When I was in 8th grade a group from my church along with a few friends and classmates from school went to a Christian camp called the Wilds for a winter weekend retreat. I had a tremendous time! This was the first time I had ever heard preaching and teaching on the adverse effects of worldly music. The weekend was a life changer for me and a few of my friends. I went home determined to glorify God in this area of music.
Word got out at school that some of us had given up rock music! This caused quite a stir among our peers.
One of the girls who had gone to camp with us was actually assigned by her friends to hang with us to see and report back anything we might be saying that they could use against us.
We see this scenario played out in Luke 20:1-20, our passage for today.
Jesus continues to teach daily in the temple and preach the gospel. The more He teaches, the more He preaches, the more threatened the chief priests and scribes feel. In verse 20, we find them sending in “spies, which should feign themselves just men.”
Here in this passage we see once again how the truth of the gospel and the teachings of the Bible are inherently offensive to those who do not believe it.
These Jewish leaders had chosen to ignore their Creator God. They had chosen to live out their religion their own way. They felt threatened and condemned at their very core by the life of Christ. They wanted the ownership of the vineyard that God Himself had planted. They would go to any lengths to get it, even to the extent of killing the Son of God.
Choosing to live this way can only bring destruction upon ourselves.
“But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them? He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.”
Luke 20:14-16
The situation at my school caused such a stir that word of it made it all the way to the teacher’s lounge. My 8th grade math teacher was not a Christian. She came in for our afternoon math class and asked me if I would get up before the class and spend the hour answering questions and sharing the reason behind the decision me and a few of my friends had made at our weekend retreat.
How could we give up something like the popular music of the day? Why were we willing to lose for Christ? What would we gain from this?
I don’t remember everything I said that day when I was 13 years old, but it had an impact on me and on my classmates. I do know I gained an amazing opportunity to share my faith in Christ with my teacher and my class.
The Jewish leaders had a religion that was all about them and what they wanted in life. There was no submission to what God wanted or to the will of God. True Christianity is all about losing our old, worldly life for Christ’s sake. This is how we willingly allow God to save or set apart our life for God’s purpose of getting the gospel to our world.
Loser Bible Study Series Theme Verse:
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35
“Lose” from the Greek word “Apollymi” means “to destroy fully.” It is translated destroy in Luke 20:16, our verse for today.