Jesus warns His disciples about the religious leaders
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📚In the meantime, when multiplied thousands of people had gathered together, so that they trampled on one another, he began speaking first of all to his disciples,“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 📚For there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known. 3 📚Therefore, whatever you have spoken in darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
4 📚“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. 5 📚But I will warn you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to throw into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
6 📚“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten in God’s presence. 7 📚But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid, for you are worth more than many sparrows.
8 📚“Also I say to you, whoever confesses me in the presence of men, the Son of man will also confess him in the presence of the angels of God, 9 📚but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of the angels of God.
12:8-9 See Luke 9:26; Matt 10:33; Mark 8:38; Rom 10:9-10. Men are not saved because they confess Christ, but by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9). But those who are saved will confess Christ; it is one of the evidences that they have trusted and received Him.⚜
10 📚“And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, he will be forgiven for it, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven for it.
11 📚“And when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you will answer or what you will say, 12 📚for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say”.
13 📚And one in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me”.
The parable of the rich fool
14 📚And he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge 📖 or an arbitrator over you?”
15 📚And he said to them, “Watch out, and beware of greed, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses”.
12:15 This warning against greed is as much needed today as ever – Luke 6:20; Matt 19:23-24; 1 Cor 6:10; Eph 5:3, 5; Col 3:5; 1 Tim 6:9-11.⚜
16 📚And he spoke a parable 📖 to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man was very productive. 17 📚And he thought to himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 📚And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there store all my crops and goods. 19 📚And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’
12:17-19 This man’s character is revealed by his words. There is no word here of thanks to God or of giving to God’s work, no word about helping those in need. The man was self centered, selfish and thought only of his own pleasure.⚜
20 📚But God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night your soul will be demanded from you. Then who will have those things which you have provided?’
12:20 The man thought he was wise – God thought him a fool (Isa 55:8-9). God considers detestable what sinful men esteem highly (Luke 16:15). Selfishness is foolishness, leaving God out of one’s thoughts and plans is foolishness, assuming that we may live for many years and live as we please is foolishness (Jam 4:13-17). It is wise to do as Jesus said in Matt 6:19-21. Our lives are in God’s hands and He can take them when He pleases.⚜
21 📚“This is what he is like who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God”.
12:21 This is the only place in the Bible this striking phrase “Rich toward God” is used. Compare vs 33,34; Prov 19:17. “Rich toward God” is the exact opposite of rich toward self (vs 17-19).⚜
Jesus tells His disciples not to worry
22 📚And he said to his disciples, “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about the body, what you will wear. 23 📚Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 📚Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap. They have neither a storehouse nor a barn. And God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds!
25 📚“And which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his height? 26 📚If you, then, are not able to do what is least, why worry about the rest? 27 📚Consider the lilies, how they grow. They do not work, they do not spin; and yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. 28 📚Now if God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more he will clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 📚And do not be searching your mind for what you will eat, or what you will drink, and do not have an anxious mind.
12:29 Believers’ hearts should be set only on God and His kingdom. See Col 3:1-2. Compare Phil 3:19-20.⚜
30 📚For all these things the people of the world chase, and your Father knows that you have need of these things. 31 📚But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will also come to you.
32 📚“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 📚Sell what you have, and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves which do not get old, an unfailing treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes near, no moth destroys.
34 📚For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus speaks of His second coming
35 📚“Let your waist be belted, and your lamps burning,
12:35 See the parable at Matt 25:1-13.⚜
36 📚and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master to return from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open the door to him. 37 📚When the master comes, blessed are those servants whom he will find watching. Truly I say to you, he will fasten his belt, have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 📚And if he comes in the second watch, or in the third watch, and finds them like that, blessed are those servants.
12:38 This refers to a time after Christ’s second coming. Imagine the King of kings and Lord of lords, after He appears in glory, waiting on tables where His disciples sit! But, then, the Lord Jesus always delighted in humble service – Luke 22:27; Matt 20:28; John 13:4-5, 12-16, and appearing in glory will not change Him. Alas, that so many who claim to be His followers should be so different.⚜
39 📚And understand this: If the house owner had known what time the thief would come, he would have watched and not let his house be broken into.
40 📚“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of man will come at a time that you do not expect”.
41 📚Then Peter said to him, “Lord, are you speaking this parable for us, or for everyone?”
42 📚And the Lord said, “Who, then, is that faithful and wise manager, whom his master places over his household, to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 When his master comes, blessed is that servant whom he will find doing so. 44 📚I tell you the truth, he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 📚But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is postponing his coming’, and begins to beat the men servants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 📚the lord of that servant will come in a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour of which he is not aware, and will cut him in two, and will appoint him to a place with unbelievers.
47 📚“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself, and did not do according to his will, shall be beaten with many blows. 48 📚But he who did not know, and did things deserving a beating, will be beaten with few blows. For whoever has been given much, much will be demanded from him; and to whom much is entrusted, they will ask much more from him.
12:47-48 In the day of judgment God will take into account the varying degrees of knowledge and opportunity that people have had.⚜
Jesus creates divisions
49 📚“I am come to send fire on the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!
12:49 Fire is often used symbolically in the Bible – Ex 3:2; 13:21; 19:18; Deut 32:32; Ps 18:8; Matt 3:11. Here it may signify the persecutions and troubles that would accompany the spread of His gospel in the world. “Fire” may signify such things – Ps 66:12; Isa 43:2; Lam 1:13. But why would the Lord Jesus want such fire to come? Because He knew it was bound up with the advancement of His kingdom and the spread of His truth.⚜
50 📚But I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how pressed 📖 I am until it is accomplished!
12:50 By “baptism” here He meant the sufferings and death in which He was soon to be immersed.⚜
51 📚“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no, division instead. 52 📚For from now on, in one house, five will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 📚The father will be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law”.
54 📚And he also said to the people, “When you see a cloud rising out of the west, 📖 immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. 55 📚And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be hot’; and it is.
12:55 The south wind blew from the desert.⚜
56 📚You hypocrites! You can discern the appearance of the sky and the earth, but how is it that you do not discern the present time?
12:56 The Lord Jesus was saying that the signs of a change in the spiritual climate were as plain as any sign indicating a change in physical climate. See Luke 7:18-23.⚜
57 📚Yes, why don’t you judge by yourselves what is right?
12:57 The people (v 54) should not permit others to tell them what to think and believe. The evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, was clear and they should recognize it and act on it. It is a sad fact that many today also will not think for themselves about the evidence Jesus gives, but allow themselves to be led astray by some guru or other.⚜
58 📚“When you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, while on the road, make an effort to be delivered from him so he will not drag you off to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in to jail. 59 📚I tell you that you will not leave there until you have paid the very last coin”.
12:58-59 The meaning of these verses may be quite different from the similar ones in Matt 5:25-26. The context here (vs 49-57) leads us to think so. The meaning may be as follows – the “magistrate” signifies God the Judge of all men; the “adversary” signifies God’s law which condemns men (compare Eph 2:13-17; Col 2:13-14) – or possibly the One the Jews continually disputed with and regarded as an adversary – the Lord Jesus. The “prison” signifies hell (compare 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6). The spiritual lesson is – be reconciled to God, His law and His Son while there is opportunity (2 Cor 5:18-21).⚜