Luke 12:22-34: “Jesus Teaches His Disciples Why There Is No Good
Reason For Them To Worry Or Be Anxious About Anything”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at the first 22 verses of chapter 12.
1.1.1. In these verses, we saw that though the multitudes were thronging
around Jesus that He was intent upon teaching His disciples some important
truths and lessons and preparing them for the persecution and tribulations that
they would begin to experience after He is raised from the dead and the church
is inaugurated.
1.1.2. Jesus spoke to His disciples about the reality of a future judgment in
which they will have to give account for the deeds performed in their bodies.
1.1.3. Jesus told His disciples several things bent upon instilling in them
the importance of doing things in their life that will have importance in the
afterlife rather than just be concerned with the things of this temporal life.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verses 22-34 of chapter 12 where Jesus deals with the topic of
worry in His disciple’s lives.
1.2.1. We see in this study that as Jesus has been readying His disciples for
that period of time when He would be departing the earth and the church would
be inaugurated, He has been teaching them and warning them about many
things. In the last study we saw Jesus
warning and teaching His disciples to prepare them for the intense persecution
that He knew that they would go through after His resurrection, a persecution
that actually would last over three hundred years. Here in this study, we see that Jesus is
preparing His disciples by helping them to deal with worry, anxiety and fear.
1.2.2. We can imagine all of the fears and anxieties that the disciples are going
to be going through in less than two weeks when Jesus their leader is arrested
and crucified and they believe that their hope has been taken completely away
from them. The disciples hadn’t
understood Jesus when He foretold His crucifixion and resurrection from the
dead. After Jesus’ resurrection when the
disciples suddenly realize that not only were the Jews (and eventually the
Romans) going to persecute their Lord, they were also going to persecute all of
His followers, they will need much encouragement from the Lord to make it
through those times. It is for this
purpose, as well as for the general use and betterment of Jesus’ disciples
throughout time that Jesus teaches this lesson on worry and anxiety.
1.2.3. Anxiety and worry are emotions and experiences that people of all eras
and cultures go through on a daily basis.
Perhaps it may be the one thing for many people that most describes and
captures their daily routine. All of us
realize that worry, anxiety, and fear are very close to us.
1.2.4. Though anxiety and worry are experiences we can all relate to they are
also experiences that are very destructive to each and every one of us who
experience them.
1.2.4.1. For instance, Paul Lee Tan tells of the following facts concerning
worry and its effects on people. He says
that:
1.2.4.1.1.
At a British clinic an examination of 500 patients confirmed that more
than one-third of their visual problems were caused by emotional tension.
1.2.4.1.2.
Dr. Leonard S. Fosdick of
1.2.4.1.3.
A survey of about 5,000 students in 21 different colleges confirms that
worriers get the lowest grades.
1.2.4.2. Another article I read
stated, “In spite of what they say, 90% of the chronic patients who see
today’s physicians have one common symptom. Their trouble did not start with
cough or chest pain or hyperacidity. In 90% of the cases, the first symptom was
fear. This is the opinion of a
well-known American internist as expressed in a roundtable discussion on
psychosomatic medicine. This is also the consensus of a growing body of
specialists. Fear of losing a job, of old age, of being exposed—sooner or later
this fear manifests itself as “a clinical symptom.” Sometimes the fear is nothing more than a
superficial anxiety; sometimes it is so deep-seated that the patient himself
denies its existence and makes the round of doctor to doctor, taking
injections, hormones, tranquilizers and tonics in an endless search for relief.”
1.2.4.3. Experts say that worry also
has a direct link to heart disease and to heart attacks. Worry is also directly linked to ulcers. In many cases strokes and aneurisms have also
been linked to worry.
1.2.4.4. I thought it was interesting
when I read that a
1.2.4.5. Even Norman Vincent Peale
has written, “The word “worry” is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word
meaning to strangle or to choke. How well-named the emotion it has been
demonstrated again and again in persons who have lost their effectiveness due
to the stultifying effect of anxiety and apprehension. A certain
well-controlled carefreeness may well be an asset. Normal sensible concern is
an important attribute of the mature person. But worry frustrates one’s best
functioning.”
1.2.5. Regardless of the fact that
all of us experience worry to varying degrees throughout our life, the
scriptures tell us that worry and anxiety are wrong and a sin. Paul wrote in Phil. 4:6-7, “Be anxious for
nothing…” and this is a command for us as Christians. When we are given over to worrying several
things beyond our physical health go in a negative direction, including:
1.2.5.1. We will never grow in our
Christian walk when we are doubting the Lord and His ability to take care of us
and meet our needs.
1.2.5.2. We can’t be effectively used
in the lives of others when we ourselves are doubting God’s ability to work on
our behalf.
1.2.5.3. We are really unable to
function in a useful way for the Lord at all because we are trapped and
immobilized by our unbelief and fears.
