramblers are probably doing something more complicated than this right now. The point Jesus is making is that there is a direct and unbreakable connection between a tree and its fruit. The type of fruit that a tree bears is what makes it recognisable as a particular tree. You never go to pick an apple from a tree and then trace its branch back to the trunk only to find a pear tree. If it produces apples then it’s an apple tree; its fruit is fundamental to its nature.
So its easy to recognise a tree you do so by what it produces and so Jesus says you never see people looking for figs among thorn bushes or grapes among briers, they can never produce those things it’s not in their nature. It doesn’t matter how much careful attention they get, how much water or light they’ll never produce what isn’t in their nature to produce.
Jesus wants us to understand that if we’re to be his disciples, if we’re to live in the way that he’s just been describing; loving those who hate us, practicing mercy rather than condemnation then we need something more than a new teaching or an instruction to try harder, we need new natures or a s Jesus puts it here we need changed hearts. Because it’s from our hearts, from our true identities that ultimately our actions and words flow from:
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Jesus says that what is in our hearts will flow out into the way that we act and specifically here he says into the words that we say. We see that very clearly when we’re put under pressure – when we’re tired, when we’re caught off guard or we’re just at the end of our tether our words betray what is really in our hearts, the contents of our hearts overflows into our lives. Our hearts Jesus are the source of what we do, say and feel. The picture Jesus is drawing here is of a man bringing treasure out of a storehouse. Whatever our hearts are filled with that is what we will bring forth. So the content of our hearts must be right, first otherwise we will never be able to live rightly. The visible fruit or lack of in our lives is a direct consequence of the sate of our hearts.
We’re familiar with this idea of ‘visible results’ in the world of advertising. There’s currently an ad running for intel who make the microprocessors; the brains inside computers, the tag line is this: “visibly smarter”. This is an odd thing to say about microprocessors because they are very, very small and live deep inside your computer – you never see them. But the point they’re trying to make is that this new microprocessor is so powerful that despite it being buried deep inside your computer the effects will be so powerful that you won’t fail to see them.
That’s essentially what Jesus is saying here. If you want to deal with your hypocrisy, if you’re prepared to follow me then you need a new heart, a new heart that beats deep within you to produce visible fruit in your life.
So what does this mean for us? Well if I can stretch the computer analogy; there are many things that you could do to your computer if you want to improve it - you could buy a bigger screen, you could run new software but if you want to totally change its performance then you’re going to need to do some major surgery like replacing the microprocessor – the guts of the machine. Similarly if we want to follow Jesus if we want to be citizens of his kingdom we need major surgery.
Jesus isn’t asking us to get better at masking our hypocrisy or to turn over a new leaf and try harder. Trying harder will never free us from hypocrisy or pride, it can’t give us the power to love those who hate us as Jesus commands. We can’t do this on our own, we can’t live this life which Jesus’ calls us too unless we come to him for heart surgery.
The good news is that this is exactly the offer Jesus makes to us; to have our sin dealt with and our hearts made new, transformed by his Holy Spirit working in us and so Jesus expects his followers to live like this, to exhibit radically different patterns of behaviour, to have their passions, hope and dreams, their very speech this verse says, drastically altered by the good news about him.
Jesus is confident that his followers will live in such a way that it can only be explained by his power working within us. In fact this is part of God’s strategy to let the world know about Jesus, John 13.34,35 says this:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Here’s a worked example from Jesus, he says that people will be able to recognise you as my followers if you love each other with the same type of love with which I have loved you. The fruit in this case is love; that same self-sacrificial love which has it’s ultimate expression on the cross as Jesus willingly dies for us, his enemies. Jesus expects deep transformation leading to visible results which mark us out as Jesus followers.
So we need to come to Jesus and admit that are hearts are not naturally filled with good, rather they are storehouses of evil. We need Jesus to forgive us and change our hearts. If you haven’t asked Jesus to do that then you have no hope of following him or of pleasing God no matter how hard you try if you it’s like a thorn bush trying to produce figs, we need help.
That principle doesn’t stop when we start to follow Jesus, it’s our continued pattern to come to Jesus daily, hourly and ask him to change us, to give us hearts that are full of good, good that overflows into our actions, into our speech. Not just when we’re on our best behaviour on a Sunday but when we’re tired, when your kids just won’t listen, when your boss keeps demanding more – that’s when we see what’s really there what the overflow of your heart really is.
2. Following Jesus demands practical obedience
If Jesus is really our Lord then we will listen to his words and put them into practice.
Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
Jesus makes a stark challenge to the listening crowds, he homes in on them looks them in the eye as it were and says; how can you call me Lord and then fail to do what I say – its meaningless. If you do not practically obey what I say then I’m not your Lord at all. It’s like someone telling you they’re a keen runner and the showing you all their kit which has never been used. If you don’t run, you’re not a runner.
But this is much more serious. Obedience is a requirement not an optional extra and the consequences of not obeying Jesus couldn’t be more serious. Jesus explains these two options of obedience or of ignoring what he says by talking about two builders.
The first builder is like the person who puts Jesus’ words into practice. He listens to Jesus and then treats him as Lord by doing what he says; he builds his home, his life wisely. When the torrent comes he is secure. The person who obeys Jesus will stand when judgement comes, his life is safely anchored into the rock; nothing can shake it.
The second builder also hears Jesus’ words but he doesn’t treat Jesus as Lord and so doesn’t put them into practice. Therefore Jesus says that he is a great risk, he is in danger. When judgement falls it will fall on those who have not treated Jesus as Lord. Listen to what happens:
‘the moment the torrent struck that home, it collapsed and its destruction was complete’
Jesus here isn’t talking about the man who fails to put his words into practice making life difficult for himself. He’s saying that he is heading toward total destruction; he’s heading for death, for hell. This is a serious warning to us because this is someone who has heard Jesus’ instruction and then failed to take action, failed to obey him.
Matthew 7.21-23:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Many who were close to Jesus, those who heard his teaching many times but failed to put it into action, failed to do the will of the father and so are cast out from God’s kingdom.
How’s your listening? Does it result in action? Or to put it another way is Jesus really your Lord? Have you asked him to forgive you and change your heart and are you living a life of increasing obedience which bears that out?
Summary
Jesus calls us to a life that is impossible to live without a new heart being given to us. He calls us not to surface allegiance to him but to deep and lasting transformation.
Jesus demands practical obedience from those who would follow him. He asks not just that we hear his word but that we listen carefully and put them into practice in our lives.
Let’s pray.