The Patience of God

Service starts @ 8:54 Sermon starts @ 1:02:24 Baptism service @ 1:32:43 Scriptures: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/... Jesus in the context of this parable is marveling (in a negative way) that they understood signs of weather patterns, but they were not understanding the more important and eternal signs of this moment in history… Jesus the Son of God was living in their times, and they couldn’t see it… and after He would leave by way of ascension, they would be held accountable for their response to Him… Luke 13:1-9 V 1-3 This was a horrible and notable event to be killed in that manor was awful… “same occasion” so as Jesus is reprimanding them for not receiving Him… for not getting the moment… they play “what about them”… The assumption of the statement was that these men that died in this horrible way must have done something wrong to deserve it… and somehow, them deserving this fate would divert attention away from this crowd and their failures to recognize Jesus… This tactic doesn’t work on Jesus… He comes back to the main point… In these following nine verses there are three calls for repentance – two overt, one implied… The fact is we are all in need of Jesus and His forgiveness… no matter how good or bad we are… we’ve all failed/ we’ve all sinned… and our sin is against a perfect God in Jesus… and only He can save us… V4-5 In the case of the Galileans and their death at the hands of Pilate – it was a willful horrible end… in the case of these that the wall fell – it was wrong place wrong time… Whether one dies in bed sleeping, in a violent crime, in a horrible accident… none of those circumstance means anyone of them were better than the other in life… Spending our lives fault finding and deflecting from our own guilt before God is time ill spent… there is wisdom in looking into the mirror of the Word and Holy Spirit… This crowd is feeling guilty and convicted of there sin and they are deflecting… And Jesus simply communicates what we all know – we’re not going to live forever in this life… Jesus is calling us to repent and turn to Him as the Lord of our lives before that day comes… there is an urgency in this – we are not promised tomorrow… It’s the most important decision anyone can ever make… V6-7 There are two understanding of this verse, but both understanding come to the same conclusion in principle… “A man (God the Father) had a fig tree (Jewish Nation / Jerusalem) which had been planted in his vineyard (the world / the Jewish nation); and he came looking for fruit (repentance) on it and did not find any. 7 And he said to the vineyard-keeper (Jesus), ‘Behold, for three years (the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus) I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ The people had so many chances to repent and turn to God… Whatever the specific symbols are it points to these central truths… the patients of God – He’s waited for three years in this parable for some fruit… He’s waiting and desiring for us to repent and turn to Him… If he wasn't patient humanity wouldn't of made it out of the garden of Eden… Not only was the tree not bearing fruit, but it was standing in the way of another crop growing in that same place… Chicken that doesn’t lay eggs… becomes chicken nuggets… V8-9 Here we see Jesus pleading to spare either Jerusalem or the nation of Israel… To spare them until they hear the news of Jesus’ death for their sin and the resurrection… that they would have a chance to ultimately repent… We again see two traits of God here; his patience in postponing judgment, and that people receive a second chance to believe and repent… but only in this life… To postpone judgment doesn't mean the judgment never comes… Romans 3:23 We’ve all needed the patience of God… We all still need the patience of God… 1 John 1:9-10 God is clearly calling for everyone to repent and turn to Him for salvation… God is patience in postponing judgment… He’s waiting for us to finally come home… God in His grace gives people a second chance to believe and repent… but only in this life… Don’t take for granted the patience of God… today is the day of repentance… Romans 10:9 Romans 10:13