Page 1 of 4

Date: 14th February 2016

Series name: Lent 2016

Sermon # in series: 2

Sermon Title: The Fox and the Hen!

Bible Reference:Luke 13:31-35

A disclaimer from Pastor Stuart

My role in the church here is to feed and care for God’s people the best I can. Key to that, in my opinion is teaching and preaching from the Bible; but that is not all a pastor has to do! In fact after the emails, staff admin, hospital visits, community visits, leadership meetings, etc, etc, there sometimes seems to be little time for sermon prep! Years ago I used to agonise over trying to come up with two, often three, totally original sermons each week. But I’ve found that, for me at least, that is impossibility. I’ve learned to be grateful for and to use the gifts God gives to help me – not only the Holy Spirit, but other Bible teachers and preachers.

Over the years I’ve discovered that if something teaches, inspires and excites me it’s likely to do the same for those I speak to. So I admit that sometimes I find myself depending heavily on other people’s ideas, at least to ‘prime the pump’ and therefore I claim originality for very little in these sermons. If you look hard enough and wide enough you’ll probably find who I’ve been reading and learning from! I never knowingly plagiarise, but if you find I have, then I apologise. It must have been that what was said was just too good not to use!

I am particularly indebted to the likes of John Piper, Sam Storms, Wayne Grudem, John Ortberg & Rick Warren. The Lord regularly uses them to get my spiritual pulse racing. I’m also indebted to many who kindly make their sermons available on the likes of sermoncentral.com and preachingtoday.com. Others who help me include ‘The Doctor’ (Martyn Lloyd-Jones), C.H Spurgeon and any of the Puritans.

These sermons are not made available because I think they’re good but in the hope and with the prayer that they may be used by the Holy Spirit to bless others as they have blessed our own church here in Ipswich, UK.

Unless otherwise specified, all scriptures are taken from the HOLY BIBLE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited.

Lent 2016

The Fox and the Hen!(Luke 13:31-35)

  1. The Fox:

Herod – not the same as the one that had the babies killed when Jesus was born. This was his son, responsible for a much smaller area that included Galilee and the area known as Perea (Map).

He’d heard about Jesus and it freaked him out – Lk 9:7-9. ‘Perplexed’, nonplussed. He wanted to see Jesus – something he got to do a few months later when Pilate sent him to him, hoping to avoid responsibility.

Here though we have a group of Phar’s, v31, bringing a message to Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Why would they, his sworn enemy who wanted him dead themselves, warn him of the threat?

Were these friendly Pharisees? Not a bit! They wanted Jesus out of their area and they thought they could move Jesus on by using Herod’s threat against him.

So Jesus now has two sword enemies – the Roman leadership and the Pharisees. How does he react?

V32 ‘Go tell that fox …’ Foxes were a hated vermin, known for devious sly behaviour. Wow, Jesus sure knew how to defuse a situation. Jesus also uses the feminine word for fox so he’s piling up the insults – bit like calling him an old woman! (I’m not sure this is an example for us to follow – remember, Jesus was king and Lord, we are not!)

He’s not going to be pushed around by Herod’s threats, nor those of the Pharisees. I’ve got work to do today, and tomorrow; I’m not going anywhere. People to heal, demons to drive out – in other words ‘I need to show that there’s another, more powerful kingdom come to earth’ This is my mission, and I’m not being stopped by anyone’

But this wasn’t all! He knew that Herod wasn’t going to touch him, couldn’t touch him. But he also knew, v33, that he wasn’t actually stopping in Perea anyway.‘I must keep going … ‘He was on his way to Jerusalem (9:51); there was his destiny, there he would die. It had to be in Jerusalem because that was where the Sanhedrin sat and only they had the authority to judge ‘prophets’ as true or false.

This was God’s plan and nothing would thwart it so the threats of Herod and the Pharisees meant nothing to him.

There are two things that strike me about Jesus in this brief exchange:

  1. Jesus was completely unfazed by threats because he knew he was on a mission. He had a sense of purpose from God and knew that nothing could stop that. Herod may bark threats and the Pharisees might rattle their sabres, but they could do nothing to Jesus until God’s time was right. Therefore their threats were to Jesus like - if I can bring in yet another animal [picture of a duck and water]

Great example to us. Jesus was like us and lived like us – dependant on the H/S and by faith in God. Sure, because he was without sin he had a clearer understanding and better grasp of things. He didn’t keep getting pulled down by failure and he didn’t have the sinful doubts and unnecessary questions we have. But still he lived by faith, by taking the words of God as truth and living in expectation that God would do what he said.

This is how we should aspire to live more and more. Believing the promises, trusting the purposes of God as revealed in his Word. He knew he was invincible until he got to the cross.

And so are we! Old hymn ’Nota single shaft shall hit till the God of love sees fit’. We need to recover that sort of belief and trust in the protection and providence of God. God is watching over you, he will keep you till your work is done. When it is he’ll call you home. Rev 11 - 2 witnesses. They had a torrid time with huge opposition, but they were untouchable. V5 ‘If anyone tries to touch them fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies …’ ‘Now when they have finished their testimony the beast will attack them and over power them.’ But not until they had finished!

You are safe until your work is done – isn’t that wonderful!

Second:

  1. He was completely unfazed by the thought of death!

He knew why he was going to Jerusalem, he knew what was going to happen there. He looked it straight in the eye without blinking, he knew it was coming, and didn’t run from it.

Can we say that? Many cannot, even many Christians! Yes, death is the last and greatest enemy, but we, as those saved and rescued by Jesus, should be able to face it without blinking. I’m not talking about the means by which we’ll die, but death itself. So many do all they can to avoid it; so many simply refuse to even talk about it.

But how different this is to Jesus here! He faced it and even saw it as his ‘goal’, v32. It’s why he came; in dying he defeated death and opened the life gate that all may go in. It will help you enormously if you can view death not as the end but the goal, the door to something better. When Jesus said ‘it is finished’ he knew he’d opened the door for all who believe. He’d defeated death, he’d drawn its sting. From that point it was to be glory all the way. So it is for us, so it is for our loved ones who die believing.

  1. The Hen

In contrast to the malevolence of Herod and the Pharisees, here we see the heart of Jesus. He’s the mother hen who calls and wants to protect. The people he speaks about ar the people that reject him, that will not listen – but look at his heart!

‘I have longed’ – He didn’t come to judge but to save.

Oh how we the church needs to remember this! We’re not here to condemn but to save; yes of course we have to warn – otherwise the good news isn’t good news is it! People have to know the danger – but let us make sure we always emphasis the good news and joy of Jesus. In your conversations, when people ask you about church, when they ask you about your faith – be positive! Are your comments about church on Monday morning likely to cause someone to want to join you here next week? Do you even mention church? Do you extol Jesus and the Bible with the people you rub shoulders with?

I guess the question is – do we have a mother hen heart? Do we yearn and long for others to be saved? How much do you pray for it? How much of a priority does it have in your life?

It is why Jesus came – it is the main reason he left you here rather than take you straight to heaven when he saved you. As long as you’re here he wants you to be his witness – to tell others, to effuse and extol him and draw others to him. Yes there’s lots of other things he wants as well – but in truth we’ll do all of those things better in heaven! The one thing you cant do there is to be a witness to others.

Oh may the Lord give us his heart, that longs to draw people to him for their salvation and his glory.