1.2.6. On a personal note, I want
to mention that 30+ years ago when I was still a teenager and a new believer
these verses here in the gospel of Luke were the greatest encouragement to me
and my young faith. I worried and
fretted about so many things in my life after coming to know Christ. I worried and fretted about my many sins and
mistakes of the past whose consequences I knew would be far reaching and which
caused me to be debilitated in many ways.
I worried and fretted about an uncertain future in a world in which I
felt overwhelmed and threatened by as a new Christian. I worried if God was today going to meet my
needs in the present and answer my prayers.
These verses helped me to come to the place of realizing that today was
all that I needed to worry about, and living just for what happens each day
liberated me for I was able to rise to this challenge through my faith in
Jesus. I guess that I could also say
that I have spent over thirty years meditating upon these verses.
2. VS 12:22-23 - “22 And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to
you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor
for your body, as to what you will put on. 23 “For life is
more than food, and the body more than clothing.” - Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about
their life and their essential needs in life
2.1.
First of all, when Jesus says here, “for this reason I say to you,”
He is referring back to the parable that He had just taught about the rich fool
who spent all of his over abundance and riches to build bigger barns for his
crops yet his soul was taken away from him that very night. If there is no reason to try to horde the
riches and wealth of this life in view of the surpassing value of storing up
riches for heaven and eternity, then Jesus’ disciples need to learn to travel
light in this life and trust God for the provision of their every need. Being in a place of having to be dependent
upon the Lord for every need though can cause a person to worry and be anxious
about many things. Jesus tells them, ‘Do
not worry!’
2.2.
Jesus tells His disciples here not to worry about the essential needs
of life, and the reason for this is of course because the Lord is committed to
providing these for each of His people.
Matthew in his gospel, Matt. 6:33, quotes Jesus on stating on perhaps
another occasion that seeking the Lord and His kingdom first in our lives will
ensure that the Lord will provide all of our essential needs, “Seek first
His kingdom and His righteousness and all of these things will be added to
you. Therefore do not be anxious for
tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for
itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own.”
2.3.
I do want to mention here that the Lord never promises to provide for
all of our “wants.” We should
pray for these as well, however the Lord promises only to provide our essential
needs.
2.4.
Notice here what these essential needs are that Jesus tells us as His
disciples not to worry about: food and
clothing.
2.5.
Jesus uses interesting language here in admonishing His disciples not
to worry. He tells them that the reason
that they are not to do this is because, ‘life is
more than food, and the body more than clothing.’
2.5.1. ‘Life is more than food.’
2.5.1.1. Perhaps in Jesus saying this
He is comparing the value of various things in our lives. In that case, Jesus would be saying that
being alive, that is possessing your life, is a more important than the
transitory joy and experience of eating food for sustenance.
2.5.1.2. Perhaps though when Jesus
speaks of ‘life’ here He is speaking of more than just physical life,
referring rather to the quality of life that is really an expression of God
Himself. This word for life in the New
Testament refers to “eternal life.”
Maybe He is saying that “eternal life is more than food.”
2.5.1.3. Perhaps again Jesus is again
making an argument from the lesser to the greater and is then saying that if
the Lord has kept you alive to this point that He is certainly able to and will
provide food for you also.
2.5.2. ‘The body more than
clothing.’
2.5.2.1. Perhaps in Jesus saying this
He is yet again comparing the value of various things in our lives. In that case, Jesus would be saying that
having your body, that is again to
possess your life, is a more important than the external covering of clothes
that you might wear.
2.5.2.2. Perhaps again Jesus is again
making an argument from the lesser to the greater and is again saying that if
the Lord has kept your body alive to this point that He is certainly able to
and will provide clothing for you also.
3. VS 12:24 - “24
“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow
nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how
much more valuable you are than the birds!” - Jesus tells His disciples to consider the
ravens and how that the Lord provides for such insignificant creatures as these
birds
3.1.
In past generations people had much more opportunity and time to enjoy
and observe nature. Today, I’m afraid
that we as a people, especially Americans, have little time to experience the
great blessings of experiencing nature in the wild. Today, most of us miss much that God could
show us about Himself from nature.
3.2.
Jesus tells His disciples to ‘consider’ the ravens. The Lord created these birds with very little
in the way of intelligence and no experience of consciousness apart from
reality. Most of what they do is done
just by instinct. With their limited
knowledge and experience they do not worry about what another day will
bring. However, the Lord has arranged
His world in such a manner that though these birds are not smart enough to
build any kind of ‘storeroom’ or ‘barn’ to store up food for
themselves, yet they still eat for the Lord provides daily for them.
3.3.
