Woodside Bible Church Royal Oak

Through the Parable of the Great Reversal, Jesus points our focus inward, inviting us to reflect on our own posture toward the Word of God. At the same time, he guides our attention to what's to come, revealing to each one of us how our posture today determines our position in eternity. 

How do you know what your priorities really are? That’s not a trick question, and in many ways the trials and afflictions of this last year have revealed where our priorities are truly found, but I wonder if we’re quick to say something is priority when in fact it doesn’t show up in our lives as a priority. This weekend, we are pausing our series in the Parables of Luke to begin our summer series in the Book of Psalms. It’s a little out of order, but don’t worry, we’re going to wrap up our Parables series next week and pick back up on the Psalms the week after. This series that we’ve titled, “Assembly Required,” in the Psalms, will reinforce our conviction that when we come to worship together as God’s people, we will take pleasure in the Word of God. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the building or online, we will “praise the Lord” until we are out of breath.That brings us to our passage today: Psalm 1. Here’s what I’m going to do today. We’re going to use Psalm 1 to determine whether our lives rightfully reflect our beliefs. If you didn’t get that, it’s just a low key way of saying that this Psalm will confront us about how we actually practice our faith and whether our practice is true. I hope, and I’ve prayed, that God will use what he’s teaching me in this Psalm to color your perspective of your activities as well. 

Parable of the Qualified SinnerLuke 18:9-14Pastor Jon MoralesPreached at Woodside Bible Church - Royal Oak on July 5, 2020Today we’re looking at a powerful story that distinguishes two very different ways of approaching God. Before I read the story, however, I want to give you a little context for the two main characters. The first character Jesus refers to as a Pharisee. If you’ve read the Gospels, then you’re likely familiar with this group of Jews known as the Pharisees. They were well known for being strict adherents to the commands of God in the Old Testament, and within the parable the Pharisee is going to mention several aspects of his religious devotion. The other main character Jesus refers to as a tax collector. Again, if you’ve read the Gospels, then you’ve probably heard of this group before. One of the Gospel writers, Matthew, in fact, was formerly a tax collector before he started following Jesus. Tax collectors were Jews who were employed by the Roman empire to collect taxes from the Jews, and then send the money back to Rome. So tax collectors were even less popular than the IRS is in our own day. At least when we send our taxes to the IRS, they’re giving our taxes to our government. But when the Jews gave their money to tax collectors, the money was sent far away to the Roman emperor. So tax collectors were despised for their willingness to work for Israel’s foreign occupiers. 

We’ve been looking at some of the parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, and today we come to another parable that Jesus gives to the religious leaders of his day. We are in Luke 14:12-24. This passage opens with a conversation that Jesus has with the host of a dinner party he was invited to. Luke 14:1 puts us in the setting. It is a Sabbath day meal, and these meals were usually the “after church” dinner meals that we might enjoy in a similar way today. Everyone would go to the synagogue for the reading and teaching of the Word, and then, after the synagogue meeting, they would retire to homes to eat and celebrate together. In this instance, Jesus was invited over to the home of a prominent leading Pharisee, a “ruler of the Pharisees.” His motivations were not out of kindness and warm hospitality. He has more devious ideas and intentions. “They [the Pharisees] were watching him carefully” (Luke 14:1).  So far, in this meal Jesus has challenged the religious leaders that were there… and in our text, he’s going to do so again. This time he specifically addresses the man who invited him. Jesus turns his view of who is in the kingdom God and who is not upside down.

Revealed Part 1: Parable of the Soils.