30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 11 37-54 Repenting from hypocrisy Woe 14
📖 Luke 11:37-54
*Bearing fruits of repentance* _Luke 11:37-54_
Our Lord was now taking up another important issue with the religious leaders and placing before them their hypocrisy _Luke 11:47-51._
They built the tombs of the prophets and decorated the monuments of righteous people. Their blindness and hypocrisy was so severe that as they did these things they also said, “If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets”. They were acknowledging that their forefathers were guilty of killing the prophets, unjustly. They were being wicked than their forefathers by compounding their guilt in not repenting and turning to the ways of God, preached by the prophets but only built and decorated their tombs. Their hypocrisy was deep _Matthew 23:29-33/Acts 7:51._
Our Lord spoke a parable to the religious leaders of an owner, who leased His vineyard to vinedressers. The owner sent servants at the time of vintage but the vinedressers harmed the servants of the owner. Finally, the owner sent His Son, thinking that the vinedressers would respect His Son but they killed the Son. The question our Lord asked the scribes and Pharisees was, “What will the owner do to those evil vinedressers?” _Matthew 21:35-46_
They answered correctly. "The owner will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons." By making this statement, the religious leaders pronounced judgment on themselves. They also accepted that what were required of them were fruits, fruits of repentance, turning back to God and acknowledging Him as Lord of their lives. They knew very well that the parable was spoken by Jesus, to them. They wanted to lay hands on Him but they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.
_Friends, let us be careful to always bear fruits of repentance before God for we can very easily fall into the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, of building monuments, cathedrals and buildings but not living in submission and obedience to God._
*Thought to ponder*
```Every generation becomes guiltier than the one before, because we have more evidence than previous generations of the expectations of God but have chosen to go our own way.```