In arguing from the lesser to the greater Jesus tells His disciples
that they are ‘more valuable than the birds.’ In other words, Jesus is implying that if the
Lord takes care of each one of these ravens providing for them their daily
essential needs, will He not take care of the essential needs of each one of
His disciples, for after all each of us has much more value to the Lord than a
bird?
4. VS 12:36 - “25
“And which of you by worrying can add a single
hour to his life’s span? 26 “If then you cannot do even a very
little thing, why do you worry about other matters?” - Jesus asks His disciples the rhetorical
question of whether or not by worrying they can a single hour to their life
span?
4.1.
Jesus is really bringing up the point of what good worrying ever does
for someone. The implied answer to this
question is that there is absolutely nothing good that ever comes about as a
result of our worrying.
4.2.
The vast majority of the things that we people worry about never even
come to fruition. Most of the things
that we worry about that do come to fruition don’t have near the impact in our
lives that we fear they will have. In
every case we have worried for nothing.
4.3.
Vance Havner has said, “Worry, like a rocking chair, will give you
something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”
4.4.
A French soldier in World War I carried with him this saying on a piece
of paper: “Of two things, one is certain. Either you are at the front, or
you are behind the lines. If you are at the front, of two things one is
certain. Either you are exposed to danger, or you are in a safe place. If you
are exposed to danger, of two things one is certain. Either you are wounded, or
you are not wounded. If you are wounded, of two things one is certain. Either
you recover, or you die. If you recover, there is no need to worry. If you die,
you can’t worry. SO WHY WORRY?”
4.5.
This week in my secular job I worked so hard that when I came home from
work every day but one I felt too exhausted to study for this teaching
today. Last night I had intended to
study for this teaching but got caught up doing some other things for my son
that were just fun stuff, so I didn’t get to study any then. Saturday morning came around and I thought
that I would go down and help set up the church for services and an hour and a
half of my day was taken. Then, I read
for my study for awhile. Finally, around
noon I began to study on the computer. I
decided at one point soon after this that I should do our bulletins and pick
the songs for worship and place their words in our bulletin. However, when I began to do this I suddenly
began to experience one computer glitch and crash after another. The computer had to be rebooted about ten
times just to get the bulletins printed out.
Each reboot caused me about 15 minutes to get up and going again and it
took me four hours to plan the worship.
My anti-virus software had been off I discovered, now I was concerned
that I could have a virus causing these problems. Then, when I went to turn on the anti-virus
program my computer wouldn’t let me do this.
I tried to redownload the anti-virus software but not long after the
download began I discovered that the download would take four hours to
complete. So, I aborted it. My Bible study software then decided that I
couldn’t use it until I registered it online, however my computer was running
so badly I couldn’t go online. I had no
working Bible software. I tried copying
what work for my sermon I had done much earlier, around noon, on a floppy and
then load it on my old spare clunky computer.
The floppy disk drive on the old computer wouldn’t work however so I
couldn’t load the file on. Then, I
rebooted my PC again after it had crashed again and loaded by Bible study file
onto a CD ROM disk, however in my rush I stuck the CD ROM in the 5 ¼” drive
(instead of the CD ROM drive) and then the CD would not come out (its still
there). Then, when I burned another CD
ROM I discovered that the old PC wasn’t recognizing the CD ROM drive
either. After a reboot of that computer
I finally was able to copy the file onto the old computer and begin to
work. However, now it was 6:30pm and my
day had been shot and I still hadn’t typed in any notes. Everything that could go wrong did in my
preparation for this message today and I want to tell you that the Lord at
every step was speaking to my spirit, “Are you going to trust me or worry
and fret about this sermon now?” It was
difficult and my trust in the Lord was not perfect, but I passed this test and
didn’t worry and become too anxious about it.
Honestly, being a pastor teacher is difficult because each week that you
teach God’s Word because the Lord wants you to “live it before you give it.”
4.6.
By the way, this phrase used by Jesus here in His question can also be
translated, “By worrying who can add a single cubit to his height.” Worrying doesn’t change anything, doesn’t
make anything better, and it just causes us to be miserable and make everyone
around us miserable.
4.7.
George Muller once said, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of
faith. The beginning of true faith is
the end of anxiety.”
5. VS 12:27-28 - “27
“Consider the lilies, how they grow:
they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory
clothed himself like one of these. 28 “But if God so clothes the
grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the
furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!” - Jesus tells His disciples to consider the
lilies and how they grow, for they are beautiful beyond comparison, and if the
Lord so beautifully clothes them He will also clothe His disciples
5.1.
Lilies are wild flowers and these verses cause me to be reminded of the
beautiful meadows that grow up every fall on the slopes of
5.2.
When you read 1 Kings and the pomp and circumstance of Solomon’s
kingdom you are suddenly brought to the place of recognizing that there has
never been a more glorious and prosperous kingdom than Solomon’s. Solomon’s riches surpass those of all of the
other kings who have ever lived upon the earth.
