Luke 20:45-21:4: Condemnation and Commendation

OUTLINE

False religion condemned
True piety commended

INTRODUCTION

There is the religion that God loves and there is religion God hates, and Jesus puts these side by side in a contrast so we could see what they look like. This is what we are seeing as we come to Luke 20:45-21:4. You will remember that Jesus is having a major conflict with the religious leaders. He has answered their attempts to try and discredit Him to get Him killed by the authorities; He has questioned them and exposed their ignorance; and now He will openly criticize their hypocritical religion, while commending the sort of religion God loves. The gloves are off as Jesus is less than 48 hours away from His death. We are about to enter a long section about how God is going to judge Israel, and so Jesus as a prophet now condemns the type of religion that gets Israel into such a judgement.

We will look at these verses under two headings: false religion condemned v45-47; and true                                      piety commended, 21:1-4.