However, Jesus tells His disciples here that the ‘lilies’ of the
field surpass the glory of Solomon’s kingdom.
Jesus tells them also that it is the Lord who clothes these lilies with
such unsurpassed glory.
5.3.
Jesus is yet again arguing from the lesser to the greater. He is saying that if the Lord clothes with
such splendor grass in the field which is alive one day and then the next is
thrown into the furnace, that He will certainly clothe each of His disciples.
5.4.
Jesus finally rebukes His disciples calling them, ‘men of little
faith.’
6. VS 12:29-31 - “29
“And do not seek what you will eat and
what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 “For all these
things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you
need these things. 31 “But seek His kingdom, and these things will
be added to you.” - Jesus tells His disciples to
not worry about what they will eat or drink, as the nations of the world worry,
for their Father knows that they need these things
6.1.
Food and drink are the objects Jesus tells His disciples not to worry
about, and then as if He were to state that in case there were any other
essential need that they might worry about, He says, ‘and do not keep
worrying.’
6.2.
People of this world (‘the nations’ referred to here) do not
know the Lord and in that state there is much that a person might reasonably
want to worry about. If you take your
life out of the Lord’s hand and the umbrella of His protection, then you are
left to your own devices and the realm of a spirit world that is in rebellion
against the Lord. It is a foolish thing
to try to live your life apart from the Lord and His plan for your life.
6.3.
How reassuring it is to know that the Lord knows our every little need
and desire, everything that there is to know about us. The Lord knows us better than anyone knows us
and even better than we know ourselves.
6.4.
Here then is the promise that corresponds to Matt. 6:33 which we looked
at earlier. This is the promise that if
we will place the Lord first in our life and seek Him that He for His part
promises us that He will in fact add to us all of the things that we need.
7. VS 12:32-34 - “32
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for
your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. 33 “Sell your
possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear
out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth
destroys. 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.” - Jesus tells His disciples to sell all of
their possession and give them to charity and make for themselves money belts
which won’t wear out and an unfailing treasure in heaven
7.1.
Ending His discourse on fear and anxiety in His disciple’s lives, Jesus
now reverts back to the theme of the parable He previously told of the foolish
rich man who built bigger barns. In that
parable Jesus’ emphasis was on the importance of the eternal things over the
temporal earthly things. Jesus now tells
His disciples that in light of the Lord’s provision for their lives that they
were to sell their possessions and follow Him storing up eternal rewards and
treasures which they will never be able to lose or have taken away from them.
7.2.
When we read this passage we are faced with the question of whether
each of Jesus’ disciples are supposed to go and sell their possessions upon
coming to salvation. I believe that
these verses were meant specifically for those whom He had called vocationally
to leave their jobs, careers, and families and to come and to follow Him. However, in a general sense all of us as
believers should apply this verse by not getting caught up in living for the
things of this world, choosing rather to store up treasures in heaven, which
refers to the good works which believers perform for the Lord on this earth and
for which they will be rewarded when they get to heaven.
8. CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
Every circumstance we find ourselves in presents us with a choice of
how we shall approach it and whether or not we will choose to trust the Lord
and His provision for us. Lets choose to
have faith in the Lord and trust His every word He has given and promised to
us. Trust that He knows all of your
needs before you even ask. Trust Him
that before the world was formed that providence has provided your every need
you encounter. Seek Him first and His
kingdom then you shall never have anything for which your worry is due.
8.2.
Whenever we worry we have lost our peace, and thus it is so important
that we apply Phil. 4:6-7 in our lives in those times when we worry, “Be
anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your
requests be made known unto God and the peace of God shall guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus.” We need
to turn your cares into prayers, you see!!!
8.3.
When you find yourself worrying do what the scripture tells us to do
and, “Cast your burdens upon the Lord and He will sustain you.” Don’t be irresponsible, don’t put the Lord to
the test, and don’t neglect planning for the future, however whatever you do
let the Lord shoulder your burdens. His
shoulders are big enough to handle your load.
If you feel the stress or feel yourself sinking under the load of your
burdens be quick to give those things to the Lord and tell Him that they are
now His problems not yours. For yourself
you are going to live for today and give no thought for tomorrow!
“When Birds Worry” -- Author is anonymous
When the birds begin to worry
And the lilies toil and spin,
And God’s creatures all are anxious,
Then I also may begin.
For my Father sets their table,
Decks them out in garments fine,
And if He supplies their living,
Will He not provide for mine?
Just as noisy, common sparrows
Can be found most anywhere—
Unto some just worthless creatures,
If they perish who would care?
Yet our Heavenly Father numbers
Every creature great and small,
Caring even for the sparrows.
Marking when to earth they fall.
If His children’s hairs are numbered,
Why should we be filled with fear?
He has promised all that’s needful,
And in trouble to be near.